Combining SMMR and SSM/I Data for Time Series Analysis of Central North American Snow Water Equivalent

Abstract

Abstract When Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) and Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) data are combined, the time series of dual-polarized, multichannel, spaceborne passive microwave brightness temperatures extends from 1978 to the present. The Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) has developed operational snow water equivalent (SWE) retrieval algorithms for western Canada that have been applied to both SMMR and SSM/I data. Climatological research questions that demand a time series of significant length can now be addressed with passive microwave–derived datasets of this nature. Attention must be given, however, to the impact of the slightly different spatial, temporal, and radiometric characteristics between the SMMR and SSM/I data on SWE algorithm performance and, therefore, time series continuity and consistency. In this study, potential bias on SWE retrieval with the MSC algorithms caused by differences between the SMMR and SSM/I sensors is assessed with a series of comparativ...