| Environmental analysts face the problem of obtaining distributed measurements to evaluate increasingly small spatiotemporal model output. This thesis explores the use of remotely sensed snow covered area (SCA) maps to confirm a time series of model maps. The measurements come from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers (MODIS). The United States Agriculture Department provided the model: TOPMODEL-Based Land-Atmosphere Transfer Scheme (TOPLATS). The Upper Kuparuk River Watershed (UKRW) on the North Slope of Alaska acts as the case study location. To meet the map-comparison goal, the Kappa statistic and probability functions expressing measurement uncertainty evaluate the ability of MODIS measurements to confirm the accuracy of TOPLATS model maps. Results show that composite statistics, like the proportion of agreement between two maps, can obscure spatiotemporally distributed confirmation information. Also, MODIS can confirm snowmelt predictions across areas less than 150 km2, however, clouds and malfunctioning sensors limit such use. |
