Extending the Utility of Modis Daily Snow-Cover Products through Snow-Cover Prediction of Cloud-Obscured Areas in Idaho's Big Lost River Basin (USA)

ABSTRACT

Increasing demand for water resources in the Western United States has given rise to many conflicts and has increased the need for more accurate and timely water management decisions. Snow-Covered Area (SCA) is an important hydrologic variable for both volumetric and daily stream flow forecasting. Satellite data provide the ideal way to map snow cover in mountain regions; however, the utility of these datasets have been limited due to the large number of scenes that are contaminated with cloud cover. To improve the utility of these datasets for the snowmelt season, in particular the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Daily Snow-Cover Product dataset, a new procedure was developed to predict snow-cover in cloud-obscured areas using a snow-occurrence map technique. Results show that this method effectively increases the usefulness of the MODIS Snow-Cover product in mapping the daily evolution of snow cover extent in the Big Lost River Basin located in southeastern Idaho.

KEYWORDS:

• Water Resources
• Snow-Cover
• Stream Flow
• Satellite Data
• Cloud-Obscured
• Mapping

Acknowledgement

Work supported by NASA, under DOE Idaho Operations Office Contract DE-AC07–05ID14517. The authors wish to thank the Pacific Northwest Regional Collaboratory (PNWRC) and NASA for funding this research, and Ron Abromavich of the USDA-NRCS Idaho Snow Survey for providing valuable guidance on how these products are, and will be used. We would also like to thank the National Snow and Ice Data Center for helping establish the automated MODIS subscription.

This article is not subject to U.S. copyright law.