Estimation Snow Parameters Using Digital Imagery

Abstract

In this paper, we present newly established webcam monitoring system in Finland for monitoring and phenology and snow cover. Main motivation of this work is to facilitate Earth Observation (EO) systems by providing time-series of field observation for calibration and validation, as well as to improve the assessment of ecosystem services. Images have been used in phenological analyses of birches along a latitudinal gradient across Finland, snow cover and compared to greenhouse gas fluxes on Scots pine and wetland ecosystems. Finnish Meteorological Institute image PROcessing Toolbox (FMIPROT) is developed to analyse the images for the extraction of environmental data. The Images from the camera network, producing a continuous image series in Finland, are used in the analysis of Fractional Snow Cover (FSC). Another camera network, producing continuous image series in the SPICE site, Sodankyla, Finland, is used for the analysis of Snow Depth (SD). SPICE (Solid Precipitation Intercomparison Experiment) is a WMO/CIMO multi-sites intercomparison of instruments and systems of observation for the measurement of solid precipitation. Analyses are done using the FMIPROT. We discuss on estimation of FSC and SD using digital imagery and utilizing the digital imagery to complement FSC and SD retrieval algorithms from remote sensing data and/or to validate Earth-observed FSC and SD introducing MONIMET camera network and FMIPROT. We also tested this method in mountain region, the Careser Dam (at an altitude of 2600 m a.s.l.), in Trentino’s Region (Italy) in the south-eastern part of the Ortles-Cevedale massif the largest glacierised mountain group of the Italian Alps.