Estimación del Equivalente en Agua de Nieve en base a técnicas de Interferometría Diferencial y datos de la constelación SAOCOM

Abstract

The Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) provides information about the volume of water accumulated within the snowpack. The SWE estimates with advanced remote sensing techniques are still a challenge in several basins around the world. In this work, Differential Interferometry techniques are used to estimate SWE variations in a basin of the Central Andes of Argentina using SAOCOM data in L-band. This method has not been tested yet with these data. Therefore, this work constitutes a first approximation to the estimation of the SWE using L-band data, identifying scope and limitations of the applied methodology. Two interferometric pairs of to the winter of 2021 were used. The SWE InSAR estimates showed a difference of 0.66 mm of SWE with respect to the field measurement for one pair, while in the other, the difference was 24.2 mm. Results of this work are promising, and it is expected to apply this technique in other basins over the arid and semi-arid Andes range.