Potential and limitations of RADARSAT SAR data for wet snow monitoring

Based on Canadian Satellite (RADARSAT) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images and simulations from a radar-backscattering model, the authors determined that conventional wet snow-mapping algorithms should perform optimally for a snowpack with a liquid-water content /spl ges/3%, at low incidence angle (/spl theta/=20-30/spl deg/) and for a rather smooth surface (rms height /spl les/2.1 mm).