IDENTIFICATION OF SNOW AND ICE COVER TYPES FROM NOAA MICROWAVE MEASUREMENTS

摘要

A new approach to identification of a dry and melting snow and sea ice cover from NOAA AMSU imagery is proposed. The approach takes into account the actual variability of brightness temperature of particular types of underlying surface. A satisfactory consistency between the results of satellite identification of snow and marine and coastal ice and independent complex (ground and satellite) monitoring of their parameters is shown for European Russia as an example. Comparative analysis has shown that the new technique provides a much higher accuracy of recognition of snow and ice cover than the well-known presently used methods.