摘要:
large and stations are very far from each other, thus essentially isolated point measurements. In addition there are large uncertainties in the measurement due to heterogeneity of snow distribution and internal structure (grain size distribution, ice layers, etc) in the snow pillow itself. Other sensors such as cable TDR (Time-Domain Reflectometry) can be installed semi- permanently from the beginning of the snow accumulation season, and thus can monitor the temporal evolution of the snowpack without affecting it. Flat cable TDR applications have been successful over distances up to 100m (Waldner et al. 2001). The shortcoming is that it provides measurements only on the cable direction and along cable length, and therefore measurements over large areas and over rugged and remote terrain are effectively precluded for practical reasons.On account of the high spatial and temporal variability of snow covered area, surface roughness, snow depth and snow microphysics, ground-based measurements at the spatial and temporal resolution required to obtain quality measurements of snow structural condition, microphysical properties, and snow water equivalent (SWE) are especially challenging, and more so in regions of complex terrain which are also frequently remote regions of difficult access and inhospitable climate. The great opportunity afforded by satellite based observations is that they provide field estimates at the nominal scale of the measurement (e.g. 0.25ox0.25o MODIS resolution, the Moderate-Resolution-Imaging-Spectroradiometer onboard of the Terra and Aqua satellites). On the other hand, SWE errors up to 50% at local places are common due to subgrid-scale variability (snow grain-size distribution, fingering effects and ice layers, wind redistribution, etc, within the satellite sensor footprint) that is not accounted for in operational retrieval algorithms (e.g. Foster et al. 2005). To characterize the subgrid-scale variability of snow properties as a function of water content and how that affects the radiometric behavior of snow and ice surfaces is therefore a critical research imperative. For this purpose, we proposed to develop a wireless network architecture that can capture the spatial variability of the snowpack under all terrain conditions, and especially remote regions of complex topography as depicted below.
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