| Title | Evaluation of multiple datasets for producing snow-cover indicators for Canada |
| Download | Downloads |
| |
| Licence | Please note the adoption of the Open Government Licence - Canada
supersedes any previous licences. |
| Author | Fernandes, R A ;
Zhou, F; Song, H |
| Source | Geomatics Canada, Open File 33, 2017, 30 pages, https://doi.org/10.4095/300853  Open Access |
| Year | 2017 |
| Publisher | Natural Resources Canada |
| Document | open file |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | on-line; digital |
| File format | pdf |
| Province | Canada; British Columbia; Alberta; Saskatchewan; Manitoba; Ontario; Quebec; New Brunswick; Nova Scotia; Prince Edward Island; Newfoundland and Labrador; Northwest Territories; Yukon; Nunavut |
| NTS | 1; 2; 3; 10; 11; 12; 13; 14; 15; 16; 20; 21; 22; 23; 24; 25; 26; 27; 28; 29; 30; 31; 32; 33; 34; 35; 36; 37; 38; 39; 40; 41; 42; 43; 44; 45; 46; 47; 48; 49; 52; 53; 54; 55; 56; 57; 58; 59; 62; 63; 64; 65;
66; 67; 68; 69; 72; 73; 74; 75; 76; 77; 78; 79; 82; 83; 84; 85; 86; 87; 88; 89; 92; 93; 94; 95; 96; 97; 98; 99; 102; 103; 104; 105; 106; 107; 114O; 114P; 115; 116; 117; 120; 340; 560 |
| Lat/Long WENS | -141.0000 -50.0000 90.0000 41.7500 |
| Subjects | environmental geology; geophysics; Nature and Environment; snow; climate; climatic fluctuations; ecosystems; remote sensing; satellite imagery; meteorology; field work; Climate change;
Indicators |
| Illustrations | tables; sketch maps; bar graphs; plots |
| Program | Climate Change Geoscience Essential Climate Variable Monitoring |
| Released | 2017 06 30 |
| Abstract | Snow Cover is an essential climate variable. Indicators of trends in the temporal and spatial patterns of snow cover are increasingly used to both monitoring climate variability and change and
quantifying regional environmental conditions. However, the choice and accuracy of the indicators are often determined by the input snow cover data. A survey of snow cover indicators is performed to identify both those that would satisfy user
requirements over Canada in addition to the current practices for international reporting. Four different input data sets are then used to generate snow cover indicators over a five year period (2006-2010): the Canadian Meteorological Centre snow
depth analysis with systematic in-situ measurements; cloud free MODIS MOD10C1 snow cover product; NOAA Interactive Mapping Service 4km snow cover product; and CCRS/CMC snow cover product that assimilated both CMC inputs and NOAA AVHRR satellite
imagery. Then snow cover indicators, including snow cover onset and melt are evaluated through their sensitivity to documented data uncertainties, by comparison to continuous monitored in-situ sites, and through inter-comparison. Recommendations for
suitable indicators as a function of input dataset are provided. |
| Summary | (Plain Language Summary, not published)
Snow cover indicators are widely used for climate, ecosystem and hydrological studies. These indicators include the percentage of time snow cover is
present during a season and the onset and melt dates. Snow cover or snow depth maps derived from satellite data or field data are now available across Canada, allowing the production of spatially explict snow cover indicators. This study compared
snow cover indicators derived from four different map databases (CCRS, MODIS, NOAA , and CMC) over Canada at 4km resolution between 2006 and 2010. The comparison indicates systematic biases between datasets but with good agreement after biases are
removed. This suggests that robust regional trends in snow cover indicators can be derived from available datasets. Longer term (>30 year) studies are required to verify this hypothesis but currently only the NOAA and CMC datasets exceed 15
years. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 300853 |
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