Snow is a significant component of the ecosystem and water resources in high-mountain Asia (HMA). Therefore, accurate, continuous, and long-term snow monitoring is indispensable for the water resources management and economic development. The present study improves the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard Terra and Aqua satellites 8 d (“d” denotes “day”) composite snow cover Collection 6 (C6) products, named MOD10A2.006 (Terra) and MYD10A2.006 (Aqua), for HMA with a multistep approach. The primary purpose of this study was to reduce uncertainty in the Terra–Aqua MODIS snow cover products and generate a combined snow cover product. For reducing underestimation mainly caused by cloud cover, we used seasonal, temporal, and spatial filters. For reducing overestimation caused by MODIS sensors, we combined Terra and Aqua MODIS snow cover products, considering snow only if a pixel represents snow in both the products; otherwise it is classified as no snow, unlike some previous studies which consider snow if any of the Terra or Aqua product identifies snow. Our methodology generates a new product which removes a significant amount of uncertainty in Terra and Aqua MODIS 8 d composite C6 products comprising 46 % overestimation and 3.66 % underestimation, mainly caused by sensor limitations and cloud cover, respectively. The results were validated using Landsat 8 data, both for winter and summer at 20 well-distributed sites in the study area. Our validated adopted methodology improved accuracy by 10 % on average, compared to Landsat data. The final product covers the period from 2002 to 2018, comprising a combination of snow and glaciers created by merging Randolph Glacier Inventory version 6.0 (RGI 6.0) separated as debris-covered and debris-free with the final snow product MOYDGL06*. We have processed approximately 746 images of both Terra and Aqua MODIS snow containing approximately 100 000 satellite individual images. Furthermore, this product can serve as a valuable input dataset for hydrological and glaciological modelling to assess the melt contribution of snow-covered areas. The data, which can be used in various climatological and water-related studies, are available for end users at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.901821 (Muhammad and Thapa, 2019).
SHER Muhammad
Due to the short snow duration and thin snow layer on the Tibetan Plateau, dynamic monitoring data for daily fractional snow cover are urgently needed in order to better understand water cycling and other processes. This data set is based on MODIS Snow Cover Daily L3 Global 500 m Grid data and includes the Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) data product generated from MODIS/Terra data (MOD10A1) and MODIS/Aqua data (MYD10A1). The data are in the .hdf format. The projection method is sinusoidal map projection. Combining the advantages of 90 m SRTM terrain data and fractional snow cover estimation algorithms under multiple cloud coverage types, the fractional snow cover under different cloud coverage conditions can be re-estimated to meet the production requirements of the daily less cloud (< 10%) data products in High Asia. On the basis of this method, the MODIS daily fractional snow cover data set over High Asia (2002-2016) was constructed. By taking the binary snow product under cloudless conditions as a reference, the spatial and temporal comparisons between snow distribution and snow coverage show that the spatio-temporal characteristics of the product and the binary products are highly consistent. Taking the winter of 2013 as an example, when the fractional snow cover is greater than 50%, the correlation can reach 0.8628. This data set provides daily fractional snow cover data for use in studying snow dynamics, the climate and environment, hydrology, energy balance, and disaster assessment in High Asia.
QIU Yubao
The data include three data sets of Namcu and Muztagh Ata: an atmospheric aerosol data set of monthly average values of TSP, lithium, sodium and other elements; an atmospheric precipitation chemical data set of monthly average values of soluble sodium ions, potassium ions, magnesium ions, calcium ions and other ions; and a data set of chemical compositions of snow ice in the Zhadang Glacier of Namcu Basin of the concentrations of soluble sodium ions, potassium ions, magnesium ions, calcium ions and other ions in snow pits collected in different months. The data can be used in conducting located observations of atmospheric aerosol element content, precipitation chemistry, and glacier snow ice chemical records in the Namco and Muztagh Ata areas. The samples were processed at the Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes of CAS using ICS2500 and ICS2000 ion-chromatographic analyzers to determine the concentration of soluble anions and cations in the samples. Data collection and processing: 1. The automatic rain gauges were erected in the typical regions of the Tibetan Plateau (the Namco Basin and the Muztagh Ata Peak area) to collect precipitation samples. The precipitation samples were collected using a SYC-2 type rainfall sampler that comprised a collector, rain sensor and gland drive. The sample collector was provided with a rain collection bucket and a dust collection bucket, and the weather condition was sensed by the rain sensor. The rain collection bucket would be opened when it started to rain, and the gland would be pressed onto the dust collection bucket. Meanwhile, the date and the rain start and end times were automatically recorded. When the rain stopped, the gland automatically flipped to the rain collection bucket to complete a rainfall record. The collected samples were placed in 20 mL clean high-density polyethylene plastic bottles and refrigerated in a -20 °C refrigerator. They were frozen during transportation and storage until right before being analyzed, when they would be taken from the refrigerator and thawed at room temperature (20 °C). They were then processed at the Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes CAS using ICS2500 and ICS2000 ion-chromatographic analyzers to determine the concentration of soluble anions and cations in the precipitation. 2. The atmospheric aerosol sampler installed at Namco Station was 4 m above the ground and included a vacuum pump, which was powered by solar panels and batteries. The air flux was recorded by an automatic flow meter, and the instantaneous flow rate was approximately 16.7 L/min. The air flux took the meteorological parameter conversion of the Namco area as the standard volume. A Teflon filter with a diameter of 47 mm and a pore size of 0.4 & mu; m was used. The sample interval was 7 days, and the total sample flow rate of each sample was approximately 120-150 m³. Each sample was individually placed in a disposable filter cartridge and stored at low temperature in a refrigerator. Before and after sampling, the filter was placed in a constant temperature (20 ± 5 °C) and constant humidity (40 & plusmn; 2%) environment for 48 hours and weighed with a 1/10000 electronic balance (AUW220D, Shimadu); the difference between the weights before and after was the weight of the aerosol sample on the filter. The collected samples were processed at the Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes CAS by ICP-MS to determine the concentrations of 18 elements. Strict measures were taken during indoor and outdoor operations to prevent possible contamination. 3. A precleaned plastic shovel was used to collect a sample every 5 cm from the lower part of the snow pit (samples were collected every 10 cm in some snow pits). The samples were dissolved at room temperature, placed in 20 mL clean high-density polyethylene plastic bottles and stored in a refrigerator at -20 °C. The samples were frozen during transportation and storage until they were taken out of the refrigerator before the analysis and melted at room temperature. The samples were processed at the Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes CAS using ICS2500 and ICS2000 ion-chromatographic analyzers to determine the concentrations of soluble anions and cations in the samples. Clean clothing, disposable masks and plastic gloves should be worn during the manual collection of glacier snow ice chemical samples to prevent contamination. The data set was processed by forming a continuous sequence of monthly mean values after the raw data were quality controlled. It meets the accuracy of routine monitoring research on precipitation, aerosol, snow and ice records in China and the world and is satisfactory for comparative study with relevant climate change records.
KANG Shichang
The dataset of snow spectral reflectance observations was obtained in the Binggou watershed foci experimental area on Mar. 23, 2008. Flat open space was chosen for the observations and observation items included: (1) Multi-angle snow spectrum by the observation platform made by BNU for snow bidirectional reflectance properties from 10:50-13:50 BJT; (2) Snow albedo by the total radiometer for its relationship with the solar altitude from 10:00-14:36 BJT; (3) The snow spectrum by the portable ASD (Xinjiang Meteorological Administration). Two files including raw data and the preprocessed data were archived.
BAI Yunjie, HAO Xiaohua, MA Mingguo, SHU Lele, WANG Xufeng, ZHU Shijie, QU Wei, REN Jie, CHANG Cun, MA Zhongguo, JIANG Tenglong, XIAO Pengfeng , ZHANG Pu
The basic meteorological data set of the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor meteorological station includes wind speed, wind direction, precipitation, temperature and snow depth. The time resolution is 3 hours. The site is scattered around the corridor and the number of sites is 29. The data set was extracted based on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Environmental Information Center (NCEI) hourly/sub-hour observation dataset. In addition to the data itself, each data includes information such as data quality assessment results and data acquisition methods. In addition, the precipitation data of each site is composed of 4 detection devices to ensure data stability. Snow depth data includes snow depth and equivalent water depth dimensions, ie the depth of water after the snow melts.
LI Shengyu, FAN Jinglong
This dataset is the snow cover dataset based on the MODIS fractional snow cover mapping algorithm Coupled Regional Approach (CRA). The CRA algorithm mainly consists of three parts. (1) First, the N-FINDR (Volume Iterative Approach) and OSP (Orthogonal Subspace Projection) are used to automatically extract the endmember according to the settings (extracting 30 end endmembers). (2) On the basis of automatic extraction, combined with the IGBG land cover type map, six types of endmembers of snow, vegetation, cloud, soil, rock and water are selected by the manual screening method, and an annual spectrum database is established according to the 2009 image. There are 3 spectra in the early, middle and late months and 36 spectra a year. (3) The established spectral database is used as a priori knowledge, and based on prior knowledge, the fully constrained linear unmixing method (FCLS) for subpixel decomposition is used to obtain the fractional snow cover products. The NDSI ratio algorithm with improved topographic effect is used to obtain the snow cover area, the spatiotemporal data are then interpolated, and, finally, the multisource data fusion with the AMSR-E microwave snow depth product is undertaken. The dataset adopts a latitude and longitude (Geographic) projection method. The datum is WGS84, and the spatial resolution is 0.005°. It provides the daily cloudless snow cover area map of the Tibetan Plateau from 2008 to 2010. The data set is stored by year and consists of 3 folders from 2008 to 2010. Each folder contains the classification results of the daily snow cover of the current year. It is a tif file with the naming rule YYYY***.tif, in which YYYY represents the year (2008-2010), and *** represents the day (001~365/ 366). It can be opened directly with ARCGIS or ENVI.
HAO Xiaohua
The variation in the duration of snow on the Tibetan Plateau is relatively great, and the high mountainous areas around the plateau are rich in snow and ice resources. Taking full account of the terrain of the Tibetan Plateau and the snow characteristics in the mountains, the data set adopted AVHRR data to gradually realize generating data products for daily, ten-day, and monthly snow cover areas while maintaining the snow classification accuracy. These data included the daily/10-day/monthly snow cover area data for the Tibetan Plateau from 2007 to 2015, the average accuracy of which is 0.92. It can provide reliable data for snow changes during the historical periods of the Tibetan Plateau.
QIU Yubao
The dataset of ground truth measurements for snow synchronizing with the airborne PHI mission was obtained in the Binggou watershed foci experimental area on Mar. 24, 2008. Observation items included: (1) Snow density, snow complex permittivity, snow volumetric moisture and snow gravimetric moisture by the Snowfork in BG-A. (2) Snow parameters as the snow surface temperature by the handheld infrared thermometer, the snow layer temperature by the probe thermometer, the snow grain size by the handheld microscope, and snow density by the aluminum case in BG-A1, BG-A2, BG-B, BG-D, BG-E and BG-F5 (three sampling units each) from 11:11-12:35 (BJT) with the airplane overpass. 64 points were selected by four groups. (3) Snow albedo by the total radiometer in BG-A. (4) The snow spectrum by ASD (Xinjiang Meteorological Administration) in BG-A11 Two files including raw data and preprocessed data were archived.
GE Chunmei, GU Juan, HAO Xiaohua, LI Hongyi, LI Zhe, LIANG Ji, MA Mingguo, SHU Lele, WANG Jianhua, WANG Xufeng, WU Yueru, XU Zhen, ZHU Shijie, LIANG Xingtao, LIU Zhigang, QU Wei, REN Jie, FANG Li, LI Hua, CHANG Cun, DOU Yan, MA Zhongguo, JIANG Tenglong, XIAO Pengfeng , LIU Yan, ZHANG Pu
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