Articles | Volume 10, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-1361-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-1361-2016
Research article
 | 
04 Jul 2016
Research article |  | 04 Jul 2016

Mapping snow depth in open alpine terrain from stereo satellite imagery

R. Marti, S. Gascoin, E. Berthier, M. de Pinel, T. Houet, and D. Laffly

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Cited articles

Antoine, J., Galop, D., and Chenorkian, R.: Premiers résultats d'une rétro-observation hydroclimatique exploratoire dans le Haut-Vicdessos (Pyrénées ariégeoises), Sud-Ouest européen. Revue géographique des Pyrénées et du Sud-Ouest, 89–100, 2012.
ASTRIUM: Pléiades Imagery User Guide, 2, 2012.
Barnett, T. P., Adam, J. C., and Lettenmaier, D. P.: Potential impacts of a warming climate on water availability in snow-dominated regions, Nature, 438, 303–309, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04141, 2005.
Berthier, E., Arnaud, Y., Kumar, R., Ahmad, S., Wagnon, P., and Chevallier, P.: Remote sensing estimates of glacier mass balances in the Himachal Pradesh (Western Himalaya, India), Remote Sens. Environ., 108, 327–338, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2006.11.017, 2007.
Berthier, E., Vincent, C., Magnusson, E., Gunnlaugsson, A., Pitte, P., Le Meur, E., Masiokas, M., Ruiz, L., Pálsson, F., Belart, J. M. C., and Wagnon, P.: Glacier topography and elevation changes from Pléiades very high resolution stereo images, The Cryosphere, 8, 4849–4883, https://doi.org/10.5194/tcd-8-4849-2014, 2014.
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Short summary
To date, there is no definitive approach to map snow depth in mountainous areas from spaceborne sensors. We used very-high-resolution stereo satellites imagery (Pléiades) to generate a map of snow depth in a small Pyrenean catchment. The validation results are promising and open the possibility to retrieve the snow depth at a metric horizontal resolution in remote mountainous areas, even when no field data are available.