Comparison of algorithms for retrieval of snow water equivalent from Nimbus-7 SMMR data in Finland

The correlation between the brightness temperature of snow-covered terrain (dry snow) and the snow-water equivalent in Finland was investigated using Nimbus-7 SMMR data. The satellite data set covers the winters of 1978-9 through 1981-2. The correlation analysis was performed for 17 different brightness temperature functions, each involving one or several frequencies and polarizations. The highest correlation coefficients between the satellite-derived brightness temperature functions and the manually measured snow-water equivalent values were obtained by using the brightness temperature difference between 37 GHz and either 18 GHz or 10.7 GHz, vertical polarization.<
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