| Case studies were selected to represent Chinook driven warming (January 31 and March 24) and dry cold snow conditions (March 10) in a variable winter snowpack of the Chinook belt in southern Alberta during the winter of 1998. The strengths of active microwave (SAR) image subtraction and operational passive microwave (SSM/I) estimated snow water equivalent (SWE) data were combined to produce higher resolution, more representative, estimates of SWE and snow covered area (SCA).;The correlations between the SSM/I estimated SWE and the SAR image subtraction suggested that there were factors other than estimated SWE affecting the backscatter return under Chinook conditions. Estimates of actual SWE were not improved, but it was found that the SAR image subtraction using a dry snow reference provided higher resolution estimates of SCA and could estimate snow wetness as driven by Chinook warming. |
