The Hydrologic Cycle and the Color of Snow
Location
ECC 216
Event Website
https://water.usu.edu/
Start Date
4-1-2008 2:30 PM
End Date
4-1-2008 3:15 PM
Description
Snow is among the most “colorful” materials in nature, but most of the variability in snow reflectivity occurs beyond the visible spectrum. In these wavelengths, albedo decreases dramatically as the snow grains evolve and grow, whereas in the visible spectrum the snow albedo is degraded by contaminants such as dust, algae, and soot. From daily MODIS data, we estimate the fraction of each 500m pixel that snow covers, along with the albedo of that snow. In the current generation of climate and snowmelt models, snow albedo is typically either prescribed or represented by empirical aging functions, when truly it is a dynamic variable affected by grain growth and lightabsorbing impurities.
The Hydrologic Cycle and the Color of Snow
ECC 216
Snow is among the most “colorful” materials in nature, but most of the variability in snow reflectivity occurs beyond the visible spectrum. In these wavelengths, albedo decreases dramatically as the snow grains evolve and grow, whereas in the visible spectrum the snow albedo is degraded by contaminants such as dust, algae, and soot. From daily MODIS data, we estimate the fraction of each 500m pixel that snow covers, along with the albedo of that snow. In the current generation of climate and snowmelt models, snow albedo is typically either prescribed or represented by empirical aging functions, when truly it is a dynamic variable affected by grain growth and lightabsorbing impurities.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/runoff/2008/AllAbstracts/36