Xiaohua Hao

Remote sensing for snow hydrology in China: challenges and perspectives

Abstract Snow is one of the most important components of the cryosphere. Remote sensing of snow focuses on the retrieval of snow parameters and monitoring of variations in snow using satellite data. These parameters are key inputs for hydrological and atmospheric models. Over the past 30 years, the field of snow remote sensing has grown dramatically in China. The 30-year achievements of research in different aspects of snow remote sensing in China, especially in (1) methods of retrieving snow cover, snow depth/snow water equivalent, and grain size and (2) applications to snowmelt runoff modeling, snow response on climate change, and remote sensing monitoring of snow-caused disasters are reviewed/summarized. The importance of the first remote sensing experiment on snow parameters at the upper reaches of the Heihe River Basin, in 2008, is also highlighted. A series of experiments, referred to as the Cooperative Observation Series for Snow (COSS), focus on some key topics on remote sensing of snow. COSS has been implemented for 3 years and will continue in different snow pattern regions of China. The snow assimilation system has been established in some regions using advanced ensemble Kalman filters. Finally, an outlook for the future of remote sensing of snow in China is given.

Fractional snow-cover mapping using an improved endmember extraction algorithm

Abstract We describe and validate an improved endmember extraction method to improve the fractional snow-cover mapping based on the algorithm for fast autonomous spectral endmember determination (N-FINDR) maximizing volume iteration algorithm and orthogonal subspace projection theory. A spectral library time series is first established by choosing the expected spectra information using prior knowledge, and the fractional snow cover (FSC) is then retrieved by a fully constrained least squares linear spectral mixture analysis. The retrieved fractional snow-cover products are validated by the FSC derived from Landsat imagery. Our results indicate that the improved algorithm can obtain the endmember information accurately, and the retrieved FSC has better accuracy than the MODIS standard fractional snow-cover product (MOD10A1).

Synthesis method for simulating snow distribution utilizing remotely sensed data for the Tibetan Plateau

Abstract The complex terrain, shallow snowpack, and cloudy conditions of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) can greatly affect the reliability of different remote sensing (RS) data, and available station data are scarce for simulating and validating the snow distribution. Aiming at these problems, we design a synthesis method for simulating the snow distribution in the TP where the snow is patchy and shallow in most regions. Different RS data are assimilated into the SnowModel, using the ensemble Kalman filter method. The station observations are used for the validation of assimilated snow depth. To avoid the scale effect during validation, we design a random sampling comparison method by constructing a subjunctive region near each station. For years 2000 to 2008, the root-mean-square error of the assimilated results are in the range [0.002 m, 0.008 m], and the range of Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients between the in situ observations and the assimilated results are in the range [0.61, 0.87]. The result suggests that the snow depletion curve is the most important parameter for the simulation of the snow distribution in ungauged regions, especially in the TP where the snow is patchy and shallow.

An Effective Method for Snow-Cover Mapping of Dense Coniferous Forests in the Upper Heihe River Basin Using Landsat Operational Land Imager Data

The Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) is an effective index for snow-cover mapping at large scales, but in forested regions the identification accuracy for snow using the NDSI is low because of forest cover effects. In this study, typical evergreen coniferous forest zones on Qilian Mountain in the Upper Heihe River Basin (UHRB) were chosen as example regions. By analyzing the spectral signature of snow-covered and snow-free evergreen coniferous forests with Landsat Operational Land Imager (OLI) data, a novel spectral band ratio using near-infrared (NIR) and shortwave infrared (SWIR) bands, defined as (ρnir − ρswir)/(ρnir + ρswir), is proposed. Our research shows that this band ratio, named the normalized difference forest snow index (NDFSI), can be used to effectively distinguish snow-covered evergreen coniferous forests from snow-free evergreen coniferous forests in UHRB.

Accuracy assessment of four cloud-free snow cover products over the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

ABSTRACT Four up-to-date daily cloud-free snow products – IMS (Interactive Multisensor Snow products), MOD-SSM/I (combination of the MODIS and SSM/I snow products), MOD-B (Blending method basing on the MODIS snow cover products) and TAI (Terra–Aqua–IMS) – with high-resolutions over the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) were comprehensively assessed. Comparisons of the IMS, MOD-SSM/I, MOD-B and TAI cloud-free snow products against meteorological stations observations over 10 snow seasons (2004–2013) over the QTP indicated overall accuracies of 76.0%, 89.3%, 92.0% and 92.0%, respectively. The Khat values of the IMS, MOD-SSM/I, MOD-B and TAI products were 0.084, 0.463, 0.428 and 0.526, respectively. The TAI products appear to have the best cloud-removal ability among the four snow products over the QTP. Based on the assessment, an I-TAI (Improvement of Terra–Aqua–IMS) snow product was proposed, which can improve the accuracy to some extent. However, the algorithms of the MODIS series products show instability when identifying wet snow and snow under forest cover over the QTP. The snow misclassification is an important limitation of MODIS snow cover products and requires additional improvements.

Development and validation of remote sensing products of hydrological cycle to close water balance at river basin scale

Development and validation of hydrological cycle elements derived from remote sensing observations are of utmost importance for the study of hydrology at different scales, especially at watershed scale. This paper presents the progress we have made in developing and validating watershed scale hydrological cycle products, mainly including precipitation, snow cover area (SCA), soil moisture (SM), evapotranspiration (ET) and groundwater variation. Corresponding high quality remote sensing products (RSPs) have been produced. In addition, to validate the RSPs of water cycle variables, we established several ground observation networks which can provide extensive and high quality validation dataset. Our efforts significantly improve our understanding in watershed water cycle variables, and the developed water cycle products and validation data products have been widely used in several research domains, providing supporting for several key research projects. Based on these efforts, the developed and validated RSPs having been merged into hydrological and land surface models with the aid of land data assimilation method, to allow us to close the water cycle at the basin scale, and further improve our knowledge on terrestrial water study.