SnowIce

The main objective is to develop methods that will provide Northern Hemisphere snow mass estimates in the scale of dozens to hundreds of metres, which means a decadal-scale improvement when compared to current snow mass information. We emphasize the improvement of spatial resolution using various space-borne sensors and algorithms that consider sub-pixel target characteristics, including lake and river ice conditions. The goal is to establish techniques that provide daily estimates on the characteristics of snow cover, soil freeze-thaw status and ice cover. This enables the introduction of new approaches to use satellite data on cryosphere processes for applications such as forest stand scale carbon exchange assessments, wetland methane emissions, spatially distributed ecological monitoring, hydrological forecasting, estimation of roof snow load, and trafficability monitoring for forestry.

2024

2028