Passive microwave snow mapping in Quebec

The objective of this research is to map snow cover in the Quebec area using passive microwave and other remote sensing data. The areal snow extent and snow water equivalent are determined and a twelve year snow water equivalent map is produced for the purpose of analyzing interannual snow variability.The presence of vegetation cover will affect the data obtained with passive systems. For heavily vegetated areas such as Quebec, the vegetation effect should be predetermined and classified to reduce the error on snow water equivalence calculation.In dry snow conditions, forest coverage and snow density are the two major error parameters in passive microwave snow mapping. The error on snow water equivalence estimation is directly proportional to the error in estimated snow density and forest coverage. For Quebec, ignoring the fraction of the forest cover may cause up to 49% snow depth or water equivalence underestimation.The ground measured snow depth and snow density data are necessary for calibrating satellite derived snow depth and mean snow density within forest covered regions