SATELLITE-BASED ESTIMATION OF HYDROLOGIC COMPONENTS ? APPLICATION TO SNOW AND PRECIPITATION

In this paper, we present satellite-based methods that are applied operationally at National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA), National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service (NESDIS) for the estimation of snow and precipitation, with special emphasis on snow depth and surface rainfall. A potential joint application of these methods would be for the hydrological analysis of rain-on-snow events which are occurring more frequently. A new operational snow depth estimation method blending satellite and in-situ measured snow depth is described. The method is applied within NOAA’s Interactive Multi-Sensor Snow and Ice Mapping System (IMS) providing 4-km resolution snow depth estimates over the Northern Hemisphere twice daily. Unique to the production is the application of snow depth generated interactively from the analyst that is also ingested into the objective analysis. Next, an operational satellite rain rate product is also presented with example applications and validation against in-situ data.