Evaluation of Australian Snow Cover Estimates using Satellite Based Observations for the period 2000-2010.

Seasonal snow cover has been identified as being particularly vulnerable to increasing air temperatures in a warming climate. Marginal snowfields such as those in Australia are likely to be among the most sensitive seasonal snow areas to these changes. Data scarcity in the Australian snowfields has limited attempts to characterise snow trends and restricted snow model evaluation in hydrologic and climate impact studies. Remote sensing has been widely adopted by our Northern Hemisphere counterparts to increase snow cover data. Global snow products have limitations when used in Australia's marginal snowfields. This study presents preliminary evaluation of a regional snow cover dataset based on MODIS retrievals that has been customised for snow detection in Australia for the period 2000-2010.

Figure 1: . Spencers Creek locality (Station shown in magenta) estimated snow cover areas. Approx. 18.5km x 18.5 km viewing panes. a) Landsat TM true colour image and density slice extent, b) Landsat TM MADI, c) MODIS-MADI, d) MODIS MOD10L2