Analysis of the frequency and polarization indexes over snow cover areas by means of experimental and theoretical data

Abstract

In this paper, an analysis of the sensitivity of multi-frequency, multi-polarization microwave emission to snow depth was carried out by using both data collected with IFAC ground based radiometers in several long term experiments from winter 2003 to spring 2009 in North Italy and model simulations. A very large data set of AMSR-E data collected over Siberia was also analyzed. By using a simplified algorithm, the SD was estimated using both frequency and polarization indexes and global maps of SD were generated over Europe.