Based on long-term series Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) snow cover products, daily snow cover products without data gaps at 500 m spatial resolution over the Tibetan Plateau from 2002 to 2021 were generated by employing a Hidden Markov Random Field (HMRF) modeling technique. This HMRF framework optimally integrates spectral, spatiotemporal, and environmental information together, which not only fills data gaps caused by frequent clouds, but also improves the accuracy of the original MODIS snow cover products. In particular, this technology incorporates solar radiation as an environmental contextual information to improve the accuracy of snow identification in mountainous areas. Validation with in situ observations and snow cover derived from Landsat-8 OLI images revealed that these new snow cover products achieved an accuracy of 98.31% and 92.44%, respectively. Specifically, the accuracy of the new snow products is higher during the snow transition period and in complex terrains with higher elevations as well as sunny slopes. These gap-free snow cover products effectively improve the spatiotemporal continuity and the low accuracy in complex terrains of the original MODIS snow products, and is thus the basis for the study of climate change and hydrological cycling in the TP.
HUANG Yan , XU Jianghui
Under the funding of the first project (Development of Multi-scale Observation and Data Products of Key Cryosphere Parameters) of the National Key Research and Development Program of China-"The Observation and Inversion of Key Parameters of Cryosphere and Polar Environmental Changes", the research group of Zhang, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, developed the snow depth downscaling product in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The snow depth downscaling data set for the Tibetan Plateau is derived from the fusion of snow cover probability dataset and Long-term snow depth dataset in China. The sub-pixel spatio-temporal downscaling algorithm is developed to downscale the original 0.25° snow depth dataset, and the 0.05° daily snow depth product is obtained. By comparing the accuracy evaluation of the snow depth product before and after downscaling, it is found that the root mean square error of the snow depth downscaling product is 0.61 cm less than the original product. The details of the product information of the Downscaling of Snow Depth Dataset for the Tibetan Plateau (2000-2018) are as follows. The projection is longitude and latitude, the spatial resolution is 0.05° (about 5km), and the time is from September 1, 2000 to September 1, 2018. It is a TIF format file. The naming rule is SD_yyyyddd.tif, where yyyy represents year and DDD represents Julian day (001-365). Snow depth (SD), unit: centimeter (cm). The spatial resolution is 0.05°. The time resolution is day by day.
YAN Dajiang, MA Ning, MA Ning, ZHANG Yinsheng
This dataset is blended by two other sets of data, snow cover dataset based on optical instrument remote sensing with 1km spatial resolution on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (1989-2018) produced by National Satellite Meteorological Center, and near-real-time SSM/I-SSMIS 25km EASE-grid daily global ice concentration and snow extent (NISE, 1995-2018) provided by National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC, U.S.A). It covers the time from 1995 to 2018 (two periods, from January to April and from October to December) and the region of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (17°N-41°N, 65°E-106°E) with daily product, which takes equal latitude and longitude projection with 0.01°×0.01° spatial resolution, and characterizes whether the ground is covered by snow. The input data sources include daily snow cover products generated by NOAA/AVHRR, MetOp/AVHRR, and alternative to AVHRR taken from TERRA/MODIS corresponding observation, and snow extent information of NISE derived from observation by SSM/I or SSMIS of DMSP satellites. The processing method of data collection is as following: first, taking 1km snow cover product from optical instruments as initial value, and fully trusting its snow and clear sky without snow information; then, under the aid of sea-land template with relatively high resolution, replacing the pixels or grids where is cloud coverage, no decision, or lack of satellite observation, by NISE's effective terrestrial identification results. For some water and land boundaries, there still may be a small amount of cloud coverage or no observation data area that can’t be replaced due to the low spatial resolution of NISE product. Blended daily snow cover product achieves about 91% average coincidence rate of snow and non-snow identification compared to ground-based snow depth observation in years. The dataset is stored in the standard HDF4 files each having two SDSs of snow cover and quality code with the dimensions of 4100-column and 2400-line. Complete attribute descriptions is written in them.
ZHENG Zhaojun, CAO Guangzhen
Snow cover dataset is produced by snow and cloud identification method based on optical instrument observation data, covering the time from 1989 to 2018 (two periods, from January to April and from October to December) and the region of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (17°N-41°N, 65°E-106°E) with daily product, which takes equal latitude and longitude projection with 0.01°×0.01° spatial resolution, and characterizes whether the ground under clear sky or transparent thin cloud is covered by snow. The input data sources include AVHRR L1 data of NOAA and MetOp serials of satellites, and L1 data corresponding to AVHRR channels taken from TERRA/MODIS. Decision Tree algorithm (DT) with dynamic thresholds is employed independent of cloud mask and its cloud detection emphasizes on reserving snow, particularly under transparency cirrus. It considers a variety of methods for different situations, such as ice-cloud over the water-cloud, snow in forest and sand, thin snow or melting snow, etc. Besides those, setting dynamic threshold based on land-surface type, DEM and season variation, deleting false snow in low latitude forest covered by heavy aerosol or soot, referring to maximum monthly snowlines and minimum snow surface brightness temperature, and optimizing discrimination program, these techniques all contribute to DT. DT discriminates most snow and cloud under normal circumstances, but underestimates snow on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in October. Daily product achieves about 95% average coincidence rate of snow and non-snow identification compared to ground-based snow depth observation in years. The dataset is stored in the standard HDF4 files each having two SDSs of snow cover and quality code with the dimensions of 4100-column and 2400-line. Complete attribute descriptions is written in them.
ZHENG Zhaojun, CHU Duo
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