Accession Number:

ADA183213

Title:

Use of Landsat Digital Data for Snow Cover Mapping in the Upper Saint John River Basin, Maine,

Descriptive Note:

Corporate Author:

COLD REGIONS RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING LAB HANOVER NH

Personal Author(s):

• Merry,Carolyn J.
• Miller,Michael S.

Report Date:

1987-06-01

Pagination or Media Count:

77.0

Abstract:

Measurements of snow depth and its water equivalent were obtained at 11 snow courses in the Allagash, Maine, area in conjunction with acquisition of five Landsat-2 and -3 images during the 1977-78 and 1978-79 winters. To test a hypothesis that Landsat reflected radiance values on a regional scale do change, histograms of the Landsat MSS band 7 reflected radiance values for a 300- x 300-pixel 420 sq km area near Allagash were evaluated to quantify the change. A statistical description skewness and kurtosis of the histogram for each scene was developed and and then correlated with ground measurements of snow depth. The Lansat date were then re-examined and corrections were made for solar elevation and MSS sensor calibration. Reflected radiance from open areas showed a consistent increase in intensity with increasing snow depth. Forested land cover classes did not change with snow depth. Digital imagery data acquired 31 May 1978 when the land was snow-free was used to classify land cover categories. Ground truth measurements of water equivalent of the snow cover were are-weighted using the land cover classification to derive regional values on each of the five Lansat winter scenes. The 1 March 1978 snow measurement of 19.46 cm of water equivalent was used as an input value to the SSARR model. The SSARR prediction for the 1 March-31 May 1978 period was within 78 of the measured runoff for the initial baseflow period and within 66 measured for the spring melt recession period. Keywords Hydrologic modeling.

Descriptors:

• *SNOW COVER
• ACQUISITION
• FORESTS
• LAND AREAS
• MEASUREMENT
• SURFACE TRUTH
• HYDROLOGY
• MODELS
• DATA BASES
• DIGITAL SYSTEMS
• IMAGE PROCESSING
• GROUND LEVEL
• MEASUREMENT
• HISTOGRAMS
• INPUT
• CLASSIFICATION
• MAINE
• SCALE
• CALIBRATION
• DETECTORS
• MAPPING
• STATISTICS
• WINTER
• REFLECTION
• RADIANCE
• BASINS(GEOGRAPHIC)
• RIVERS
• DEPTH
• SNOW
• WATER

Subject Categories:

• Snow, Ice and Permafrost
• Hydrology, Limnology and Potamology

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE