Snow cover mapping over China using FY-2 and MTSAT-2 data

Abstract

Snow cover is an important parameter in the hydrological applications and global climate change research. Accurate snow cover information in daily basis is significant in weather forecasting, hydrological model and other applications. High temporal resolution of geostationary data can provide snow cover maps with less cloud obscuration. In this paper, Fengyun-2 geostationary satellites (FY-2D and FY-2E) and Multi-functional Transport Satellite-2 (MTSAT-2) data were compared and used in snow cover mapping over China. FY-2D, FY-2E and MTSAT-2 data calibrated by GSICS was compared firstly. Then we used the same snow cover algorithm to test the performance of the three geostationary satellites on January and February, 2013 over China. Meteorological station observations were utilized to validate the snow cover maps of FY-2D, FY-2E and MTSAT-2. Results indicated that FY-2D and FY-2E presented similar and good performance over China, with overall accuracy about 92%. On the other hand, the overall accuracy of MTSAT-2 was approximately 88%, which was lower than FY-2D and FY-2E. Further calibration of the MTSAT-2 data with FY-2D/E should be considered in future study.