A Numerical Simulation On Snow Wetness Inversion Using C-band Multi-polarization SAR

Snow wetness of snow pack is important for hydrological modeling with timely monitoring because it identifies that a particular area of the basin can contribute to runoff. Active microwave remote sensing has long promised the advantages of sensitivity to many snow parameters that snow hydrologists use, especially free liquid water content in the snow pack because of the large dielectric contrast between ice and water in the microwave spectrum.At C-band, the backscattering is mainly controlled by snow volume backscattering and by the surface backscattering at air - snow interface. The relationship between backscattering and snow wetness.Based on the understanding of the scattering mechanism of wet snow, a semi-empirical model for snow wetness inversion has been studied, which mainly include,1. Established a model - simulated at C-band - database by using two scattering components. The data-base covers the most possible wet snow physical properties and surface roughness conditions.2. Developed an algorithm which can decompose the scattering from wet snow, which are the volume scattering component from snow pack and the air-snow surface scattering component for radar backscattering while observing wet snow3. Simplified surface scattering model for inversion.4. Discussed the methods for inversing snow wetness using surface or volume scattering component, depending on the decomposition algorithm.