Abstract

Accurate snow depth observations are critical to assess water resources. More than a billion people rely on water from snow, most of which originates in the Northern Hemisphere mountain ranges. Yet, remote sensing observations of mountain snow depth are still lacking at the large scale. Here, we show the ability of Sentinel-1 to map snow depth in the Northern Hemisphere mountains at 1 km² resolution using an empirical change detection approach. An evaluation with measurements from ~4000 sites and reanalysis data demonstrates that the Sentinel-1 retrievals capture the spatial variability between and within mountain ranges, as well as their inter-annual differences. This is showcased with the contrasting snow depths between 2017 and 2018 in the US Sierra Nevada and European Alps. With Sentinel-1 continuity ensured until 2030 and likely beyond, these findings lay a foundation for quantifying the long-term vulnerability of mountain snow-water resources to climate change.

Details

Title
Snow depth variability in the Northern Hemisphere mountains observed from space
Author
Lievens, Hans 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Demuzere, Matthias 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Marshall, Hans-Peter 3 ; Reichle, Rolf H 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Brucker, Ludovic 5   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Brangers, Isis 6 ; de Rosnay, Patricia 7   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Dumont, Marie 8   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Girotto, Manuela 9   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Immerzeel, Walter W 10   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Jonas, Tobias 11 ; Kim, Edward J 4 ; Koch, Inka 12   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Marty, Christoph 11   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Saloranta, Tuomo 13 ; Schöber, Johannes 14   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Gabrielle J M De Lannoy 6 

1  Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven, Heverlee, Belgium; Laboratory of Hydrology and Water Management, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium 
2  Laboratory of Hydrology and Water Management, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; Department of Geography, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany 
3  Department of Geosciences, Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA; Remote Sensing and GIS Center, U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Hanover, NH, USA 
4  NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA 
5  NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA; GESTAR, Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, MD, USA 
6  Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven, Heverlee, Belgium 
7  European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, Reading, UK 
8  Université Grenoble Alpes, Université de Toulouse, Météo-France, Grenoble, France, CNRS, CNRM, Centre d’Etudes de la Neige, Grenoble, France 
9  NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA; GESTAR, Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, MD, USA; Environmental Science and Policy Management Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA 
10  Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands 
11  WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos, Switzerland 
12  International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu, Nepal 
13  Hydrology Department, Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate NVE, Oslo, Norway 
14  TIWAG, Tiroler Wasserkraft AG, Innsbruck, Austria 
Pages
1-12
Publication year
2019
Publication date
Oct 2019
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20411723
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12566-y
ProQuest document ID
2304115553
Copyright
© 2019. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.