Snow Avalanche Detection and Mapping by Satellite Remote Sensing

Abstract

World-wide, snow avalanches are one of the main natural hazard in cold mountain areas, threatening life and infrastructure. For a snow avalanche expert, it takes several hours to visually inspect and map individual snow avalanche paths. At times this task cannot be accomplished before several days after a snow avalanche cycle. Several studies have shown that data from space-borne optical sensors, as well as from radar sensors, can be used to detect and map snow avalanche debris. Being able to remotely detect and record snow avalanches aids to target mitigation strategies. Here we present several examples on how the analysis of optical and radar satellite data can yield hind-cast snow avalanche inventory observations on a regional scale.