EnviSnow - Development of Generic Earth Observation Based Snow Parameter Retrieval Algorithms

Start date:	01.01.2002
End date:	30.06.2005
Project manager:	Eirik Malnes, Norut IT
Collaborating partners:	Norwegian Computing Center, remotesensing.nr.no Helsinki University of Technology, www.hut.fi Institute for Meteorology und Geophysics, dude.uibk.ac.at/Projects/EnviSnow/ IFAC, www.ifac.cnr.it Kongsberg Satellite Services, www.ksat.no The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate, www.nve.no Verbund, www.verbund.at A.R.P.A.V, www.arpa.veneto.it Finnish Environment Institute, www.vyh.fi European Commission, EESD, www.cordis.lu/eesd
Funding:	EU Contract no. EVG1-CT-2001-00052
Web pages:	EnviSnow's Official Homepage

Norut IT coordinates the research project EnviSnow funded by EU's 5th Framework Programme.

In the mountainous areas and in the whole North of Europe snowfall is a substantial part of the overall precipitation. The amount and timing of snowmelt runoff from snow and glaciers is important information for management of water resources, including flood prediction and hydropower operations in Scandinavia, the Alps, USA, Canada and New Zealand.

ENVISAT will provide the user community with simultaneous imaging capability of the same ground area with both optical (MERIS and AATSR) and multiparameter SAR (ASAR). This true multisensor imaging capability makes it possible to develop, validate and bring into operational use multisensor and multitemporal algorithms and products applicable both for regional and global mapping.

The overall goal is to develop and validate new and improved multisensor algorithms for retrieving snow and soil parameters from Earth Observation (EO) data improved for use in global climate study and hydrology, in particular run off and flood prediction.