| Abstract: | In the last 20 years remote sensing research has led to significant progress in monitoring and measuring certain snow hydrology processes. Snow distribution in a drainage basin can be adequately assessed by visible sensors. Although there are still some interpretation problems, the NOAA-AVHRR sensor can provide frequent views of the areal snow cover in a basin, and snow cover maps are produced operationally by the National Weather Service on about 3000 drainage basins in North America. Measurement of snow accumulation or snow water equivalent with microwave remote sensing has great potential because of the capabilities for depth penetration, all-weather observation and night-time viewing. Several critical areas of research remain, namely, the acquisition of snow grain size information for input to microwave models and improvement in passive microwave resolution from space. Methods that combine both airborne gamma ray and visible satellite remote sensing of the snowpack with field measurements also hold promise for determining areal snow water equivalent. Some remote sensing techniques can also be used to detect different stages of snow metamorphism. Various aspects of snowpack ripening can be detected using microwave and thermal infra-red capabilities. The capabilities for measurement of snow albedo and surface temperature have direct application in both snow metamorphism and snowpack energy balance studies. The potentially most profitable research area here is the study of the bidirectional reflectance distribution function to improve snow albedo measurements. Most of the remote sensing capabilities in snow hydrology have been developed for improving snowmelt-run-off forecasting. Most applications have used the input of snow cover extent to deterministic models, both of the degree day and energy balance types. Snowmelt-run-off forecasts using satellite derived snow cover depletion curves and the models have been successfully made. As the extraction of additional snow cover characteristics becomes possible, remote sensing will have an even greater impact on snow hydrology. Important remote sensing capabilities will become available in the next 20 years through space platform observing systems that will improve our capability to observe the snowpack on an operational basis. |
