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Derivation of statistical snowline from high resolution snow cover mapping

K. Seidel, C. Ehrler, J. Martinec and O. Turpin
EARSeL Workshop: Remote Sensing of Land Ice and Snow, April 1997, Freiburg, Germany
1997

Abstract

The snow line has been defined as a line delimiting an area with complete snow cover from an area free of snow. In the Alps, the snow cover is dispersed in snow patches due to the rugged relief and does not allow such definition. The snow line is therefore drawn within a belt of about 50% coverage. Recent advances in high resolution snow cover mapping using Landsat-TM and SPOT enable the snow line to be evaluated by statistical objectivity.

In the basin of the Rhône at Sion (3371 km2, 491-4634 m a.s.l.) the snow line was determined by dividing the basin into zones with 100 m altitude steps and interpolating its position within the zone nearest to the 50% snow coverage. The snow line on glaciers was found to be lower than in the adjacent areas.

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@InProceedings{eth_biwi_00120,
  author = {K. Seidel and C. Ehrler and J. Martinec and O. Turpin},
  title = {Derivation of statistical snowline from high resolution snow cover mapping},
  booktitle = {EARSeL Workshop: Remote Sensing of Land Ice and Snow, April 1997, Freiburg, Germany},
  year = {1997},
  keywords = {remote sensing, model-based, snow cover, snowline, elevation zones}
}