Articles | Volume 20, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-4811-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-4811-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Wet snow avalanche preconditions from Sentinel-1 multi-track composites
Gwendolyn Dasser
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research, SLF, Davos Dorf, Switzerland
Climate Change, Extremes and Natural Hazards in Alpine Regions Research Centre, CERC, Davos Dorf, Switzerland
now at: Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Engineering Geology, ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
Valentin T. Bickel
Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology, ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
now at: Center for Space and Habitability, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Marius Rüetschi
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
Mylène Jacquemart
Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology, ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
Mathias Bavay
WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research, SLF, Davos Dorf, Switzerland
Elisabeth Hafner-Aeschbacher
WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research, SLF, Davos Dorf, Switzerland
Climate Change, Extremes and Natural Hazards in Alpine Regions Research Centre, CERC, Davos Dorf, Switzerland
now at: Darnuzer Ingenieure AG, Davos Platz, Switzerland
Alec van Herwijnen
WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research, SLF, Davos Dorf, Switzerland
David Small
Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
Andrea Manconi
WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research, SLF, Davos Dorf, Switzerland
Climate Change, Extremes and Natural Hazards in Alpine Regions Research Centre, CERC, Davos Dorf, Switzerland
Data sets
Snowpack operational reruns 2023 (2023-08) M. Bavay https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19388833
Snowpack-3.6.5 M. Bavay https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19258679
Short summary
Understanding snowpack wetness is key to predicting wet snow avalanche releases, but detailed data is often limited. Using satellite radar, we monitored snowmelt over several seasons. We extracted a wet snow ratio threshold where the change from dry to wet snow avalanche dominated conditions is expected. By using local resolution weighting composites, we improved spatial resolution and showed our product to be more feasible for use in practice than the publicly available SAR Wet Snow layer.
Understanding snowpack wetness is key to predicting wet snow avalanche releases, but detailed...