TY - JOUR
T1 - Satellite discrimination of snow/cloud surfaces
AU - Crane, R. G.
AU - Anderson, M. R.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported under NASA grant NAG-5-142 to the University of Colorado, Roger G. Barry, Principal Investigator. Roger Barry is also thanked for helpful comments on the manuscript.
PY - 1984
Y1 - 1984
N2 - Differentiation between cloud cover and snow surfaces using remotely sensed data is complicated by the similarity of their radiative temperatures, and also by their similar reflectanccs at visible wavelengths. A method of cloud analysis over snow-covered regions is presented, using 1.51 – 1.63 μm data from an experimental sensor on board a U.S. Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program platform. At these wavelengths, snow appears relatively ‘black’ while clouds are highly reflective. The spatial structure of the 1.51-1.63 μm reflectivity fields over a continuous snow surface are examined. Plots of mean reflectance against coefficients of variation for 4×4 pixel areas reveals a cluster of points have low reflectivity and low variability, corresponding to snow-covered (cloud free) areas, and a similar cluster with high reflectances corresponding to 100 per cent cloud cover. For the case of a single layered cloud, the radiances associated with partially filled fields of view are also inferred.
AB - Differentiation between cloud cover and snow surfaces using remotely sensed data is complicated by the similarity of their radiative temperatures, and also by their similar reflectanccs at visible wavelengths. A method of cloud analysis over snow-covered regions is presented, using 1.51 – 1.63 μm data from an experimental sensor on board a U.S. Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program platform. At these wavelengths, snow appears relatively ‘black’ while clouds are highly reflective. The spatial structure of the 1.51-1.63 μm reflectivity fields over a continuous snow surface are examined. Plots of mean reflectance against coefficients of variation for 4×4 pixel areas reveals a cluster of points have low reflectivity and low variability, corresponding to snow-covered (cloud free) areas, and a similar cluster with high reflectances corresponding to 100 per cent cloud cover. For the case of a single layered cloud, the radiances associated with partially filled fields of view are also inferred.
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U2 - 10.1080/01431168408948799
DO - 10.1080/01431168408948799
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0021286001
SN - 0143-1161
VL - 5
SP - 213
EP - 223
JO - International Journal of Remote Sensing
JF - International Journal of Remote Sensing
IS - 1
ER -