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www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci-discuss.net/6/5505/2009/
doi:10.5194/hessd-6-5505-2009
© Author(s) 2009. This work is distributed
under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Assimilation of satellite information in a snowpack model to improve characterization of snow cover for runoff simulation and forecasting
1Water Problem Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
2University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
Abstract. A new technique for constructing spatial fields of snow characteristics for runoff simulation and forecasting is presented. The technique incorporates satellite land surface monitoring data and available ground-based hydrometeorological measurements in a physical based snowpack model. The snowpack model provides simulation of temporal changes of the snow depth, density and water equivalent (SWE), accounting for snow melt, sublimation, refreezing melt water and snow metamorphism processes with a special focus on forest cover effects. The model was first calibrated against available ground-based snow measurements and then was applied to calculate the spatial distribution of snow characteristics using satellite data and interpolated ground-based meteorological data. The remote sensing data used in the model consist of products derived from observations of MODIS and AMSR-E instruments onboard Terra and Aqua satellites. They include daily maps of snow cover, snow water equivalent (SWE), land surface temperature, and weekly maps of surface albedo. Maps of land cover classes and tree cover fraction derived from NOAA AVHRR were used to characterize the vegetation cover. The developed technique was tested over a study area of approximately 200 000 km2 located in the European part of Russia (56° N to 60° N, and 48° E to 54° E). The study area comprises the Vyatka River basin with the catchment area of 124 000 km2. The spatial distributions of SWE, obtained with the coupled model, as well as solely from satellite data were used as the inputs in a physically-based model of runoff generation to simulate runoff hydrographs on the Vyatka river for spring seasons of 2003, 2005. The comparison of simulated hydrographs with the observed ones has shown that suggested procedure gives a higher accuracy of snow cover spatial distribution representation and hydrograph simulations than the direct use of satellite SWE data.
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Citation: Kuchment, L. S., Romanov, P., Gelfan, A. N., and Demidov, V. N.: Assimilation of satellite information in a snowpack model to improve characterization of snow cover for runoff simulation and forecasting, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., 6, 5505-5536, doi:10.5194/hessd-6-5505-2009, 2009. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager XML
