Abstract
Snow cover is an important variable for climatic and hydrologic models due to its effects on surface albedo, energy, and moisture budgets. Passive microwave sensors can be used to monitor temporal and spatial variations in large-scale snow cover parameters, avoiding problems of cloud cover and polar nights.
In the present study, brightness temperature values were estimated (using calibration curves) for moist snow on natural and blackbody/metal surface. TB response on snow depth, density, SWE and angular variation from nadir were measured and found that TB decreases with increase of snow depth and with increase of angle from nadir. Empirical relations were used to estimate emissivity, dielectric constant and dielectric loss factor. It was observed that emissivity decreases with the increase of dielectric constant. The dielectric constant and dielectric loss factor both increases with the increase of density.
Experiments were performed during winter of year 2005 at Dhundi and Solang (H.P.), India, using ground based passive microwave radiometer having 6.9 and 18.7 GHz antenna frequencies at dual polarization.
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Singh, K.K., Mishra, V.D. & Garg, R.K. Microwave response of seasonal snow-cover measured by using a ground-based radiometer at 6.93 and 18.7 ghz frequencies and at dual polarization. J Indian Soc Remote Sens 35, 243–251 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03013492
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03013492