Grant: Strategic Projects - Group

The increasing pressure on our environment caused by the impacts of climate change implies the need to find better ways to manage the water resource. Snow is a key component of the water supply. The proposed project aims to develop a new method and improved tools for quantifying this resource stored in snow (Snow Water Equivalent parameter, SWE) across Canada, using remotely sensed data combined with a snow model. The modeled snow depth and density are used as a priori information (first guess) in the fitting process (error minimization) for retrieving the SWE (or the snow depth). The use of satellite observations is essential for filling in the gaps between ground-based measurements at the meteorological stations, especially in the North where they are sparse. The proposed method is based on the space-borne microwave radiometer (MW) observations, fuzzed with satellite-based ancillary observations for the land cover mapping, the detection of snow cover extent and the snow melting period. The project will be based on current Canadian climate models in a context of future operationalization. The proposal contributes to enhance the observation and monitoring capabilities of the snow cover characteristics, including snow water resource, that have considerable socio-economical implications in Canada. This project is also investigated in the framework of the international Climate and Cryosphere (CLiC) project of the World Climate Research Programme.