Monitoring Snow Cover and Snowmelt

Dynamics and Assessing their Influences on

Inland Water Resources

Dissertation

zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades

der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät
der Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel

vorgelegt von
Ya-Lun S. Tsai

München, 2021
First examiner: Prof. Dr. Natascha Oppelt
Second examiner: Dr. Andreas Dietz

Date of the oral examination: 19.01.2021

 Table of contents

Table of contents
Table of contents...................................................................................................... 2
Acknowledgments .................................................................................................... 6
Summary.................................................................................................................. 7
Zusammenfassung ................................................................................................. 10
List of Figures......................................................................................................... 13
List of Tables .......................................................................................................... 20
Abbreviations and Acronyms .................................................................................. 22
1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 25
1.1. Research background and motivation ...................................................... 25
1.2. Literature gaps and research objectives................................................... 28
1.3. Structure of the thesis .............................................................................. 31
2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review .................. 33
Abstract .......................................................................................................... 33
2.1. Introduction .............................................................................................. 33
2.2. Characteristics of Snow and SAR ............................................................ 36
2.2.1. SAR Sensor Characteristics ................................................................... 36
2.2.2. Interactions of Snow and SAR ................................................................ 38
2.3. SAR-Based Studies and Methods to Detect Snow ................................... 40
2.3.1. SAR Sensors Used for Detecting Snow .................................................. 41
2.3.2. Spatial and Temporal Scale of Snow Cover Studies ............................... 42
2.3.3. Employed Methods to Monitor Snow Cover with SAR data .................... 45
2.3.4. Algorithms Utilized to Investigate the Different Snow Cover Types ......... 52
2.3.5. Quality Assessment Methods for SAR-based Snow Cover Products ...... 54
2.4. Critical Auxiliary Data Necessary to Support Detecting SCE from SAR Data
....................................................................................................................... 55
2.4.1. Digital Elevation Model, Influence of Topography on SAR-based Snow
Detection .......................................................................................................... 55
2.4.2. The Influence of Land Cover (Vegetation) on Snow Detection from
SAR-data ......................................................................................................... 56
2.4.3. Utillization of Temperature and the Need for Snow Record Data ............ 57
2.5. Discussion ............................................................................................... 58
2.5.1. The Developement of Spaceborne SAR Sensor Design ......................... 58
2.5.2. The Advances of SCE-detection by SAR ................................................ 59

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 Table of contents

2.5.3. Solutions for Addressing SAR-vegetation Interaction ............................. 62

2.5.4. Influence of Filtering Algorithms ............................................................. 63
2.5.5. Reliability of Current Validation Approaches ........................................... 63
2.5.6. Opportunities of Data Fusion for SAR-based Snow Cover Detection ...... 65
2.5.7. Overall Trajectory of Spaceborne SAR-Based SCE Detection and Future
Possibilities ...................................................................................................... 66
2.5.8. Difficulties of Sensing Additional Snow Parameters ................................ 68
2.6. Conclusion ............................................................................................... 68
3 Wet and Dry Snow Detection Using Sentinel-1 SAR Data for Mountainous Areas
with a Machine Learning Technique ....................................................................... 85
Abstract .......................................................................................................... 85
3.1. Introduction .............................................................................................. 85
3.2. Study Areas and Dataset ......................................................................... 88
3.2.1. Study Areas............................................................................................ 88
3.2.2. SAR Data ............................................................................................... 89
3.2.3. Auxiliary Data ......................................................................................... 91
3.3. Methodology ............................................................................................ 92
3.3.1. SAR Imagery Processing ....................................................................... 92
3.3.2. Total SCE Detection ............................................................................... 93
3.3.3. Holistic (Total + Wet) SCE Detection and Overall Workflow Overview .... 99
3.4. Results................................................................................................... 100
3.4.1. Accuracy Assessment of Modeled Total SCE ....................................... 101
3.4.2. External Validation ............................................................................... 102
3.4.3. Holistic SCE Maps Including Discrimination Between Wet and Dry Snow
....................................................................................................................... 108
3.5. Discussion ............................................................................................. 109
3.5.1. Influence of Different Input Factors on the Classification Accuracy ....... 109
3.5.2. Influence of Vegetation and Land Cover Type on the Classification
Accuracy ........................................................................................................ 111
3.5.3. Challenges for Validating SAR-based Snow Cover Classifications; the
Case of Aconcagua (AG) Region ................................................................... 111
3.5.4. Uncertainties of Mapping Wet and Dry SCE in a Holistic Map; the Case of
Monte Rosa (MR) Region ............................................................................... 114
3.5.5. Improvements Achieved in this Study ................................................... 114
3.5.6. Future Work ......................................................................................... 115

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 Table of contents

3.6. Conclusions ........................................................................................... 116

4 A Combination of PROBA-V/MODIS-based Products with Sentinel-1 SAR Data
for Detecting Wet and Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas ............................. 120
Abstract ........................................................................................................ 120
4.1. Introduction ............................................................................................ 120
4.2. Study Areas and Dataset ....................................................................... 123
4.2.1. Study Areas.......................................................................................... 123
4.2.2. SAR and Optical Imagery ..................................................................... 123
4.2.3. Auxiliary Data ....................................................................................... 125
4.3. Methodology .......................................................................................... 127
4.4. Results................................................................................................... 131
4.4.1. Accuracy Assessment of the Modeled Total SCE ................................. 131
4.4.2. External Validations with Optical-based SCE and Snow Depth Records
....................................................................................................................... 132
4.4.3. Holistic Wet and Dry SCE Maps with Reliability Maps .......................... 135
4.5. Discussion ............................................................................................. 139
4.5.1. The Influence of Different Input Variables Combinations to Classification
Accuracy ........................................................................................................ 139
4.5.2. The Influence of Different Land Cover (Vegetation) Types on the
Classification Reliability .................................................................................. 139
4.5.3 The Heterogeneity between Multispectral-based Results/Products for
Model Training and Validation ........................................................................ 141
4.5.4. Applying the Total SCE Detection Approach to a Wider Spatial Scale －
the Whole Alps ............................................................................................... 141
4.5.5. Improvements Achieved in This Study and its Future Potential ............ 142
4.6. Conclusions ........................................................................................... 143
5 Monitoring Large-scale Inland Water Dynamics by Fusing Sentinel-1 SAR and
Sentinel-3 Altimetry Data and by Analyzing Causal Effects of Snowmelt .............. 145
Abstract ........................................................................................................ 145
5.1. Introduction ............................................................................................ 146
5.2. Study areas and data ............................................................................. 149
5.2.1 Study areas ........................................................................................... 149
5.2.2 Data ...................................................................................................... 151
5.3. Methodology .......................................................................................... 152
5.3.1 Water level calculation with Sentinel-3 altimetry .................................... 152
5.3.2 Water-covered extent (WCE) calculation with Sentinel-1 SAR............... 153
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 Table of contents

5.3.3 Lake water volume estimation by hypsometry calculation and detrended

volume retrieval .............................................................................................. 154
5.3.4 WSCE mapping with Sentinel-1 SAR and hydrological factors areal
calculation ...................................................................................................... 155
5.3.5 Hydrological econometrics regression analysis ..................................... 156
5.4. Results................................................................................................... 158
5.4.1 Lake Urmia ............................................................................................ 158
5.4.2 Brahmaputra River ................................................................................ 166
5.5. Discussions ........................................................................................... 171
5.5.1 The cause of the different lake surface areas detected by Sentinel-1 SAR
and GWP product........................................................................................... 171
5.5.2 The necessity of detrending process for lake water volume before
hydrological analysis ...................................................................................... 174
5.5.3 The lag length difference between each hydrological variable and study
area................................................................................................................ 174
5.5.4 The cause of the long lag length of the SAR sensor-based WSCE%..... 175
5.5.5 The reason of the negative LRP of rainfall in DLM of the detrended lake
water volume .................................................................................................. 176
5.5.6 Current limitations and future goals ....................................................... 177
5.6. Conclusions ........................................................................................... 179
6 Synthesis and Outlook ...................................................................................... 182
6.1. Summary of achievements and contributions to research gaps ............. 182
6.2. Overall conclusions ................................................................................ 187
6.3. Future opportunities and challenges ...................................................... 190
References........................................................................................................... 193
Statement of authorship ....................................................................................... 218
Eidesstattliche Erklärung ...................................................................................... 219

5
 Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments
Firstly, I would like to thank my family, including mother Pearl, sister Mia, and father
Henry, for supporting me studying abroad to achieve the doctoral degree. Without
your great support in both mental and financial aspects, it would be impossible for me
to survive during my struggling period and finish this dissertation. You are the heroes
behind the scenes, and all deserve a big and warm hug!

I also want to sincerely thank my supervisor at Kiel University, Prof. Dr. Natascha
Oppelt, for granting me the opportunity to explore this exciting yet challenging topic.
Moreover, I greatly appreciate your kind helping and detailed response to my
concerns during my PhD studying period.

Special thanks go to my mentor and supervisor in the German Remote Sensing Data
Center (DFD) of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Dr. Andreas Dietz and Prof. Dr.
Claudia Kuenzer. Your kind guidance and valuable feedbacks are the key foundation
of this dissertation. It is a pleasure to work in a great team and department.

I would also like to thank my dear colleagues of the LAX Cryo-team, including Mariel
Dirscherl, Jonas Köhler, Peter Friedl, Sebastian Röß ler, Zhongyang Hu, Celia
Baumhoer, and Sabine Baumann. I enjoy the interesting and insightful discussions
with you and have learned a lot from you. You also make me enjoy the time in the
DLR and Germany!

Moreover, other LAX colleagues/friends have also greatly inspired me, including
Soner Uereyen, Thorsten Hoeser, Igor Klein, Anna Wendleder, Marco Ottinger,
Daniela Palacios-Lopez, Stefan Mayr, Emmanuel Da Ponte, Aiym Orynbaikyzy, Birgit
Wessel, Tejas Bhagwat, Felix Reuß , and Sophie Reinermann. It is always happy for
me to discuss and collaborate with you. I will miss the fun we shared and the beer we
drank together.

I would like to sincerely thank Prof. Dr. Stephan van Gasselt for your countless great
support since the first day I arrived in Germany. Your suggestions are always wise and
helpful. Thanks for all those sincere help and supports, I would always keep in mind.
The kind and generous support from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
is also sincerely appreciated.

Finally, I want to thank myself for being hard-working and diligent for all these years.
You have always been trying to make all efforts, especially in doing research, as you
are very enthusiastic about figuring out questions and exploring the solutions. I wish
you all the best in the future and achieve your dream goal – being a great scientist! :D

6
 Summary

Summary
Snow is one of the most vital cryospheric components owing to its wide coverage as
well as its unique physical characteristics. It not only affects the balance of numerous
natural systems but also influences various socio-economic activities of human
beings. Notably, the importance of snowmelt water to global water resources is
outstanding, as millions of populations rely on snowmelt water for daily consumption
and agricultural use. Nevertheless, due to the unprecedented temperature rise
resulting from the deterioration of climate change, global snow cover extent (SCE)
has been shrinking significantly, which endangers the sustainability and availability of
inland water resources. Therefore, in order to understand cryo-hydrosphere
interactions under a warming climate, (1) monitoring SCE dynamics and snowmelt
conditions, (2) tracking the dynamics of snowmelt-influenced waterbodies, and (3)
assessing the causal effect of snowmelt conditions on inland water resources are
indispensable. However, for each point, there exist many research questions that
need to be answered. Consequently, in this thesis, five objectives are proposed
accordingly.

Firstly, to continuously monitor SCE, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) has gained more
attention thanks to its cloud-penetrating and illumination-independent sensing ability
compared to conventionally employed multi-spectral sensors, which are inevitably
affected by cloud cover and polar darkness. Therefore, since the launch of the first
continuously revisiting spaceborne SAR satellite in 1991, there have been many
studies that explore the potential of using SAR for SCE detection. However, no
comprehensive review was conducted. Hence, a holistic overview of existing
SAR-based SCE mapping studies is provided in this thesis, which thoroughly
examines the unique interactions between SAR signal and wet/dry snowpack and
investigates the advantages, limitations, and trajectory of previous studies. It is found
that the topic is still in a developing stage, since most studies only detect wet snow of
small regions based on backscatter-based approaches, mask out the vegetated
regions, and rarely validate their results. Thus, the need for a novel SCE mapping
strategy is compelling.

Consequently, the second objective of this thesis is to propose a new total and wet
SCE mapping strategy which is applicable in all land cover classes. The freely
accessible Sentinel-1 SAR imagery is employed to derive observations including
backscatter coefficient, interferometric coherence, as well as polarimetric parameters.
Together with topographical factors and land cover information, an easy tuning
machine learning classifier is used to detect the total SCE. Via comprehensive
validations, results show that the overall accuracy, F-measure and AUC score of total
SCE mapping accuracy for different land cover types (including densely vegetated
forest and agricultural regions) can reach around 80%, 80%, and 70% respectively for
the majority of study regions located in different mountain ranges. The accuracy can
be even higher by around 5% if vegetation land cover classes are excluded. These
7
 Summary

values confirm the robustness of the proposed land cover-dependent total SCE
mapping approach. In addition, by extending the mapped total SCE with wet SCE
estimated with a backscatter-based approach, SCE dynamics of different months can
be revealed.

To improve SCE mapping accuracy, in the third objective, the benefits of employing
vegetation indexes (leaf area index (LAI) and fractional vegetation cover (FVC)) as
well as land surface temperature (LST) derived from the PROBA-V satellite and
MODIS sensors, are examined. Results show that the overall accuracy, F-measure,
and AUC score can be enhanced to around 90%, 90%, and 80% for all five study
areas. Namely, the robustness and reliability of both proposed SAR-observation-only
strategy and SAR-multi-spectral fusing strategy can be attested. Therefore, by
applying the novel approach, the SCE dynamics of the whole Alps during the melting
season of 2018 are clearly depicted. Moreover, based on the newly generated SCE
mapping reliability maps, a relationship between densely vegetated land cover
classes and lower classification reliability is found and discussed.

To fulfill the final goal of assessing the influence of snowmelt conditions on water
resources, the fourth objective is to continuously track inland waterbody dynamics.
The new generation spaceborne Sentinel-1 SAR and Sentinel-3 altimetry data are
employed for water extent delineation and water level measurement of both the Urmia
Lake and the Brahmaputra River, respectively. These publically accessible,
high-resolution, cloud-free, and illumination-independent data overcome the
limitations of few sites available-only in-situ gauging stations and cloud-contaminated
multi-spectral sensor band-based water indexes which were commonly used in
previous studies. Moreover, the utilization of freely accessible and cloud-based online
SAR and altimetry data processing services guarantees high efficiency and broad
applicability. Via comparisons with multi-spectral sensor-based water-covered area
products and well-known water level databases, the accuracies of our estimated
surface area and water level are ensured. Finally, by fusing both observations,
comprehensive inland waterbody dynamics can be achieved, such as the
hypsometry-based water volume change of the Lake Urmia as well as the flooded
area and water level of the Brahmaputra River.

Finally, for the last objective of the present thesis, the tracked inland waterbody
dynamics together with the wet SCE mapped with SAR imagery are exploited to
examine the causal effects of snowmelt conditions on inland water resources. To
unbiasedly quantify their interaction, rainfall and evapotranspiration records provided
by the global weather model are included to mitigate the omitted error.
Methodologically, the advanced DLM regression, firstly developed in the econometrics
discipline, is employed due to its ability to handle multi-variables dynamics influences
with temporal lags. In the lag length decision analysis, it is found that the snowmelt
conditions show the longest lag length due to the unique characteristics of the
SAR-based snowmelt detection approach. Eventually, the casual effect of snowmelt
8
 Summary

conditions on inland water resources is quantified and the cryo-hydrosphere

interactions can be identified. For the Lake Urmia, when increasing one percent of
WSCE% during the period of zero to 80 days before, the detrended water volume
would increase by 108 cubic meters; for the Brahmaputra River, when increasing one
percent of WSCE% during the period of 70 to 150 days before, the water level of the
investigated virtual station would increase by 0.1 meters.

9
 Zusammenfassung

Zusammenfassung
Die globale Schneebedeckung ist, aufgrund ihrer groß en zusammenhängenden
Flächen sowie ihrer einzigartigen physikalischen Eigenschaften, eine der wichtigsten
Komponenten der Kryosphäre. Sie beeinflusst nicht nur das Gleichgewicht
zahlreicher natürlicher Systeme, sondern auch verschiedene sozioökonomische
Aktivitäten des Menschen. Insbesondere die Schneeschmelze ist sehr bedeutend für
die globalen Wasserressourcen. Zum einen deckt sie für Millionen von Menschen den
Bedarf für ihren täglichen Wasserverbrauch und zum anderen ist sie in vielen
Regionen der Erde essenziell für die Erzeugung von Nahrungsmitteln. Der mit dem
Klimawandel einhergehende Temperaturanstieg hingegen bewirkt einen signifikanten
Rückgang der globalen Schneedecke. Dies wiederum gefährdet sowohl die
Nachhaltigkeit als auch die Verfügbarkeit inländischer Wasserressourcen. Um das
Verständnis der Interaktionen von Kryosphäre und Hydrosphäre unter
Berücksichtigung des sich erwärmenden Klimas zu gewährleisten und zu verbessern,
ist (1) die Ü berwachung von Dynamiken der Schneedecke und Schneeschmelze, (2)
die Quantifizierung von Veränderungen von Wasserflächen bedingt durch die
Schneeschmelze, sowie (3) die Bewertung von Kausalitäten zwischen
Schneeschmelze und Wasserressourcen von groß er Bedeutung. Die Untersuchung
dieser Aspekte erfordert die Berücksichtigung vieler Forschungsfragen. Folglich
ergeben sich fünf wissenschaftliche Zielstellungen, die im Rahmen dieser
Forschungsarbeit aufgegriffen werden.

Erstens, hat sich Radar mit synthetischer Apertur (SAR) für ein kontinuierliches
Monitoring der Schneedecke als geeignetes Instrument erwiesen. SAR Systeme
liefern Bildaufnahmen der Erdoberfläche unabhängig von Witterungsbedingungen
sowohl bei Tag als auch bei Nacht. Im Vergleich zu optischen
Fernerkundungsinstrumenten liefern SAR Sensoren auch bei einer geschlossenen
Wolkendecke Aufnahmen der Erdoberfläche. Daher wurde bereits seit dem Start der
ersten satellitengestützten SAR Mission im Jahr 1991 das Potential von bildgebenden
SAR Systemen zur Ü berwachung der Schneebedeckung in zahlreichen Studien
erforscht. Um einen ganzheitlichen Ü berblick über die bestehenden Methoden zur
Kartierung der Schneebedeckung zu liefern, werden in dieser Forschungsarbeit
bereits durchgeführte Studien hinsichtlich der Potentiale und Limitierung von SAR
Systemen sowie die Wechselwirkungen zwischen dem SAR
Rückstreuungskoeffizienten und der trockenen und nassen Schneedecke untersucht.
Die Literaturarbeit hat ergeben, dass sich die Methodenentwicklung zur Kartierung
der Schneebedeckung mit SAR Sensoren noch nicht ausgereift ist. Ein Groß teil der
untersuchten Studien hat nur Nassschnee in kleineren Regionen auf der Grundlage
des SAR Rückstreuungskoeffizienten klassifiziert. Zudem wurden
vegetationsbedeckte Flächen häufig maskiert und die Ergebnisse selten validiert.
Daher ist die Entwicklung einer neuartigen Methode zur Kartierung der
Schneebedeckung mit SAR Daten zwingend notwendig.
10
 Zusammenfassung

Folglich besteht das zweite Ziel dieser Arbeit darin, eine neue Methode zu entwickeln,
die zwischen der gesamten und der nassen Schneedecke unterscheiden kann sowie
über alle Landbedeckungsklassen hinweg anwendbar ist. Zu diesem Zweck werden
die frei zugänglichen Sentinel-1 SAR Aufnahmen genutzt. Neben dem
Rückstreuungskoeffizienten wird die interferometrische Kohärenz sowie weitere
polarimetrische Parameter berechnet. Des Weiteren werden neben SAR
Parametern zusätzlich topographische Metriken sowie Informationen zur
Landbedeckung in einen Machine Learning Algorithmus eingespeist um die gesamte
Schneedecke zu klassifizieren. Durch umfassende Validierungsmethoden haben die
Ergebnisse für verschiedene Landbedeckungsklassen (einschließ lich dichte
Waldflächen und landwirtschaftliche Nutzflächen) eine Gesamtgenauigkeit von 80 %,
einen F-Maß von 80 % und einen AUC-Wert von 70 % für die gesamte Schneedecke
ergeben. Hierbei liegt ein Groß teil der Untersuchungsgebiete in Gebirgsregionen.
Weiterhin ist anzumerken, dass sich die Gesamtgenauigkeit um etwa 5 % erhöht,
wenn die Vegetationsklassen nicht berücksichtigt werden. Diese Metriken bestätigen
die Robustheit der vorgestellten Methodik zur Erfassung der gesamten
Schneebedeckung unter Berücksichtigung diverser Landbedeckungsklassen.
Darüber hinaus gewährleistet die entwickelte Methode, die zwischen der gesamten
und nassen Schneedecke unterscheiden kann, eine ganzheitliche Untersuchung der
Schneedeckendynamiken über verschiedene Zeiträume.

Die dritte Zielstellung dieser Arbeit umfasst die erzielten Genauigkeiten der
vorgestellten Methode zur Schneedeckenklassifikation zu verbessern. Zu diesem
Zweck wird die zusätzliche Verwendung von Vegetationsindizes (Blattflächenindex
(LAI) und partielle Vegetationsbedeckung (FVC)) sowie die vom PROBA-V und
MODIS Sensoren abgeleitete Landoberflächentemperatur (LST) untersucht. Die
Ergebnisse haben gezeigt, dass die Gesamtgenauigkeit (90 %), das F-Maß (90 %)
und der AUC-Wert (80 %) für alle fünf Untersuchungsgebiete höher ausgefallen sind.
Diese Werte bestätigen die Robustheit und Zuverlässigkeit des vorgeschlagenen
SAR basierten Ansatzes sowie des fusionsbasierten Ansatzes, bestehend aus SAR
und optischen Parametern. Der verbesserte Ansatz wurde daher auf die gesamte
Alpenregion angewendet um die Schneedeckendynamiken während der
Schmelzsaison 2018 zu analysieren. Auß erdem wird auf Basis von zusätzlich
erstellten Wahrscheinlichkeitskarten zur Schneedeckenklassifikation die Beziehung
zwischen dicht bewachsenen Vegetationsflächen und geringer
Klassifizierungszuverlässigkeit ermittelt und kritisch diskutiert.

Des Weiteren wird im Rahmen der vierten Zielstellung der Einfluss der
Schneeschmelze auf Wasserressourcen durch die kontinuierliche Erfassung der
Dynamiken von Binnenwasserkörpern bewertet. Hierfür werden Sentinel-1-SAR und
Sentinel-3-Altimetriedaten der neuen Generation für die Abgrenzung der
Oberflächengewässer und für die Messung des Wasserstandes sowohl für den Urmia
See als auch den Brahmaputra verwendet. Diese frei zugänglichen und
11
 Zusammenfassung

hochaufgelösten sowie wolken- und beleuchtungsunabhängigen Daten überwinden

die Einschränkungen weniger verfügbarer In-situ-Messstationen und die von Wolken
beeinflussten Wasserindizes, die auf Basis von optischen Sensoren abgeleitet
werden. Zudem gewährleisten frei zugängliche und cloudbasierte
Datenverarbeitungsdienste eine hohe Effizienz und räumlich breite Ü bertragbarkeit.
Die Genauigkeiten der abgeleiteten Oberflächengewässer und Wasserstandwerte
werden anhand von Fernerkundungsprodukten, die auf Basis von optischen
Sensordaten erstellt wurden, sowie Messerwerten zum Wasserstand aus
Datenbanken bewertet. Durch die komplementäre Nutzung der klassifizierten
Oberflächengewässer und des abgeleiteten Wasserstandes können schließ lich die
Dynamiken der Binnenwasserkörper, durch z.B. hypsometrische Kurven des Urmia
Sees oder von überfluteten Gebieten entlang des Brahmaputra Flusses, umfassend
analysiert werden.

Abschließ end, wird im Rahmen der letzten Zielstellung dieser Forschungsarbeit, die
Binnenwasserkörperdynamik zusammen mit den auf Basis von SAR Aufnahmen
erstellten Daten zur nassen Schneedecke genutzt, um die Kausalitäten zwischen
Schneeschmelzbedingungen und Binnenwasserressourcen zu untersuchen. Um die
Wechselwirkungen genauer zu quantifizieren, werden Niederschlags- und
Evaporationsdaten aus einem globalen Wettermodell in die Analysen einbezogen.
Hierfür wird die DLM-Regression eingesetzt, um die dynamischen Einflüsse von
mehreren Variablen mit zeitlichen Verzögerungen zu untersuchen. Die zeitlichen
Verzögerungsanalysen haben ergeben, dass die Variable Schneeschmelze die
längste Verzögerung aufweist. Schließ lich haben wir die Kausalitäten zwischen
Schneeschmelzbedingungen und Binnengewässer quantifiziert und
Wechselwirkungen zwischen Kryosphäre und Hydrosphäre identifiziert.

Für das Untersuchungsgebiet des Urmia Sees würde eine Zunahme der nassen
Schneedecke von einem Prozent eine Zunahme des trendbereinigten
Wasservolumens um 108 Kubikmeter innerhalb einer Periode von 0 bis 80 Tage
bewirken. Bei der Betrachtung des Brahmaputra Flusses hingegen würde eine
Zunahme der nassen Schneedecke von einem Prozent, eine Zunahme des
Wasserstandes einer untersuchten virtuellen Station um 0,1 Meter innerhalb einer
Periode von 80 bis 150 Tagen bewirken.

12
 List of Figures

List of Figures
Figure 2.1 Illustration of different snow types and snow line (deep blue font), the importance of
snow (black font), synthetic aperture radar (SAR)-related characteristics (font in italics),
factors influence snow (green font) and snowpack parameters (red font). ....................... 35

Figure 2.2 The operating periods of available satellites equipped with SAR sensors and their
band as well as revisit time configurations (number in brackets referring to the revisit time
in days). L-, C-, and X-band SAR refers to frequency of 1-2 GHz, 4-8 GHz, and 8-12 GHz;
wavelength of 30-15 cm, 7.5-3.75 cm, and 3.75-2.5 cm, respectively (Bruder, 2013). ... 42

Figure 2.3 The frequency of different SAR sensors/bands being employed for snow cover
studies. ......................................................................................................................................... 42

Figure 2.4 Overview of published SAR-based snow cover studies. (a) Study regions’ type; (b)
frequency of studied mountain ranges; (c) distribution among countries within the Alps; (d)
geographic overview of performed studies. ........................................................................... 44

Figure 2.5 Spatial and temporal overview of published SAR-based snow cover extent (SCE)
detection studies. (a) The spatial extent of studies; (b) number of sensed years; (c)
average number of observations per sensed year. Note that none of the studies
categorized as multi-year monitoring in (b) provide a time-series of SCE results, but only
few random observations for each year. Thus the average observations conducted per
sensed year of each study are illustrated in (c). .................................................................... 45

Figure 2.6 The overall workflow of the backscattering-based algorithm to detect wet snow. ... 46

Figure 2.7 The overall workflow of interferometric SAR (InSAR)-based algorithms to detect
total snow cover. Master and slave image refer to the two single look complex (SLC) SAR
images used to generate an InSAR pair. ................................................................................ 49

Figure 2.8 The overall workflow of polarimetric SAR (PolSAR)-based algorithms to detect wet
and dry snow cover, including (1) machine learning classification trained by external SCE
result; (2) the calculation of seasonal parameters’ difference before thresholding, and (3)
the direct thresholding. .............................................................................................................. 52

Figure 2.9 Overview of targeted snow types and corresponding algorithms. (a) Targeted snow
types and employed algorithms for (b) wet (c) dry (d) total snow cover extent (SCE). ... 53

Figure 2.10 External/Ground truth data used for validating SAR-based snow cover products.
*Advanced visible and near infrared radiometer type 2 (AVNIR-2) sensor onboard on
Advanced land observation satellite (ALOS) satellite; moderate resolution imaging
spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor onboard on Terra and Aqua satellites;
**Landsat-series missions compose different optical sensors. ........................................... 54

Figure 2.11 Total and wet SCE of Monte Rosa (MR) region (a) month1: 2018 March 12 (b)
month2: 2018 May 11. Figures are revised from Tsai et al. (Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz Andreas,
et al., 2019b). Note the total SCE is modeled based on backscatter, InSAR coherence,
13
 List of Figures

and PolSAR parameters; wet SCE is estimated based on conventional

backscatter-threshold approach. .............................................................................................. 61

Figure 2.12 Overall development of algorithms and methods relying on spaceborne SAR data
for snow cover extent (SCE) detection. The three phases denote the different main
algorithms based on available SCE detection algorithms and SAR data. ......................... 68

Figure 3.1 Land cover types (derived from ESA Climate Change Initiative (CCI) land cover
product) for the five selected test sites: (a) Monte Rosa (MR), (b) Zugspitze (ZG), (c)
Mount Whitney (MW), (d) Landtang Lirung (LL), and (e) Aconcagua (AG). Location of
each region around the globe is illustrated in (f). .................................................................. 89

Figure 3.2 Selected date of SAR imagery for five regions in two hydrological years. ............... 90

Figure 3.3 Data splitting for model training and validation including internal-, external validation,
Out-of-bag (OOB) sample, and training sample based on Global SnowPack (GSP),
optical-based snow cover extent (SCE), and snow depth data........................................... 96

Figure 3.4 Assessment of the influence of different input combinations on the performance of
the model for Monte Rosa (MR) region. SAR-based observations including
backscattering ratio, InSAR coherence and PolSAR H/A/α parameters are abbreviated
as B, I and P. Topographical factors including aspect, slope, curvature, and elevation are
abbreviated as a, s, c, and e. Accuracy of each land cover type modeled with SAR-based
observations only/ together with topographical factors is shown in (a) and (b),
respectively.................................................................................................................................. 99

Figure 3.5 Overall workflow of mapping and validating holistic (total + wet) Snow Cover Extent
(SCE) with SAR-based observations, topographical information, land cover information,
and Global SnowPack (GSP) daily snow cover information. ............................................. 100

Figure 3.6 Results of each model set built in each region: (a) Monte Rosa (MR), (b) Zugspitze
(ZG), (c) Mount Whitney (MW), (d) Landtang Lirung (LL), and (e) Aconcagua (AG); and
the five regions’ merging case (f). SAR-based observations including backscattering ratio,
InSAR coherence and PolSAR H/A/α parameters are abbreviated as B, I and P.
Topographical factors including aspect, slope, curvature, and elevation are abbreviated
as a, s, c, and e. ....................................................................................................................... 102

Figure 3.7 Each region’s land cover type’s accuracy comparison between training (first
hydrological year) and validation set (second hydrological year). Model built for each
region: (a) Monte Rosa (MR), (b) Zugspitze (ZG), (c) Mount Whitney (MW), (d) Landtang
Lirung (LL), and (e) Aconcagua (AG); and the five regions’ merging case (f). ................ 104

Figure 3.8 Fmask-based total snow cover extent classification derived from Landsat and
Sentinel-2 as well as true-color composites for each test site: (a) Monte Rosa (MR),
month 1 (Mar 23, 2018); (b) Monte Rosa, month 2 (May 18, 2018); (c) Zugspitze (ZG),
month 1 (Mar 25, 2018); (d) Zugspitze, month 2 (May 07, 2018); (e) Mount Whitney (MW),
month 1 (Mar 16, 2018); (f) Mount Whitney, month 2 (May 03, 2018); (g) Landtang Lirung
14
 List of Figures

(LL), month 1 (Mar 13, 2018); (h) Landtang Lirung, month 2 (May 16, 2018); (i)
Aconcagua (AG), month 1 (Jun 13, 2018); (j) Aconcagua, month 2 (May 04, 2018). .... 106

Figure 3.9 Location of meteorological stations in Monte Rosa (MR) and Zugspitze (ZG) regions.
.................................................................................................................................................... 108

Figure 3.10 Total and wet SCE of each region’s two months: (a) Monte Rosa (MR), month 1
(Mar 12, 2018); (b) Monte Rosa, month 2 (May 11, 2018); (c) Zugspitze (ZG), month 1
(Mar 14, 2018); (d) Zugspitze, month 2 (May 13, 2018); (e) Mount Whitney (MW), month
1 (Mar 04, 2018); (f) Mount Whitney, month 2 (May 03, 2018); (g) Landtang Lirung (LL),
month 1 (Feb28, 2018); (h) Landtang Lirung, month 2 (May 11, 2018); (i) Aconcagua
(AG), month 1 (Jun 10, 2018); (j) Aconcagua, month 2 (May 05, 2018). ......................... 109

Figure 3.11 The average importance of input variables for all five study regions. Blue and
green bars represent SAR-based observations and topographical factors, respectively.
.................................................................................................................................................... 111

Figure 3.12 Number of available observations for the ESA CCI land cover product (based on
the ESA CCI quality flag). (a) Monte Rosa (MR), (b) Zugspitze (ZG), (c) Mount Whitney
(MW), (d) Landtang Lirung (LL), (e) Aconcagua (AG), (f) global overview ...................... 113

Figure 3.13 Comparison of random forest models’ performance with different number of trees
(tested with Monte Rosa (MR)) region. ................................................................................. 119

Figure 4.1 Assessment of the influence of different input combinations on the performance of
the model for Monte Rosa (MR) region. Different classification accuracies based on
different input combinations are marked in different colors, and the accuracy for each
land cover class is marked in the same horizontal axis. SAR-based observations,
including backscatter, interferometric SAR (InSAR) coherence, and polarimetric (PolSAR)
H/A/α parameters are abbreviated as B, I, and P, respectively. Topographical factors,
including aspect, slope, curvature, and elevation are abbreviated as a, s, c, and e,
respectively. Two vegetation indexes and land surface temperature are abbreviated as
V2 and lst, respectively. Non-forest classes’ overall accuracy, F measure, and area under
the receiver operating characteristic curve are abbreviated as NF OA, NF F1, and NF
AUC, respectively. .................................................................................................................... 129

Figure 4.2 Overall workflow of mapping and validating holistic (total + wet) Snow Cover Extent
(SCE) with SAR-based observations, topographical factors, vegetation indexes,
temperature information, land cover information, and Global SnowPack (GSP) daily snow
cover information. Single look complex, ground range detected, shuttle radar topographic
mission digital elevation model, and land cover are abbreviated as SLC, GRD, SRTM
DEM, and LC, respectively. .................................................................................................... 131

Figure 4.3 The results of each model set built in each region: (a) Monte Rosa (MR); (b)
Zugspitze (ZG); (c) Mount Whitney (MW); (d) Landtang Lirung (LL); and (e) Aoraki (AK);
and the five regions’ merging case (f). Different classification accuracies based on

15
 List of Figures

different input combinations are marked in different colors, and the accuracy for each
land cover class is marked in the same horizontal axis. SAR-based observations,
including backscatter, interferometric SAR (InSAR) coherence, and polarimetric (PolSAR)
H/A/α parameters are abbreviated as B, I, and P, respectively. Topographical factors,
including aspect, slope, curvature, and elevation are abbreviated as a, s, c, and e,
respectively. Two vegetation indexes and land surface temperature are abbreviated as
V2 and lst, respectively. ........................................................................................................... 132

Figure 4.4 Confusion matrix of the accuracy assessment relying on optical-based snow cover
classifications of Landsat and Sentinel-2 for each test site. The assessment includes
classifications for months that were trained in the first year (month2) as well as those that
were not used in the training of the first year (month1). Overall accuracy (OA) and
F1-score are depicted under the respective confusion matrix. The temporal difference
(days) between SAR observation image and optical image used for validation is
mentioned on the upper-left corner of each confusion matrix. The summary of
improvement depicts the improvements achieved by adding vegetation indexes and
temperature information: OO for major improvement, O for slight improvement, - for no
change, X for slight degradation, and XX for major degradation. The confusion matrixes
marked in light and dark grey colors represent the results of using the present and
previous (Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz Andreas, et al., 2019b) variable combination, respectively.
.................................................................................................................................................... 134

Figure 4.5 Confusion matrix of (a) Monte Rosa (MR) and (b) Zugspitze (ZG) regions validated
with meteorological snow depth (SD) station data records of MeteoSwiss and European
Climate Assessment & Dataset Project (ECA&D), respectively. The summary of
improvement depicts the improvements achieved by adding vegetation indexes and
temperature information: OO for a major improvement, O for a slight improvement, - for
no change, X for a slight degradation, and XX for a major degradation. The confusion
matrixes marked in light and dark grey colors represent the results of using the present
and previous (Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz Andreas, et al., 2019b) variable combination,
respectively................................................................................................................................ 135

Figure 4.6 Total and wet SCE for each region’s two months: (a) Monte Rosa (MR), month 1
(Mar 24, 2018); (b) Monte Rosa, month 2 (May 23, 2018); (c) Zugspitze (ZG), month 1
(Mar 26, 2018); (d) Zugspitze, month 2 (May 13, 2018); (e) Mount Whitney (MW), month
1 (Mar 16, 2018); (f) Mount Whitney, month 2 (May 03, 2018); (g) Landtang Lirung (LL),
month 1 (Mar 12, 2018); (h) Landtang Lirung, month 2 (May 11, 2018); (i) Aoraki (AK),
month 1 (Jun 30, 2018); (j) Aoraki, month 2 (May 01, 2018). ............................................ 137

Figure 4.7 Reliability map with total SCE for each region’s two months: (a) Monte Rosa (MR),
month 1 (Mar 24, 2018); (b) Monte Rosa, month 2 (May 23, 2018); (c) Zugspitze (ZG),
month 1 (Mar 26, 2018); (d) Zugspitze, month 2 (May 13, 2018); (e) Mount Whitney (MW),
month 1 (Mar 16, 2018); (f) Mount Whitney, month 2 (May 03, 2018); (g) Landtang Lirung
(LL), month 1 (Mar 12, 2018); (h) Landtang Lirung, month 2 (May 11, 2018); (i) Aoraki

16
 List of Figures

(AK), month 1 (Jun 30, 2018); (j) Aoraki, month 2 (May 01, 2018). .................................. 138

Figure 4.8 Examination of the accuracy improvement benefits of employing (a) SAR local
incidence angle (LIA) and (b) Sentinel-2 multi-bands imagery on the performance of the
model for Monte Rosa (MR) region. Different classification accuracies based on different
input combinations are marked in different colors, and the accuracy for each land cover
class is marked in the same horizontal axis. SAR-based observations, including
backscatter, interferometric SAR (InSAR) coherence, and polarimetric (PolSAR) H/A/α
parameters are abbreviated as B, I, and P, respectively. Topographical factors, including
aspect, slope, curvature, and elevation are abbreviated as a, s, c, and e, respectively. Six
bands of Sentinel-2 imagery is abbreviated as 6bS2. ........................................................ 139

Figure 4.9 Assessment of the relationship between reliability and land cover class in each
region: (a) Monte Rosa (MR); (b) Zugspitze (ZG); (c) Mount Whitney (MW); (d) Landtang
Lirung (LL); and (e) Aoraki (AK). Densely, lightly, and non-vegetated land cover classes
are colored in deep green, light green, and light blue, respectively.................................. 140

Figure 4.10 Map of the modeled total SCE for the whole Alps including 2018/3/8-3/19,
2018/4/1-4/12, and 2018/4/25-5/6 based on Sentinel-1 SAR observations, topographical
factors, vegetation indexes, and temperature information. The total SCE for the different
dates are colored differently.................................................................................................... 142

Figure 5.1 The locations of the study areas with the Sentinel-3 altimetry satellite pass ground
tracks (dotted red lines) and the corresponding virtual stations (VSs) (green points). The
investigated water-covered extent (WCE) (black polygon) and the average
water-covered frequency of 2003 to 2018 derived from the Global WaterPack (GWP) are
illustrated. .................................................................................................................................. 151

Figure 5.2 The overall workflow of the present study, including the processing of the Sentinel-1
synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and Sentinel-3 altimetry data for deriving wet
snow-covered extent (WSCE), surface area, and water level. The water volume
estimated from polynomial fitting and integration is detrended by the Seasonal-trend
decomposition procedures based on Loess (STL). Together with the hydrological factors
derived from the ERA5-Land dataset, the distributed lag model (DLM) is eventually
conducted. ................................................................................................................................. 158

Figure 5.3 The time-series water level variation of Lake Urmia estimated with Sentinel-3. The
internal cross-comparison with different Sentinel-3 passes and the external comparison
with altimetry databases, including DAHITI and Hydroweb (based on Jason-3 altimetry),
are illustrated. The error bars represent the standard deviation of the water level among
the VSs. Note each of the variations is relative to each record’s average height in the
studying period. ........................................................................................................................ 159

Figure 5.4 The distributions of the backscatter coefficient and the decided Otsu’s threshold
values of the ascending and descending of Sentinel-1 SAR imagery for Lake Urmia
waterbody classification. ......................................................................................................... 160
17
 List of Figures

Figure 5.5 he internal cross-comparison of Lake Urmia’s surface area detected by ascending
and descending imagery of Sentinel-1, and the external comparison with the GWP
product. ...................................................................................................................................... 161

Figure 5.6 The hypsometry of Lake Urmia estimated by fitting the surface area detected by
ascending and descending Sentinel-1 SAR imagery and GWP product with water level
estimated by Sentinel-3 altimetry using third-order polynomial functions........................ 162

Figure 5.7 The detrended processing for Lake Urmia’s time-series water volume estimation
using the Seasonal-trend decomposition procedures based on Loess (STL). The
estimated trend value and the original/detrended water volume are illustrated with the
black, blue, and red line, respectively. .................................................................................. 163

Figure 5.8 The estimation of wet snow-covered extent (WSCE) percentage of Lake Urmia
watershed using ascending and descending Sentinel-1 SAR imagery. ........................... 164

Figure 5.9 The time-series detrended water volume of Lake Urmia and the WSCE% as well as
hydrological factors, including liquid rainfall and evapotranspiration. .............................. 164

Figure 5.10 The time-series water level of the Brahmaputra River estimated with Sentinel-3.
The internal cross-comparison with different Sentinel-3 passes and the external
comparison with altimetry databases are illustrated. Note the VS of each record is
different, so the magnitude of water level variation differ, while the similar trends are still
identifiable. ................................................................................................................................ 166

Figure 5.11 The estimation of wet snow-covered extent (WSCE) percentage of the
Brahmaputra River watershed using ascending and descending Sentinel-1 SAR imagery.
.................................................................................................................................................... 167

Figure 5.12 The time-series water level of the Brahmaputra River and the WSCE% as well as
hydrological factors, including liquid rainfall and evapotranspiration. .............................. 168

Figure 5.13 The distributions of the backscatter coefficient and the decided Otsu’s threshold
values of the ascending and descending of Sentinel-1 SAR imagery for mapping the
flooded area of the Brahmaputra River. ................................................................................ 169

Figure 5.14 The internal cross-comparison of the Brahmaputra River’s flooded area detected
by ascending and descending imagery of Sentinel-1 and the comparisons with the
time-series water level estimated by Sentinel-3 altimetry and the Sentinel-1 SAR-based
WSCE%. .................................................................................................................................... 170

Figure 5.15 The maximum (2019/8/9) and minimum (2018/12/12) flooded area of the
Brahmaputra River during the sensing period detected by the Sentinel-1 SAR imagery
using the decided Otsu’s threshold value. ............................................................................ 171

Figure 5.16 (a) The comparison of the surface area of Lake Urmia detected by Sentinel-1 SAR
imagery and the GWP product, and the same date high-resolution Sentinel-2 imagery.
The mean rainfall volume is plotted in (b) to identify the dry season, with the lake water
18
 List of Figures

depletion periods marked in blue boxes. The date which shows lake disconnection in
GWP is marked with black points in (b). ............................................................................... 173

Figure 5.17 The relationship of SAR-based wet snow detection and the snowmelt processing
(modified from (Marin et al., 2019)). The amount of liquid water content (LWC), snow
water equivalent (SWE), and the released snowmelt runoff together with the SAR signal
backscatter coefficient in different snowmelt phases are illustrated. ................................ 176

19
 List of Tables

List of Tables
Table 2.1 Comparison of SAR and optical/multispectral sensors regarding their ability to detect
snow cover. ................................................................................................................................. 38

Table 2.2 Effects of wet and dry snow on the SAR signal based on the snow physiology. “+”
refers to positive correlation, “-“ to negative correlation. The number in brackets refers to
the reference number. ............................................................................................................... 40

Table 2.3 Overall comparison of the three mainstream SAR-based snow cover detection
approaches. ................................................................................................................................ 60

Table 2.4 The summary of included studies’ SCE monitoring strategy (targeted snow type,
classification method and data synergy). ............................................................................... 71

Table 2.5 Summary of included studies’ SCE monitoring strategy (studying region type,
validation data and usage of land cover information). .......................................................... 75

Table 2.6 The PolSAR decomposition techniques and parameters employed in the included
studies. ......................................................................................................................................... 81

Table 3.1 Attributes of five selected study areas along with their location, mountain range,
country, and their highest peak. ............................................................................................... 88

Table 3.2 Summary of the SAR data (Sentinel-1) and optical data (Sentinel-2, S2; Landsat-7/8,
L7/8) used for training and validation set of this study. Note: reference image of each
region for calculating wet snow cover extent (SCE) is marked with an asterisk (*); optical
images employed in validation set are included in brackets after the used SAR image
dates. ........................................................................................................................................... 90

Table 3.3 Confusion matrix of the accuracy assessment relying on optical-based snow cover
classifications of Landsat and Sentinel-2 for each test site. The assessment includes
classifications for months that were trained in the first year (month2) as well as those that
were not used in the training of the first year (month1). Overall Accuracy (OA) and
F1-score are depicted under the respective confusion matrix........................................... 106

Table 3.4 Confusion matrix of Monte Rosa (MR) and Zugspitze (ZG) regions validated with
meteorological snow depth (SD) station data records of MeteoSwiss and European
Climate Assessment & Dataset Project (ECA&D), respectively. ....................................... 108

Table 3.5 Re-classification of ESA CCI land cover product. ........................................................ 118

Table 4.1 Attributes of the five selected study areas including Monte Rosa (MR), Zugspitze
(ZG), Mount Whitney (MW), Landtang Lirung (LL), and Aoraki (AK) with their location,
mountain range, country, and the highest peak. .................................................................. 123

Table 4.2 Summary of the SAR data (Sentinel-1) and optical data (Sentinel-2, S2; Landsat-7/8,
L7/8) used in the training and validation set. Note: reference image of each region for
calculating the wet snow cover extent (SCE) is marked with an asterisk (*); optical
20
 List of Tables

images employed in validation set are included in brackets below the used SAR image
dates. ......................................................................................................................................... 124

Table 4.3 Attributes of input data with their source, spatial and temporal resolution. .............. 126

Table 5.1 The summaries of distributed lag model (DLM) analysis of Lake Urmia and the
Brahmaputra River. .................................................................................................................. 165

Table 5.2 The comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of using SAR and the
multi-spectral sensor for waterbody detection. .................................................................... 174

21
 Abbreviations and Acronyms

Abbreviations and Acronyms

ALOS Advanced Land Observation Satellite
ALT Active Layer Thickness
AMI Active Microwave Instrumentation
AO Arctic Oscillation
ARDL Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model
ASI Italian Space Agency
ASTER Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer
AVHRR Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer
AWEI Automated Water Extraction Index
BRAT Multi-Mission Radar Altimetry Toolbox
CCI+ Climate Change Initiative Extension
CoReH2O Cold Region Hydrology High-resolution Observatory
CSA Canadian Space Agency
CSK COSMO-SkyMed
DAAD German Academic Exchange Service
DAHITI Database for Hydrological Time Series of Inland Waters
DEM Digital Elevation Model
DERD Double-bounce Eigenvalue Relative Difference
DL Deep Learning
DLM Distributed Lag Model
DLR German Aerospace Center
DN Digital Numbers
DoP Degree of Polarization
ECA&D European Climate Assessment & Dataset Project
ECMWF European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
ECV Essential Climate Variables
EM Electromagnetic
ENL Effective Number of Looks
ESA European Space Agency
FAO Food and Agriculture Organization
FDL Finite Distributed Model
FVC Fractional Vegetation Cover
GCOS Global Climate Observing System
GEE Google Earth Engine
GLWD Global Lakes and Wetlands Database
G-POD Grid Processing On Demand
GRD Ground Range Detected
GRDC Global Runoff Data Center
G-REALM Global Reservoir and Lake Global Reservoir and Lake Monitor
GSP Global SnowPack
GWP Global WaterPack
HPR Higher Posting Rate
22
 Abbreviations and Acronyms

InSAR Interferometric SAR

IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
ITSDA Information Theoretic Snow Detection Algorithm
IW Interferometric Wide Swath
LA Lüneburg Anisotropy
LAI Leaf Area Index
LCCS Land Cover Classification System
LIA Local Incidence Angle
Lidar Light Detection and Ranging
LRM Low-resolution Mode
LRP Long-run Propensity
LST Land Surface Temperature
LWC Liquid Water Content
MeteoSwiss Swiss Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology
ML Machine Learning
MODFLOW Modular Three-dimensional Finite-difference Ground-water Flow Model
MODIS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
NAO North Atlantic Oscillation
NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NDSI Normalized Difference Snow Index
NDWI Normalized Difference Water Index
NSIDC National Snow and Ice Data Center
NTC Non Time Critical
OA Overall Accuracy
OLS Ordinary Least Squares
OOB Out-of-bag
PA Polarimetric Asymmetry
PCVE Polarimetric Contrast Variation Enhancement
PF Polarization Fraction
POE Probability of Error
PolInSAR Polarimetric Interferometric SAR
PolSAR Polarimetric SAR
PPD Polarimetric Copolarization Phase Difference
PRF Pulse Repetition Frequency
RF Random Forest
ROC Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve
ROS Rain-on-snow
RSI Radar Snow Index
RVI Radar Vegetation Index
SAR Synthetic Aperture Radar
SARvatore SAR Versatile Altimetric Toolkit for Ocean Research & Exploitation
SCD Snow Cover Duration
SCE Snow Cover Extent

23
 Abbreviations and Acronyms

SD Snow Depth
SDGs Sustainable Development Goals
SEN4SCI Sentinel for Science
SERD Single-bounce Eigenvalue Relative Difference
SLC Single Look Complex
SNAP Sentinel Application Platform
SnowEx Snow Experiment
SnowPEx Satellite Snow Product Intercomparison and Evaluation Exercise
SNR Signal-to-noise
SRAL SAR Radar Altimeter
SRTM Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission
STL Seasonal-trend Decomposition Procedures Based on Loess
SVM Support Vector Machine
SWE Snow Water Equivalent
TKK Helsinki University of Technology
TomoSAR Tomographic SAR
TOPS Terrain Observation with Progressive Scans in Azimuth
UN United Nations
UNEP United Nations Environment Programme
VS Virtual Station
VWC Volume Water Content
WCE Water-covered Extent
WSCE Wet Snow Cover Extent
WWDR World Water Development Report

24
 1 Introduction

1 Introduction
1.1. Research background and motivation
Snow plays an indispensable role in both, natural systems’ balances and human
socio-economic activities owing to its wide spatial coverage as well as its unique
geophysical characteristics. According to previous studies (Pepe et al., 2005; Lemke
et al., 2007; Kerr et al., 2018), snow covers approximately 47 million km2 or around
40% of the northern hemisphere during the wintertime. Together with the distinct
characteristics of snow including high thermal emissivity, low thermal conductivity,
high albedo, and low surface roughness, snow acts as an unneglectable factor in the
balance of global energy, climate variation, ecology, cryosphere, water resources, and
economic activity.

Global energy balance

Compared to most land surfaces having an albedo in the range between 0.1 and 0.3,
fresh snow has an albedo between 0.8 and 0.9 (Barry, 1996). Therefore, snow reflects
a much larger proportion of solar radiation and thus influences the regional and global
energy balance (Serreze et al., 2000; Barnett et al., 2005; Déry and Brown, 2007;
Armstrong and Brun, 2008; Barry and Chorley, 2009). In total, snow reflects around
85% of the incoming shortwave solar radiation back into space (Warren, 1982;
Perovich et al., 2002), especially in Alaska, Siberia, and northern Canada (Flanner et
al., 2011), which largely regulates the energy balance of the Earth. Moreover, in the
wintertime, the low thermal conductivity of snow insulates the ground surface and thus
preserves the energy and moisture in the near-surface layers (Callaghan, Johansson,
Brown, Groisman, Labba, Radionov, et al., 2011).

Climate variations

Snow-albedo feedback is regarded as one of the key mechanisms in the global

climate system (Hall, 2004) as snow increases the surface albedo and thus reduces
surface temperature (Scherrer and Appenzeller, 2006). In addition to its direct effect
on soil temperature (Lawrence and Slater, 2010), studies found the evident
relationship between Eurasian snow cover and atmospheric circulation patterns
including Arctic Oscillation (AO), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) (Gutzler and Rosen,
1992; Clark and Serreze, 2000; Allen and Zender, 2010; Cohen et al., 2012) as well
as the Asian monsoon (Hahn and Shukla, 1976; Yang, 1996; Peings and Douville,
2010; Saha et al., 2013; Xiao and Duan, 2016).

Ecological systems

Snow is identified as the single most critical factor influencing the biological
environment in both arctic and alpine regions (Billings and Bliss, 1959; Walker et al.,
1993; Callaghan, Johansson, Brown, Groisman, Labba, and Radionov, 2011). On the
one hand, during wintertime, the snowpack acts as a shelter from the harsh

25
 1 Introduction

environment exposing to low temperature, frost or abrasion by wind-brought ice

particles (Björk and Molau, 2007; Niittynen et al., 2018), and provides a warmer soil
temperature and sustains microbial nutrient (Tan et al., 2014; Paradis et al., 2016). On
the other hand, snow increases the plant photosynthesis (Bosiö et al., 2014) and
supplies sufficient meltwater in spring/summer which facilitates the growth of
vegetation(Olsen et al., 2011). Consequently, snow-covered regions usually hold the
greatest diversity of species (Virtanen et al., 2003). Snow is also found to affect the
phenology, behavior, and mortality of species (Madsen et al., 2007; Teja et al., 2020).

Cryospheric interactions

Snow has strong interactions with other cryospheric components (Vaughan et al.,
2013). Snowfall controls the equilibrium of glacier dynamics, and snowmelt water is
the dominating factor affecting subglacial drainage systems (Decaux et al., 2019;
Uszczyk et al., 2019) as well as the water storage of firn (Parry et al., 2007). Snow
also influences both, the radiative and physical properties of the sea ice environment
(Webster et al., 2018). The high albedo of snow affects the thermodynamic processes
of sea ice and the growth rate of ice thickness (Shine and Henderson‐Sellers, 1985;
Ebert and Curry, 1993; Yang Y. et al., 2012; Holland and Landrum, 2015). Additionally,
owing to the effective thermal insulation characteristics of snow, snow cover is
regarded as one of the most critical factors affecting the thermal regime of permafrost
(Zhang, 2005; Magnin et al., 2017; Zhao et al., 2018). Due to the insulation of snow, a
temperature offset between air and soil is found in wintertime, which delays the
thawing and reduces the variation magnitude of active layer thickness (ALT) caused
by a changing air temperature (Stieglitz et al., 2003; Harris et al., 2009; Pogliotti et al.,
2015; Magnin et al., 2017; Oliva et al., 2017; Beniston et al., 2018). Moreover, the
snowmelt water would also change the thermal status of soil which alters the
dynamics of permafrost (Romanovsky and Osterkamp, 2000).

Socio-economic influence

The stability of annual snow cover variation is linked to a wide range of

socio-economic activities (Euskirchen et al., 2013). For instance, the operational
period of artic road networks depends on snow cover duration, which provides a
cost-efficient transportation between settlements in polar regions (Furgal and Prowse,
2008); snow anomalies and the resultant loading weight change, as well as
temperature variation relate to possible damages to forest industry (Kilpeläinen et al.,
2010; Callaghan, Johansson, Brown, Groisman, Labba, Radionov, et al., 2011); snow
distribution and snow cover duration affect the accessibility and operational period of
outdoor/ski recreation industries and winter tourism (Burakowski and Magnusson,
2012; Steiger and Abegg, 2013; Schmucki et al., 2017); indigenous cultures, resource
use, and daily life rely on snow conditions (Curtis et al., 2005; Callaghan, Johansson,
Brown, Groisman, Labba, Radionov, et al., 2011). Moreover, snow cover and
snowmelt can also lead to disasters including floods/droughts and avalanches (Fang
26
 1 Introduction

et al., 2014; Favier et al., 2014; Ancey and Bain, 2015).

Water resources

The importance of springtime snowmelt water to global water resources is

tremendous (Barnett et al., 2005; Chen et al., 2017; Grünewald et al., 2018; Wu et al.,
2018; Armstrong et al., 2019). Since half of the global precipitation events are either
snow or stem from melting snow (Field and Heymsfield, 2015), around 17% of the
world population rely on snowmelt water for daily consumption and agricultural
irrigation (Barnett et al., 2005). The value of snow on alpine and arctic water
resources is even more crucial. More than 50% of precipitation in mountainous
regions is falling as snow in Norway, the Tibet region, the Alps, and also the northern
and western United States (Romanov et al., 2000; Serreze et al., 2001; Weingartner
et al., 2003; Malnes et al., 2004; Barnett et al., 2005; Solberg et al., 2005; Dedieu et
al., 2012; Li et al., 2017; Han et al., 2019); in northern Siberia and America,
snowmelt-generated runoff accounts for 75% of total annual flow (Woo, 1980).
Snowmelt water affects the runoff regimes of downstream regions not only in terms of
water amount but also in distribution, quality, and seasonality (Barnett et al., 1989;
Beniston et al., 2011; Schöber et al., 2014; Singh et al., 2014; Huss et al., 2017).
Furthermore, snowmelt water is commonly used for hydropower production
(Armstrong and Brun, 2008; Voigt et al., 2010; Callaghan, Johansson, Brown,
Groisman, Labba, Radionov, et al., 2011; Kobierska et al., 2013; Mo et al., 2018).

Based on the influences mentioned above and interactions between snow and
various systems, it is known that snow cover has a critical role in each natural and
environmental system. Nevertheless, due to the rising temperature caused by global
warming, a significant decrease in SCE has been shown globally in both,
observations and models (Dye, 2002; Jylhä et al., 2008; Brown et al., 2010; McCabe
and Wolock, 2010; Brown and Robinson, 2011; Derksen and Brown, 2012; Kunkel et
al., 2016; Najafi et al., 2016; Hori et al., 2017; Mudryk et al., 2017; Notarnicola, 2020),
which was also reported in the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (Pachauri et al., 2014). Hence,
snow is identified as a critical climate variable within the Global Climate Observing
System (GCOS) (GCOS, 2011).

Since the decrease of SCE reduces global surface albedo, which in turn increases the
absorbed solar radiation, global warming and the resultant snowmelt processes would
eventually be accelerated (Steffen, 1995; Armstrong and Brodzik, 2002; Dankers and
De Jong, 2004; Scherrer et al., 2012; Kevin et al., 2017). This positive feedback-led
acceleration is of even greater severity in alpine and arctic regions owing to the
temperature amplification (Serreze and Francis, 2006; Rauscher et al., 2008; Day,
2009; Clow, 2010; Stocker et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2014; Pepin et al., 2015; Beniston
et al., 2018). According to Notarnicola (2020), around 80% of the global mountain
regions experienced a decline in snow cover from 2000 to 2018. Moreover, on a
27
 1 Introduction

global scale, winter precipitation has been shifting from snow to rainfall (Knowles et al.,
2006; McCabe and Wolock, 2010; Szczypta et al., 2015). These two climate
change-caused climate pattern alterations largely endanger the water resources of
the countless populations relying on snowmelt water (Nijssen et al., 2001; Barnett et
al., 2005; Adam et al., 2009; Schlaepfer et al., 2012), since mountainous regions are
the primary water source for various river/lake systems (Beniston et al., 1997) and the
decreased and earlier snowmelt water would reduce the usable runoff during the high
water demanding growing season especially in the mid-latitude arid regions (Cayan et
al., 2010; Seager and Vecchi, 2010; Biemans et al., 2019). Therefore, the strategy of
water resource management and socio-economic development are negatively
affected (Stewart et al., 2004; Barnett et al., 2005; Wang and Li, 2006; Butt and Bilal,
2011; Harma et al., 2012; Wu et al., 2018; Biemans et al., 2019).

1.2. Literature gaps and research objectives

In order to understand the interaction between snow cover and inland water resources,
following goals must be fulfilled: (1) continuous monitoring of snow cover extent as
well as snowmelt conditions, (2) continuous tracking of water resources variations of
snowmelt-dominated waterbodies, and (3) analyzing the influence of snow cover
dynamics and snowmelt conditions on inland water resources. For each point,
previous studies have certain limitations and gaps which are the aims of this thesis.
The current literature gaps together with the research objectives of the present thesis
are summarized as follows:

Objective 1: Reviewing the characteristics of SAR and its interactions

with snow, and exploring the trends, difficulties, and opportunities of
existing SAR-based SCE mapping studies

Although there have been several SCE mapping projects relying on remote sensing
including the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Satellite Snow Product
Intercomparison and Evaluation Exercise (SnowPEx) (Metsämäki et al., 2017) and
the German Aerospace Center’s (DLR) Global SnowPack (Dietz et al., 2015), they
utilize multi-spectral sensors which are inevitably affected by cloud cover as well as
polar darkness. Nevertheless, snow is usually located in high altitude and high latitude
regions where cloud cover and polar darkness restrict the number of available optical
satellite acquisitions. Consequently, continuous SCE estimation can only be fulfilled
with spatial and temporal interpolations which cannot reveal true SCE conditions.

On the contrary, SAR has all-weather as well as day-and-night sensing abilities, which
overcome the limitations of conventional multi-spectral sensors. Since the launch of
the first continuously revisiting spaceborne SAR satellite, i.e., ERS-1 in 1991, there
have been various studies that explored the benefits of using SAR for SCE mapping.
Yet, no comprehensive review has been conducted to discuss the unique interactions
between SAR signal and snowpack and to review the current techniques used to
detect SCE with SAR imagery.
28
 1 Introduction

Hence, this thesis firstly investigates the background theory of using SAR imagery to
detect snow, and holistically examines the SAR imagery analysis approaches
together with commonly employed auxiliary data used in previous studies and
investigates their advantages and restrictions. Furthermore, the advancement and
trends of SAR design and SCE mapping algorithms, as well as current limitations and
future opportunities are identified to reveal remaining research gaps.

Objective 2: Proposing a novel total and wet SCE mapping strategy

based on freely accessible SAR imagery with all land cover classes
applicability and global transferability
Based on the research gaps identified in the review paper, it is found that utilizing
SAR imagery for SCE mapping is still at a developing stage. Previous SAR-based
SCE detecting studies have at least one of the following limitations: (1) geological
aspect: only focus on and test the algorithms in the Asian Himalaya and European
Alps; (2) spatial aspect: only process at a small regional scale; (3) SAR imagery
analysis algorithm: only detect wet SCE with a backscatter-threshold approach; (4)
land cover aspect: rarely consider land cover information in the algorithm itself, or
simply mask out the forest region; (5) classification algorithm: only employ
classification algorithms which require complex tuning and have limited data handling
capacities; (6) validation: seldomly validate their estimated SCE with in-situ or
different remote sensing-based SCE results. These constraints largely limit the
transferability of existing SAR-based SCE detection algorithms as practically they are
often not operated on forested regions, or they can only detect wet snow.

Therefore, this thesis explores the potential of fusing different SAR-based

informations together with topographical factors as well as land cover information to
detect total and wet SCE. The detected SCE is planned to be comprehensively
validated based on in-situ and reference datasets originating from multispectral data
sources. Moreover, since only openly accessible datasets with global coverage are
employed and five study areas located in different mountain ranges with different land
cover conditions are selected for testing, the robustness and universal transferability
of the proposed holistic SCE mapping method can be examined.

Objective 3: Enhancing total SCE mapping accuracy by fusing SAR- and

multi-spectral sensor-based information, and providing total SCE
mapping reliability map information

In the previous method paper, a globally transferable, freely accessible data-only, all
land cover class-applicable total and wet SCE mapping strategy utilizing only
SAR-based observations as well as topographical factors and land cover information
with satisfying classifying accuracy is proposed. Nevertheless, since it is found that
densely vegetated regions tend to show a lower SCE mapping accuracy, the further
exploration of employing quantitative vegetation indexes should be considered.
Moreover, as previous studies suggest the merit of using ground temperature
29
 1 Introduction

information for SCE detection, the multi-spectral sensor-derived surface temperature

product is also included. In addition, since previous studies provide no uncertainty
information along with the estimated SCE, this thesis aims to generate a classification
reliability map. It enables the further analysis of the influences of different land cover
classes on the total SCE mapping reliability. Similar as for the previously proposed
method, different study areas located in different continents and hemispheres are
selected and results are validated comprehensively to attest the universal applicability
and robustness.

Objective 4: Proposing a cloud-free and illumination-independent inland

waterbody dynamics tracking strategy using freely accessible datasets
and services

To quantify the influence of snow cover dynamics as well as snowmelt conditions on

inland water resources, it is necessary to firstly track the variation of inland waterbody
dynamics. Previous studies focus on either water level or surface area. For tracking
water surface area, multi-spectral sensor-based band ratio water indexes are
commonly employed. However, in addition to the difficulty of selecting the optimized
band composition, these indexes are inevitably affected by cloud cover as well as
noise caused by the variation of atmospheric, illumination, and water conditions. On
the other hand, for water level tracking, current studies utilize the measurements of
in-situ gauging stations, yet the installation of instruments is not universally possible
and the data might not be publically available.

Thus, this thesis employs the new generation of high-resolution, freely accessible
spaceborne SAR and altimetry data, together with freely available online cloud-based
processing services to achieve a holistic, cloud-free and illumination-independent
inland waterbody dynamics tracking strategy with broad applicability and high
efficiency. Furthermore, by integrating estimated water level and surface area
information, the hypsometry and water volume variation of lakes as well as flooded
area and water level variation of rivers can be estimated.

Objective 5: Assessing the influence of snowmelt conditions on inland

water resources

To unbiasedly quantify the influence of snowmelt conditions on inland water resource

variations, it is essential to include other hydrological factors which can also alter the
water amount of rivers and lakes. Nevertheless, since these hydrological factors and
snowmelt conditions not only are correlated but also post different lagged influences
on downstream water level/volume, the conventional regression approach cannot
correctly assess the causal effects of snowmelt conditions. Consequently, the
sophisticated regression approach which is capable of handling multiple variables’
dynamic influences with lags should be employed. Thus, in this thesis, the causal
effect of wet SCE mapped with SAR imagery on the variation of inland water
resources estimated by spaceborne SAR and altimetry can be unbiasedly assessed.
30
 1 Introduction

Therefore, cryo-hydrosphere interactions can be eventually identified.

1.3. Structure of the thesis

This thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter one provides an overview of the research
background and motivations. In addition, the literature gaps of previous studies and
the corresponding research objectives of the thesis are introduced. The structure of
the thesis is also described.

Chapter two reviews the characteristics of SAR and its interactions with the snowpack
and summarizes existing SAR-based SCE detection studies. A comprehensive
discussion of limitations, opportunities, and developing trajectory of the topic is also
provided. This chapter is published as:

Tsai, Y.-L.S., Dietz, A., Oppelt, N., & Kuenzer, C. (2019). Remote Sensing of Snow
Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review. Remote Sensing, 11, 1456

Chapter three describes the proposed novel SAR-based total and wet SCE mapping
approach, including detailed methodological descriptions, results, and validations.
Further discussions including the reason for inhomogeneous mapping accuracies, the
influence of vegetation, as well as the achieved improvements are provided. This
chapter is published as:

Tsai, Y.-L.S., Dietz, A., Oppelt, N., & Kuenzer, C. (2019). Wet and Dry Snow Detection
Using Sentinel-1 SAR Data for Mountainous Areas with a Machine Learning
Technique. Remote Sensing, 11, 895

Chapter four provides the descriptions of the improved total SCE mapping approach
by employing the extra ground surface temperature information and vegetation
indexes. The influences of different inputs on classification accuracy and the effect of
different land cover classes on classification reliability are also discussed. This
chapter is published as:

Tsai, Y.-L.S., Dietz, A., Oppelt, N., & Kuenzer, C. (2019). A Combination of
PROBA-V/MODIS-based Products with Sentinel-1 SAR Data for Detecting Wet and
Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas. Remote Sensing, 11, 1904

Chapter five utilizes the SAR-based snow cover dynamics to assess the causal effect
of snowmelt conditions on inland water resources. The methods of measuring water
level and surface area based on altimetry and SAR respectively are described. The
surveyed results together with the discussions including the cause of the different
lagged effects of snow on water resources are provided. This chapter is published as:

Tsai, Y.-L.S., Klein, I., Dietz, A. and Oppelt, N. (2020). Monitoring Large-scale Inland
Water Dynamics by Fusing Sentinel-1 SAR and Sentinel-3 Altimetry Data and by
Analyzing Causal Effects of Snowmelt. Remote Sensing, 12, 3896

In the end, chapter six presents a synthesis of the main achievements and
31
 1 Introduction

contributions to previous research gaps. The overall conclusions as well as the future
opportunities and challenges are elaborated as well.

32
 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A

Review
Tsai, Y.-L.S., Dietz, A., Oppelt, N., & Kuenzer, C. (2019). Remote Sensing of
Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review. Remote Sensing, 11, 1456

Abstract
The importance of snow cover extent (SCE) has been proven to strongly link with
various natural phenomenon and human activities; consequently, monitoring snow
cover is one the most critical topics in studying and understanding the cryosphere. As
snow cover can vary significantly within short time spans and often extends over vast
areas, spaceborne remote sensing constitutes an efficient observation technique to
track it continuously. However, as optical imagery is limited by cloud cover and polar
darkness, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) attracted more attention for its ability to
sense day-and-night under any cloud and weather condition. In addition to widely
applied backscattering-based method, thanks to the advancements of spaceborne
SAR sensors and image processing techniques, many new approaches based on
interferometric SAR (InSAR) and polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) have been developed
since the launch of ERS-1 in 1991 to monitor snow cover under both dry and wet
snow conditions. Critical auxiliary data including DEM, land cover information, and
local meteorological data have also been explored to aid the snow cover analysis.
This review presents an overview of existing studies and discusses the advantages,
constraints, and trajectories of the current developments.

Keywords: Synthetic Aperture Radar; Backscattering; InSAR; PolSAR; Snow

Classification; Wet Snow; Cryosphere; Data Fusion; Machine Learning

2.1. Introduction
Snow covered areas influence the global radiation balance, groundwater, runoff,
glaciers, flora and fauna, and human activities such as tourism, civil engineering, and
infrastructure. Within all cryospheric components, snow covers the widest area:
During the wintertime, more than 40% of the northern hemisphere is covered by snow
(Pepe et al., 2005; Lemke et al., 2007; Kerr et al., 2018). As a result of its multiple
influences on the environment, snow cover is addressed in the Fifth Assessment
Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and is
identified as a critical climate variable within the Global Climate Observing System
(GCOS) (GCOS, 2011). Several snow cover projects relying on remote sensing have
been conducted in recent years, including the European Space Agency (ESA)’s
Satellite Snow Product Intercomparison and Evaluation Exercise (SnowPEx)
33
 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

(Metsämäki et al., 2017), the German Aerospace Center (DLR)’s Global SnowPack
(Dietz et al., 2015), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s
Snow Experiment (SnowEx) (Kim E. et al., 2017), and the ongoing ESA’s Let It Snow
project (Manuel et al., 2016) as well as new Climate Change Initiative Extension
(CCI+) Essential Climate Variables (ECV) mission (Trofaier, 2018). Figure 2.1 gives
an overview of some of the aspects related to snow cover, and also illustrates some of
the more variable snow cover characteristics such as liquid water content, grain size,
density, and snow water equivalent (SWE).

Snow cover reflects incoming solar radiation, as fresh snow normally has an albedo
between 0.8 and 0.9 while most land surfaces have an albedo ranging between 0.1
and 0.3 (Barry, 1996); therefore, snow influences the regional and global energy
balance (Serreze et al., 2000; Barnett et al., 2005; Barry and Chorley, 2009). A
decrease in snow cover extent (SCE) and duration leads to a reduced albedo of the
land surface, which increases the warming process and further accelerates the
snowmelt process (Steffen, 1995; Armstrong and Brodzik, 2002; Dankers and De
Jong, 2004; Scherrer et al., 2012; Kevin et al., 2017). Additionally, snow cover affects
the conditions and spatial distribution of other cryosphere components (Vaughan et al.,
2013): Snow is a prerequisite for temperate glaciers, controlling their equilibrium. The
high albedo of snow preserves the retention of sea and lake ice and also influences
the growth rate of ice thickness due to thermodynamic processes (freezing and
melting) and snow types (dry or wet) (Shine and Henderson‐Sellers, 1985; Ebert and
Curry, 1993; Yang Y. et al., 2012). Snow also interacts with permafrost due to its
thermal insulation characteristic, which reduces the scale of variation of active layer
thickness (ALT) caused by air temperature changing (Stieglitz et al., 2003; Pogliotti et
al., 2015; Beniston et al., 2018). Consequently, snow cover is regarded as one of the
most critical factors affecting the thermal regime of permafrost (Magnin et al., 2017;
Zhao et al., 2018).

In addition, snow cover directly affects ecology and the socioeconomic system.
Studies suggested that water originating from snowmelt dominates the runoff regimes
of downstream regions not only in terms of water amount but also in distribution,
quality, and seasonality (Barnett et al., 1989; Beniston et al., 2011; Schöber et al.,
2014; Singh et al., 2014; Huss et al., 2017). Therefore it also controls the available
water resources for the inhabiting population. More than 50% of precipitation in
mountainous regions is falling as snow in Norway, the French Alps, and also the
northern and western United States (Romanov et al., 2000; Serreze et al., 2001;
Weingartner et al., 2003; Barnett et al., 2005; Solberg et al., 2005; Dedieu et al., 2012).
Moreover, snow cover and snowmelt in particular can also lead to natural disasters
such as floods or avalanches (or in the absence of snow: Droughts). In order to
identify possible flood events, detecting the onset of snowmelt in time is necessary
(Mock and Birkeland, 2000; Pielke et al., 2005; Kvambekk and Melvold, 2010; Favier
et al., 2014; Ancey and Bain, 2015). Furthermore, snow cover is also an important
34
 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

aspect for winter tourism (Steiger and Abegg, 2013; Schmucki et al., 2017).

Figure 2.1 Illustration of different snow types and snow line (deep blue font), the
importance of snow (black font), synthetic aperture radar (SAR)-related
characteristics (font in italics), factors influence snow (green font) and snowpack
parameters (red font).

Due to global warming, a significant decrease in spring SCE has been shown in both
observations and models (Dye, 2002; Jylhä et al., 2008; Brown et al., 2010; McCabe
and Wolock, 2010; Brown and Robinson, 2011; Najafi et al., 2016; Hori et al., 2017),
and recorded in the Synthesis Report of IPCC AR5 (Pachauri et al., 2014). Climate
change influences the global snow cover spatial extent as well as the duration.
Beniston et al. (2018) concluded that temperature increase as well as large-scale
atmospheric patterns is the most influencing factors changing global snow cover.
Snow cover onset and melt dates are shifting, generally leading to shorter snow cover
seasons with later onset and earlier melt (Marty et al., 2017) although these general
patterns can vary on a regional scale (Bulygina et al., 2011; Dietz et al., 2014). On a
global scale, winter precipitation has been shifting from snow to rainfall, which is
particularly evident in regions with a more maritime climate (McCabe and Wolock,
2010). In mountain regions, the effects of climate change on snow cover are even
more significant, leading to an apparent decrease of SCE and duration (Dyrrdal et al.,
2013; Terzago et al., 2013; Beniston et al., 2018). Studies predicted that in the highest
altitudes of the European Alps, SWE may be reduced to less than 20% of the present
level by 2100 and that they may become totally snow-free in summertime
(Magnusson et al., 2010; Schmucki et al., 2015). As a result of all these aspects,
35
 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

continuously monitoring of snow cover is crucial.

Considering the wide areal coverage, temporal variability, inaccessibility and remote
location of many snow covered regions, remote sensing is an ideal data acquisition
technique for monitoring snow cover and its trends and developments on both spatial
and temporal scales. Although the utilization of optical/multispectral remote sensing
data for monitoring SCE has a long history compared to synthetic aperture radar
(SAR) data (König et al., 2001; Dietz et al., 2012), as data from optical sensors can be
affected by cloud cover as well as (polar) darkness, spaceborne SAR data offers a
valuable alternative for monitoring snow cover as it is independent from clouds and
illumination conditions. Due to the availability of new SAR satellites during the recent
decades together with the developments of the SAR-based SCE detection algorithms,
more studies have tried to detect SCE based on SAR imagery instead of optical
sensors. However, there has been no comprehensive discussion of current
SAR-based SCE detection approaches’ theories, technical limitations, critical auxiliary
data, and the so far developing trajectory as well as future possibilities. Thus, in the
following sections we therefore summarize the currently available techniques to
detect snow cover utilizing SAR data and thoroughly compare their advantages and
drawbacks.

2.2. Characteristics of Snow and SAR

2.2.1. SAR Sensor Characteristics

Radar remote sensing is an active sensing approach, which transmits

electromagnetic (EM) radiation with wavelengths between 0.3 to 0.01 m and senses
their echoes from the Earth surface (Wiley, 1985; Bruder, 2013). The spatial resolution
of the acquired imagery is approximately equal to one-half the length of the actual
antenna and is independent from platform altitude (Chan and Koo, 2008). Comparing
to other contemporary active spaceborne sensors such as scatterometers, SAR is
therefore able to monitor with higher spatial resolution and thus preserves more
ground surface details.

Due to its active and relatively long wavelength characteristics, SAR does not rely on
solar illumination and can therefore operate both day and night. SAR can also
penetrate clouds, enabling measurements of the surface under all weather and
illumination conditions. These abilities are particularly valuable when it comes to snow
cover monitoring, as snow-covered alpine regions are often covered by clouds and
high latitudes regions are affected by polar darkness during winter (Bartsch et al.,
2007). Furthermore, longer wavelengths of SAR can penetrate into the snowpack
(Campbell, 2002), potentially providing information about snowpack conditions such
as snow grain size and SWE (liquid/frozen water content), and can even penetrate the
frozen layer on the top surface of snow (Floricioiu and Rott, 2001).

Owing to the unique sensing characteristics of SAR, the snow information recorded in

36
 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

SAR imagery is fundamentally different when compared to optical/multispectral

imagery. The former records surface characteristics related to the roughness and
dielectric properties; the latter records the reflection/absorption of the incoming solar
irradiation at the top layer of the surface (Solberg, Koren, et al., 2010). As snow, ice,
and clouds are characterized by comparatively similar reflection properties in the
visible and—depending on the cloud phase—the near to medium infrared part of the
spectrum, confusions can occur when attempting to classify snow cover and
discriminate it from ice or clouds (Harrison and Lucas, 1989; Macander et al., 2015).
SAR sensors can overcome this ambiguity as they measure surface properties in a
different realm in terms of a backscatter coefficient, which is a function of the
wavelength of the SAR signal, and the roughness and dielectric properties of the
surface rather than the reflection properties.

An additional advantage of SAR sensors is derived from the phase information they
record. Different polarizations (horizontal, vertical) allow for the detection of additional
physical characteristics of the surface, such as shape, material, or angle of an
observed target. Furthermore, based on the phase information recorded by SAR,
coherence and interferometry can be generated (Zebker and Goldstein, 1986;
Goldstein et al., 1993; Touzi et al., 1999), which can indicate the deformation and
stability of ground features. Such information can be analyzed to detect and quantify,
e.g., glacier velocity or other moving targets (Tsai et al., 2016; Kim J.-R. et al., 2017;
Tsai et al., 2018).

However, SAR also has some practical drawbacks for cryospheric application. The
first is the comparatively low temporal resolution (i.e., revisit days, often longer than
five days) when compared to operational optical/multispectral missions due to the
trade-offs of orbit design including spatial resolution, tilt angle, swath width (Dial et al.,
2003; Taini et al., 2008; Luo et al., 2017). Based on the cryosphere report given by the
Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) (Key et al., 2007), the minimum
requirement in terms of temporal resolution for spaceborne snowmelt area products
for subsequent research of hydrology and climate is one to five days. Current
optical/multispectral missions are designed with shorter, even daily revisiting time
(e.g., Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), Moderate Resolution
Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Sentinel-3A/B). Even though the temporal
resolution is yet insufficient to provide daily imagery, the spatial resolution of recent
SAR missions such as Sentinel-1 (5 × 20 m) is more than satisfactory, given that the
minimum requirements expressed by GCOS are between 100 and 500 m.

Contrary to optical sensors, the geometry of SAR observations is more complex due
to their synthesized multi-beam echoes transmitted and received at both, side-looking
slant-range direction and azimuth direction (Curlander and McDonough, 1991). The
significance and type of the resulting distortions varies by landscape and sensing
angle and thus leads to foreshortening, layover and shadow effects (Lillesand and
Kiefer, 1994). In addition, as the received signal for each pixel of the SAR imagery is
37
 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

the sum of the random constructive and destructive phase interferences reflected
from countless ground features, the resultant speckles can degrade the image quality
considerably (Lillesand and Kiefer, 1994; Chan and Peng, 2003). Consequently, the
interpretation and analysis of SAR images are more challenging than conventional
optical observations.

The overview of different characteristics of SAR and optical sensors as well as

advantages and drawbacks for snow cover monitoring are summarized in Table 2.1
and illustrated in Figure 2.1.

Table 2.1 Comparison of SAR and optical/multispectral sensors regarding their ability
to detect snow cover.

Sensor SAR Optical/Multispectral

Sensing mode Active Passive
Wavelengths 0.01 ~ 0.3 m 0.3 ~ 1 μm
Spatial resolution PALSAR-2: 3 ~ 10 m Landsat-8: 15 ~ 30 m
COSMO-SkyMed: 3 ~ 15 m Sentinel-2: 10 ~ 20 m
Sentinel-1: 5 × 20 m MODIS: 250 ~ 500 m
(Stripmap mode) (not included thermal band)
Temporal PALSAR-2: 14 days Landsat-8: 16 days
resolution COSMO-SkyMed: ~5 days Sentinel-2: 5 days
Sentinel-1: 6 days MODIS: 1 day
Recorded snow Surface roughness, Surface reflection
characteristics dielectric property
Advantages Day-and-night sensing under Visually natural to interpret;
any weather condition; High temporal resolution;
Possibility of interferometric Maturity of classification
and polarimetric information algorithms
Drawbacks Low temporal resolution; Hindered by cloud, darkness;
Challenging to interpret due Confusion between snow, ice,
to its imaging geometry; and cloud
Significant geometric
distortions and speckles

2.2.2. Interactions of Snow and SAR

Due to the penetration characteristics of the SAR signal, wet and dry snow behaves
differently in SAR imagery. Practically, there are two different definitions of dry and wet
snow. The first one is based on volume water content (VWC), i.e., a snowpack with
VWC above 1% is considered wet snow, while snow below 1% VWC is referred to as
dry snow (Ulaby and Stiles, 1980). The second definition, which is used more often, is
connected to the temperature of the snowpack: At temperatures below 0 °C the
snowpack is presumed to remain dry while above 0 °C the snow is considered wet
(Dedieu et al., 2012; Salcedo and Cogliati, 2014; Besic et al., 2015). The temperature

38
 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

definition was validated by statistical analysis of wet snow temperatures and proven
advantageous when compared to the VWC approach, as measurements of
temperature are easier to obtain than of VWC (Salcedo and Cogliati, 2014).

SAR observations of wet snow differ greatly from those of dry snow. As mentioned in
Section 2.1, SAR signals can penetrate into the snowpack with the penetration depth
depending on the wavelength of the signal. C-band SAR, for example, has a potential
penetration depth of around 20 m when observing dry snow (Mätzler, 1987). Since the
grain size of snow is between 0.1 and 0.3 mm (Rees, 2005), the SAR signal with its
much longer wavelengths passes through the snow crystals nearly unhindered,
preventing any kind of backscattering reflection from the snow crystals (Rignot et al.,
2001; Langley et al., 2007). As the snowpack begins to melt, the dielectric properties
of the snowpack change considerably, decreasing the penetration depth to around 3
cm while backscattering reflection from the liquid water becomes the dominant
process (Mätzler and Schanda, 1984; Ulaby et al., 1986; Mätzler, 1987; Rott and
Mätzler, 1987; Shi and Dozier, 1995; Ashcraft and Long, 2006; Zhou and Zheng,
2017). At a frequency higher than 1 MHz, the dielectric constants of air, ice, and water
are 1.0, 3.17 ± 0.07 and 80, respectively (Evans, 1965). As the proportions of air, ice,
and water within a snowpack change when melting begins, the cumulative dielectric
constant also changes, leading from initially low values between 1.2 and 2.0 to much
higher values (Ambach and Denoth, 1980; Arslan et al., 2001; Singh et al., 2014).

Additionally, the liquid water content of a snowpack also affects the scattering
mechanism, i.e., how the multi-layered snowpack reflects the incoming SAR signal.
Under dry snowpack conditions, the dominant scattering process is the sum of volume
scattering of the snowpack and the surface scattering at the snow/ground interface.
When the snowpack becomes wet, the surface scattering at the air/snow interface
dominates the scattering mechanism (Shi and Dozier, 1995; Guneriussen, 1997;
Strozzi and Matzler, 1998; Guneriussen et al., 2001; Thakur et al., 2013).

However, as the snowpack is a complex multi-layer structure, snow grain size, density,
depth, stratigraphy, amount of impurities and surface roughness may affect its
backscattering (Hongxing et al., 2006; Chuvieco, 2008). Surface and volume
scattering is proportional to the polarization amplitude and transmissivity of the
snowpack, respectively. The dielectric constant and local incidence angle (LIA) also
affect the transmissivity (Snehmani et al., 2015). Table 2.2 presents an overview of
each factor’s influence on the scattering of dry and wet snow as well as the
backscattering characteristics. However, it must be noted that many factors affect
scattering mechanisms, such as radar wavelength, polarization, incidence angle,
surface roughness, and dielectric properties (Moghaddam and Saatchi, 1995; Martini
et al., 2003; Eriksson et al., 2010; Besic, Vasile, Chanussot, Stankovic, Dedieu, et al.,
2012; Phan et al., 2012). Longer wavelengths will produce more volume scattering
due to a deeper penetration (Johansson et al., 2018).

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 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

Table 2.2 Effects of wet and dry snow on the SAR signal based on the snow
physiology. “+” refers to positive correlation, “-“ to negative correlation. The number in
brackets refers to the reference number.

Snow type Dry snow Wet snow

Backscattering source Volume scattering from Surface scattering at
snowpack, air/snow interface
Surface scattering at
snow/ground interface
Dominant factors Surface below snow (SAR Liquid water content (most
influencing scattering frequency < ~10 GHz), important),
mechanism Grain size (SAR frequency Surface roughness
(Schwaizer, 2017) > ~10 GHz)
Backscattering High Low
coefficient
The relationship between snowpack parameters and the amplitude of
backscattering
Snow wetness - (Shi and Dozier, 1993) + (Ambach and Denoth,
1980; Shi and Dozier,
1995; Bernier and Fortin,
1998)
Snow grain size + (Garrity, 1992; Snehmani insignificant (Suzuki et al.,
et al., 2015) 1995)
Snow depth/thickness + (Garrity, 1992; Muhuri et - (Suzuki et al., 1995)
al., 2018)
+ coarse-grained snowpack
(Zhou and Zheng, 2017)
- fine-grained snowpack
(Zhou and Zheng, 2017)

2.3. SAR-Based Studies and Methods to Detect Snow

The launch of SeaSat in 1978 initiated the era of utilizing spaceborne SAR sensors for
global snow cover monitoring. While some snow-related studies were published with
SeaSat’s L-band SAR (Rott Helmut, 1984; Rott H, 1984), studying snow cover with
SAR data has become more mature since the launch of the first continuously
revisiting ERS-1 (C-band) in 1991 as ERS-1 providing the opportunity to use
repeat-pass multi-temporal observations, which minimizes the influence of
topographic effects on the backscattering by ensuring similar sensing geometry (Löw
et al., 2002) and thus produces more reliable snow cover estimations.

Consequently, the following literature review includes the results and findings from 96
snow cover studies mapping SCE with spaceborne SAR sensors after the launch of
ERS-1, selected from commonly used academic search engines including Google
Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus. Studies focusing on SWE and snow depth (SD)
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 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

have been excluded from the review. Airborne-based studies are also excluded from
this compilation as their temporal and spatial scopes are often limited by the mission
design and thus, their insights are often not universally transferrable. The number of
available publications since 1992 clearly has shown an upward trend. This implies
that the present status of SAR-based snow cover monitoring is still in a developing
stage (Malenovský et al., 2012; Snehmani et al., 2015).

2.3.1. SAR Sensors Used for Detecting Snow

Figure 2.2 presents an overview of commonly used spaceborne SAR sensors

including their operation time span and band information. C-band SAR sensors
stands out due to the longest available time series of continuous observations since
1992, which mainly thanks to the ESA’s and Canadian Space Agency (CSA)’s
missions, featuring ESA’s pioneering ERS-1/2, Envisat, CSA’s Radarsat-1/2, and the
ESA milestone missions of Sentinel-1. The pioneering Active Microwave
Instrumentation (AMI) C-band instrument equipped on oceanographic
research-aimed ERS-1 satellite starts the era of C-band SAR for the following
decades, although it was only aimed at aiding the scatterometer for deriving ocean
wind and wave information (Attema et al., 2000). Together with the subsequent ESA’s
C-band missions, there have been a seamless time series of C-band imagery for
more than 20 years. This time series became the most commonly used dataset for
analyzing snow cover from SAR as the characteristics of C-band SAR is suitable for
snow detection and the interchangeability of each C-band SAR sensor is guaranteed.
Accordingly, the majority of published snow cover studies relying on SAR data are
based on C-band sensors, with X- and L-band following on second and third position,
respectively (see Figure 2.3 for a detailed overview).

Due to the longer wavelength of L-band SAR and the subsequently deeper
penetration of the L-band signal into the snowpack, the snowpack remains nearly
invisible in the L-band data (Strozzi, 1996). Therefore, studies about the
implementation of L-band data to analyze snow cover properties are scarce although
it has a longer history than X-band SAR. X-band SAR has been facilitated more often
than L-band, which is due to the higher sensitivity of the X-band signal to the
snowpack even when compared to C-band (Bernier and Fortin, 1998; Venkataraman
et al., 2008). Moreover, multi-satellite constellations are available such as
COSMO-SkyMed operated by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the
TerraSAR-TanDEM-X twin satellite employed by Airbus Defense and Space and the
German Aerospace Center (DLR).

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 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

Figure 2.2 The operating periods of available satellites equipped with SAR sensors
and their band as well as revisit time configurations (number in brackets referring to
the revisit time in days). L-, C-, and X-band SAR refers to frequency of 1-2 GHz, 4-8
GHz, and 8-12 GHz; wavelength of 30-15 cm, 7.5-3.75 cm, and 3.75-2.5 cm,
respectively (Bruder, 2013).

Figure 2.3 The frequency of different SAR sensors/bands being employed for snow
cover studies.

2.3.2. Spatial and Temporal Scale of Snow Cover Studies

Snow covers extensive areas around the globe, including high altitudes featuring
complex terrain, high latitudes, and boreal forests. It is important to get an overview of
the study regions of the already conducted research. Additionally, some studies focus
specifically on a certain land cover while excluding others (e.g., focusing on glaciers
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 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

or masking out any forested areas). In order to identify possible research gaps or
areas where SAR-based snow cover analyses are still facing major challenges, every
study incorporated in this review was evaluated by its location and land cover
characteristics. Figure 2.4 presents the result of this evaluation, breaking the study
regions down into study regions’ types (Figure 2.4a), study mountainous regions
(Figure 2.4b), and the distribution of study regions inside the European Alps (Figure
2.4c). The map presented in Figure 2.4d visualizes the locations of the studies and
the frequency with which these regions have been investigated so far.

It can be observed that the majority of studies were conducted in mountainous

regions, which is reasonable as these regions are frequently affected by cloud
coverage so the advantage of SAR can be demonstrated. However, the relatively
small number of studies conducted in forest and glacier areas was also noted
although snow commonly exists in these region types. This finding suggested that the
current SAR-based SCE detection studies still have further investigation potential in
these regions. Regarding the hotspots of the frequently studied areas, Asian and
European mountain ranges represent around 85% of available study regions, as also
shown in Figure 2.4d. The European Alps have been studied most intensively (32%),
followed by Himalaya (31%). Within the European Alps, most studies have been
conducted in Italy and France (Figure 2.4c). Other global mountain ranges like the
Andes, Caucasus, Rocky Mountains, or Ural have merely been investigated. Within
the polar regions, several studies exist for Greenland and Antarctica, where the
interaction between snow cover and glaciers has been investigated. The imbalance of
study areas also indicates that more research is necessary in these areas.

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 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

Figure 2.4 Overview of published SAR-based snow cover studies. (a) Study regions’
type; (b) frequency of studied mountain ranges; (c) distribution among countries within
the Alps; (d) geographic overview of performed studies.

Not only the location but also the spatial extent of the study regions is important as it
can help assess the maturity and readiness of algorithms. Figure 2.5a illustrates the
size of the study regions. Most of the studies were conducted on a local scale as
visible in Figure 2.5a. These studies are usually limited to a specific test site, which in
more than 50% of the cases is smaller than 2,500 km². Only five studies investigated
areas greater than 200,000 km² (the size of Alps is around 298,128 km²). One
motivation for these relatively small study sites is the spatial extent of typical
SAR-data footprints itself. Many studies were designed to be conducted only within
the boundary of a single SAR-footprint, which limits their extent according to the
coverage of the respective SAR-mission.

When trying to evaluate the transferability of a study, not only the spatial extent is of
interest, but also the amount of observations included. This information helps assess
whether a proposed algorithm can work under different weather and snowpack
conditions. The number of sensed years and the average number of observations
conducted per sensed year is illustrated in Figure 2.5b and 2.5c, respectively. It must
be noted that, even for studies we categorized as multi-year monitoring in Figure 2.5b,
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 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

none of them provide a consistent time-series of SCE result but only few random
observations in each observation year. Hence, we further investigated how many
observations were utilized on average for each year and study, and illustrated these
findings in Figure 2.5c. Based on figures 2.5b and 5c, it can be found that more than
half of the published studies investigated snow cover for one year with an average of
two observations within this year to account for the dynamics of the snowpack (see
Figure 2.5b and Figure 2.5c). These sparse observations indicate that current studies
are still immature compared to the conventional optical-based SCE monitoring
approach.

Figure 2.5 Spatial and temporal overview of published SAR-based snow cover extent
(SCE) detection studies. (a) The spatial extent of studies; (b) number of sensed years;
(c) average number of observations per sensed year. Note that none of the studies
categorized as multi-year monitoring in (b) provide a time-series of SCE results, but
only few random observations for each year. Thus the average observations
conducted per sensed year of each study are illustrated in (c).

2.3.3. Employed Methods to Monitor Snow Cover with SAR data

As the development of SAR sensors and image processing techniques progresses,

the sensing target of snow also changes. For the following discussion, we defined
three different sensing targets of snowpack: Wet SCE, total SCE, as well as wet and
dry SCE. Here we must address the difference between wet and dry SCE as well as
total SCE, although the overall SCE can be retrieved by both strategies, only the
former can discriminate wet and dry SCE, respectively. Namely, wet and dry SCE
sensing strategies can provide more information than a total SCE approach.

2.3.3.1. Wet SCE Detection

The most commonly used approach to derive the extent of wet snow cover is by
exploiting the backscatter coefficient. As outlined in Section 2.2, the backscatter
coefficient drops significantly when a snowpack starts to melt, therefore containing
liquid water, which decreases the dielectric constant.

The first algorithm to exploit this behavior was published by Rott and Nagler in 1995
and 2000 (1995; 2000). They relied on two SAR images (one is sensed during the
0 0
snow-covered period 𝜎𝑤𝑠 , and the other is a reference image 𝜎𝑟𝑒𝑓 which is sensed in
45
 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

either the snow-free or the dry-snow period) featuring the same imaging geometry
(i.e., repeat pass pair) as well as a digital elevation model (DEM). The main workflow
comprises pre-processing and wet snow mapping as illustrated in Figure 2.6. For
pre-processing, the two images are calibrated, coregistered, multilooked,
speckle-filtered, the scattering coefficient is transformed to a logarithmic scale (dB),
the ratio between the two observations is calculated (see equation 2.1), and finally the
result is geocoded. The geocoding is based on the DEM and produces a SAR layover
mask, a shadow mask, and a LIA map. After pre-processing, the geocoded ratio map
is classified based on a threshold to derive the binary wet snow extent. A threshold of
-3 dB has proven to be robust enough to achieve satisfactory results, and was used in
many subsequent studies.
0
𝜎𝑤𝑠
0 < −3 dB, wet snow (2.1)
𝜎𝑟𝑒𝑓

Figure 2.6 The overall workflow of the backscattering-based algorithm to detect wet
snow.

As this method is easy to implement, it was applied successfully to most SAR sensors
and study regions. Consequently, the backscattering coefficient-based method is
known as “Nagler’s method”. Yet, this method uses only a single equation with a fixed
threshold to retrieve the binary result; this result, however, is limited as the random
noise of SAR would inevitably degrade the single image as mentioned in Section 2.1
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 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

and the binary snow results do not meet the real condition. Several improvements
have therefore been achieved for “Nagler’s method”:

 Mapping of snow cover fraction

Binary snow cover products (i.e., a pixel is flagged as either snow covered or snow
free) contain uncertainties especially along the transition between snow covered and
snow free areas. Traditionally, a pixel containing more than 50% of snow cover would
be considered fully snow covered in a binary product (Hall et al., 2001; Hall and Riggs,
2007; Notarnicola Claudia et al., 2013). Thus, an approach to derive fractional snow
cover information from SAR-data is required. Therefore, Malnes and Guneriussen
(2002) utilized a sigmoid-function based on the assumption that each pixel is a
mixture of dry snow, wet snow and snow-free surface. This approach was later refined
into different forms (Pettinato et al., 2006; Longepe et al., 2009).

 Refined reference image selection

Selecting a suitable image for representing the snow-free (or dry-snow) ground
surface backscattering conditions is critical, as the ratio between this reference image
and the observation containing the wet snow accounts for the accuracy of the wet
snow detection. It is important to ensure that the reference image selection is selected
carefully. Since Nagler’s first publication (2000), soil moisture has been frequently
proven to bias single reference images (Baghdadi et al., 1997; Schellenberger et al.,
2012). Thus, Pettinato et al. (2014) suggested reference scenes acquired under dry
snow conditions recorded during wintertime. Another approach is using the average of
several images originating from a similar sensing period (Ventura, Schellenberger,
Notarnicola, Zebisch, Nagler, et al., 2011). However, the temporal distance between
reference images has to be taken into account, ensuring that longer intervals between
observations do not introduce additional uncertainties (Löw et al., 2002). Koskinen et
al. (1997) selected one image observed during the melting period 𝜎𝑖0 and two
reference images (one acquired at the beginning of melting period 𝜎𝑤0 , and another
acquired after melting period 𝜎𝑔0 ) to estimate the snow-free ground 𝐹𝑔 :

𝜎𝑖0 − 𝜎𝑤0
𝐹𝑔 = 100 × % (2.2)
𝜎𝑔0 − 𝜎𝑤0
Luojus et al. (2006) used the same formula in an approach proposed as the linear
interpolation phase step. They applied the algorithm not pixel-based but at a bigger
scale to eliminate the influence of SAR speckles. They also tested the usability of
multi-year reference images; they concluded that the reference image does not
necessarily need to be sensed in the same year as the classified melting season.
Namely, a reference image from the past may be used to estimate future snow cover
conditions.

Thanks to these improvements, “Nagler’s method” has remained the most commonly
applied algorithm in the past 20 years. As numerous new satellites with different
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 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

wavelength designs have been launched since “Nagler’s method” was published in
2000, the -3 dB threshold value for the ratio map segmentation has also been
customized for different sensors and locations (Löw et al., 2002; Magagi and Bernier,
2003; Rao et al., 2006; Venkataraman et al., 2008; Nagler et al., 2016b; Tsai Ya-Lun S,
Dietz Andreas, et al., 2019b). However, as this approach cannot be applied to L-band
SAR (because the backscattering values from the snow-covered scene and the
reference scene containing no or dry snow are similar (Wang et al., 2015)) and can
only detect wet SCE, other SAR-based algorithms have been explored as well.

2.3.3.2. Total SCE Detection

Based on the phase information of two SAR images recorded for the same location
but at different observation times, the similarity of surface conditions (coherence) can
be revealed based on interferometric SAR (InSAR) technique. The underlying theory
of InSAR-based total snow detection is that, in comparison to snow-covered areas,
the snow-free area can preserve a high coherence between two sensed dates. The
reason for the decorrelation between snow-covered observations (in both dry and wet
snow) is the alteration of the SAR penetrating depth and the scattering mechanism
(Singh, Venkataraman, Rao, et al., 2008; Snehmani et al., 2015). Hence, in contrast
to the backscattering-based approach presented in Section 3.3.1 that can only detect
wet SCE, the InSAR-based approach can detect both wet and dry snow.

The first attempt of using repeat-pass InSAR techniques was conducted by Shi et al.
(1997), utilizing space shuttle-based SIR-C images to create coherence maps. Later,
Strozzi et al. (1999) pursued this approach, applying it to ERS images; they found that
the coherence helps distinguish the SCE better than conventional
backscattering-based methods. Guo et al. (2017) employed two pairs of InSAR
observations sensed before and after a snowfall event, and classified the total SCE
with coherence thresholds. Wang et al. (2015) proposed a more elaborate workflow to
track the total SCE change in different periods. First, they used the normalized
difference snow index (NDSI) derived from optical images as well as land cover
information to initially estimate the tree and snow line elevation. Additionally,
temperature information was incorporated to decide the actual snow condition. Finally,
they applied a coherence threshold to derive the type of surface and snow cover
change. Figure 2.7 illustrates the general workflow of InSAR-based algorithms to
detect total snow cover.

The definition of an appropriate coherence threshold for the snow cover classification
is critical. Wang et al. (2015) utilized an NDSI-based snow cover classification result
to determine final coherence threshold for each area. However, using a hard threshold
to classify snow cover may lead to misclassification, since the coherence values of
snow-covered and snow-free areas largely overlap (Guangjun et al., 2015). To the
authors’ knowledge, this problem has not been addressed in any study so far.

Another challenge for InSAR-based snow cover detection is the influence of various
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 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

additional factors on the coherence value. According to Zebker and Villasenor (1992),
temporal, spatial and thermal factors influence the coherence value. Essentially, He et
al. (2015) discovered that the coherence value is related to the polarization mode,
land cover type, and LIA. Those factors need to be considered to improve the
reliability of InSAR-based snow detection approaches.

Figure 2.7 The overall workflow of interferometric SAR (InSAR)-based algorithms to

detect total snow cover. Master and slave image refer to the two single look complex
(SLC) SAR images used to generate an InSAR pair.

2.3.3.3. Wet and Dry SCE Detection

Initially, when polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) techniques were still immature, it was
concluded that SAR is unable to detect dry snow (Malnes et al., 2004; Solberg et al.,
2005; Solberg, Koren, et al., 2010). Nevertheless, as dry snow detection is crucial for
applications like SWE estimation or other hydrological applications, empirical or
topographical rules were applied to predict the dry snow based on the wet snow
extent. Nagler and Rott (2000) presumed regions with elevations higher than the
extent of the wet snow were dry snow. This method was modified (Malnes and
Guneriussen, 2002; Ji et al., 2014; Thakur et al., 2016) and further improved by
including measurements of air temperature (Malnes et al., 2004; Storvold and Malnes,
2004). Another approach is based on presumption of snow status change with time as
shown in Pettinato et al. (2004) and Brogioni et al. (2006).

However, those wet snow based approaches to estimate the dry snow extent have
proven inaccurate. Studies following Malnes’s method to derive dry SCE found large
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 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

overestimations (Solberg et al., 2005; Solberg, Koren, et al., 2010). In addition,

Storvold and Malnes (2004) stated their algorithm could face problems in early spring
when dry snow extent could be extensive while wet snow still being absent. Moreover,
these approaches do not account for the influence of wind to redistribute snow
(Storvold and Malnes, 2004). Consequently, an alternative approach, i.e., PolSAR
technique, was explored to detect wet and dry SCE directly from SAR imagery.

Rott (1994) proposed a depolarization approach, i.e., calculating the ratio of cross-
and co-polarization of airborne AIRSAR; Shi and Dozier (1997) used SIR-C/X-SAR to
test multi-frequency and multi-polarization. Early spaceborne SAR sensors; however,
were generally only equipped with single polarization ability, such as ERS-1/2 (VV)
and Radarsat-1 (HH). Dual polarization mode became available after the launch of
ENVISAT-ASAR in 2002, offering new possibilities to explore the potential of
multi-polarization repeat-pass methods for snow cover mapping.

The key of PolSAR-based wet and dry snow cover detection is to extract the
geometrical scattering characteristics of ground features by decomposing the
received SAR signal. The backscatter from each ground feature is composed by
various unique signal-feature interactions; PolSAR decomposition therefore offers the
possibility to reveal how a particular surface feature reflects the incoming SAR signal
and what physical characteristics that feature might have. For instance, the frozen
forest canopy leads to high correlation of the polarization due to surface
backscattering during wintertime, while low correlation results from the snow-covered
ground surface. Once the snow becomes wet, the polarization correlates again
(Muhuri, Ratha, et al., 2017).

The development of PolSAR techniques led to numerous decomposition methods to

derive PolSAR parameters. The most commonly employed decomposition
parameters include Pauli decomposition (Cloude and Pottier, 1996) and H/A/α ̅
(Cloude and Pottier, 1996). They decompose the coherence matrix in different ways
and thus form different parameters, such as former’s single/odd, double/even bounce
and volume scattering. The H/A/α ̅ decomposition can even reveal the scattering
angle and degree of randomness of the sensed target. For detail decomposition
theory and examples can refer to (Touzi et al., 2004; Zhang et al., 2008). However, as
there are countless decomposition indexes, selecting the most feasible parameter is
challenging. He et al. (2017) calculated the Jeffreys—Matusita (J—M) distances
(Bruzzone et al., 1995) to filter feasible parameters for distinguishing dry and wet
snow. Huang et al. (2011) plotted the normalized value of each parameter of each
land cover type to observe their overlap. The parameters showing fewer overlapping
of dry and wet snow were chosen.

Due to the various information (referring to appendix) that can be retrieved from
PolSAR parameters, more details about the characteristics of snow cover can be
obtained when compared to backscattering- or InSAR-based approaches. For
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 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

instance, Baghdadi et al. (1998) revealed that backscattering of wet snow is primarily
caused by surface scattering; Shi and Dozier (1995) found that snow wetness is
proportional to surface scattering and inversely proportional to volume scattering. In
addition, the morphology of snow also influences the scattering, such that an older
snowpack would have larger grain size and thus would lead to increased volume
scattering (Singh et al., 2014). Singh et al. (2014) found that snow-covered regions
show lower entropy, H(1-A) as well as higher polarimetric anisotropy; thus they
proposed a threshold method to detect snow cover, which resulted in an accuracy
comparable to a supervised Wishart classification. Reppucci et al. (2012) observed
that dry snow is characterized by higher values in the Pauli surface parameter and
lower value in the double-bounce parameter. Therefore, a combination of the two
parameters enables to calculate the difference and then to map dry snow cover.
Based on the observation that dry snow shows lower H and α ̅ values, they also
derived the ratio of H and α̅ to detect dry snow. Similar techniques were employed by
(Park et al., 2014; Muhuri, Manickam, et al., 2017; Muhuri, Ratha, et al., 2017; Zhou
and Zheng, 2017; Muhuri et al., 2018), calculating the difference of available
parameters or relying on machine learning (ML) classifications to detect snow cover.
Venkataraman et al. (2010; 2011) even proposed a Radar Snow Index (RSI) to
estimate the total SCE based on polarization fraction parameters. To deal with the
influence of underlying land cover types, Martini et al. (2006) suggested an advanced
supervised polarimetric contrast variation enhancement (PCVE) to enlarge the
contrast of dry snow.

Based on the research from recent years it became obvious that PolSAR-based
detection of snow cover is developing quickly and that there is still potential to improve
and complement existing approaches. Figure 2.8 presents an overview of the three
different mainstreams of PolSAR-based wet and dry snow cover detection algorithms.

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 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

Figure 2.8 The overall workflow of polarimetric SAR (PolSAR)-based algorithms to

detect wet and dry snow cover, including (1) machine learning classification trained by
external SCE result; (2) the calculation of seasonal parameters’ difference before
thresholding, and (3) the direct thresholding.

2.3.4. Algorithms Utilized to Investigate the Different Snow Cover Types

After reviewing the advancements in detecting snow cover from SAR data within the
last three decades, a comprehensive overview of the different mapping approaches
for different snow cover types that can be observed relying on these approaches
emerged, which is presented in Figure 2.9. When analyzing the snow type, the review
revealed that more than half of the available studies focused on the retrieval of wet
snow only, while 30% of the studies aimed at both, wet and dry snow (Figure 2.9a).
Less than 16% of the studies were designed to retrieve total SCE or dry snow only.
This mismatch does not indicate that dry snow is less important than wet snow but it
clearly shows that the detection of dry snow from SAR-data is still challenging.

The different approaches to detect wet, dry, and total SCE (Figure 2.9a) can further be
divided: For wet snow (Figure 2.9b), 82% of studies employed “Nagler’s method”,
while InSAR- and PolSAR-based approaches account for 7% and 10%, respectively.
Regarding dry snow (Figure 2.9c), more than 60% of the studies relied on topographic
empirical determination, which is an approach frequently employed together with
“Nagler’s method” (see Section 3.3.3). Another 21% and 10% of the studies utilized
PolSAR (including PCVE) and InSAR techniques, respectively. The remaining 7% of
the studies applied logic conditional rules to identify dry snow extent. When it comes
to the detection of total SCE, (Figure 2.9d), 77% of the reviewed studies relied on
PolSAR while only 23% applied InSAR techniques. In summary, when reviewing

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 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

Figure 2.9, the predominance of PolSAR and InSAR for dry and total snow cover
detection becomes obvious, while backscattering-based approaches are clearly the
methods of choice to detect wet snow.

Figure 2.9 Overview of targeted snow types and corresponding algorithms. (a)
Targeted snow types and employed algorithms for (b) wet (c) dry (d) total snow cover
extent (SCE).

2.3.4.1. Machine Learning Classification Methods for Advanced SAR

Information Analysis

Additionally to the aforementioned algorithms, ML is commonly performed on

advanced SAR-derived information especially derived from PolSAR-based
approaches. Because SAR images can contain a considerable amount of noise, the
derived PolSAR parameters are often challenging to be manually extracted. As
PolSAR-based approaches are a comparatively new technique, the number of studies
employing ML classification is small (only 19%). Owing to the maturity of
optical-based snow cover monitoring techniques and products, training samples for
supervised algorithms are available. Thus, supervised algorithms are slightly more
common than unsupervised approaches.

The most commonly employed supervised ML classification approach is the support

vector machine (SVM), which is well known for its ability to solve high-dimensional
non-linear classifications with only small samples (Camps-Valls and Bruzzone, 2005).
Compared to maximum likelihood and decision tree methods, SVM produced higher
snow cover classification accuracies (Huang et al., 2011) and thus was utilized for
both InSAR-based (Guangjun et al., 2015; He et al., 2017) and PolSAR-based studies
(Longepe et al., 2008; Huang et al., 2011). However, random forest (RF) also attracts
attention for its simplicity and low computation load (Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz Andreas, et
al., 2019b).

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2.3.5. Quality Assessment Methods for SAR-based Snow Cover Products

In the present SAR-based mainstream algorithms, there is no straightforward method

to directly generate reliability indices to allow self-validation as in other SAR-based
cryospheric studies such as the signal-to-ratio value of pixel-offsets for glacier velocity
tracking (Tsai et al., 2018). Thus, several studies focused on quality indicators for
assessing the reliability of a snow cover products. Malnes et al. (2004) and Solberg et
al. (2005) utilized a confidence flag denoting the probability for a correct classification;
Schellenberger et al. (2012) introduced the probability of error (POE) to evaluate each
pixel’s classification reliability. Practically, validating SAR-based snow cover products
using external, independent data is preferable. Overall, around half of the reviewed
studies utilized snow cover products derived from spaceborne optical sensors as
ground truth, with Landsat and MODIS accounting for most of the employed sensors
(Figure 2.10). AVNIR-2 is used for validating PALSAR-based studies, as both sensors
are mounted on the same satellite platform. Sentinel-2 is usually used for
comparisons with Sentinel-1 results; Gaofen-1 (GF-1) is often utilized for validating
studies in mainland China. Airborne and ground-based data account for a much
smaller portion of validation approaches owing to the relatively high costs and limited
spatial coverage. The fact that ~40% of the reviewed studies did not include any
validation at all indicates that many of the published SAR-based snow detection
techniques are in an early stage of their development.

Figure 2.10 External/Ground truth data used for validating SAR-based snow cover
products. *Advanced visible and near infrared radiometer type 2 (AVNIR-2) sensor
onboard on Advanced land observation satellite (ALOS) satellite; moderate resolution
imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor onboard on Terra and Aqua satellites;
**Landsat-series missions compose different optical sensors.

In addition to conventional confusion matrix-based accuracy evaluations, Luojus et al.

(2006; 2007) proposed a quantitative analysis approach based on the RMSE to check
the improvement made by each refining algorithm; Reppucci et al. (2012) compared
the resultant SCE with an elevation map to check whether the distribution of snow is
reasonable.

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2.4. Critical Auxiliary Data Necessary to Support Detecting SCE from

SAR Data
In addition to the sensor types and algorithms, other critical and commonly employed
datasets help improve the accuracy of the obtained snow cover classification,
including DEM, land cover maps and meteorological information. As shown in Figure
2.1, these parameters directly affect snow cover distribution and condition, and it is
therefore advisable to include these auxiliary datasets to the workflow. They may not
be necessary to operate the SAR-based snow cover detection; they, however, can
improve the quality of the results.

2.4.1. Digital Elevation Model, Influence of Topography on SAR-based Snow

Detection

The influence of the topography on SAR-based snow cover detection is evident, as

snow cover distribution is directly linked to elevation, aspect (facing direction of
topography), and slope of the study region. Moreover, local topography affects the LIA,
which largely affects the quality of SAR image pre-processing and final results.

Elevation plays a significant role in snow cover distribution. Algorithms like the wet
snow-dependent dry snow detection relies on the spatial relationship between wet
and dry snow cover extent and elevation (see Section 3.3.3). Haefner (2001)
analyzed the seasonal difference of backscattering coefficients in various elevation
zones and found larger differences in higher altitudes. Tsai et al. (2019b) also found
the importance of elevation is crucial for total snow cover mapping. Aspect and slope
are also critical for not only how snow is distributed but also how SAR can sense the
snow. Li et al. (2012) compared the snow line altitude for several regions and
discovered that glaciers facing south have higher snowline altitudes, which is caused
by more intense solar radiation on south facing slopes. Park et al. (2014) identified
that the seasonal difference between H and α is more pronounced for front-slope (the
slope facing the sensor).

Topography not only affects snow distribution, it also affects the SAR signal viability.
Based on the DEM a shadow and layover map of SAR can be generated. Steeper
topography or regions closer to the nadir of the sensor would naturally lead to more
SAR shadow and layover regions (Bartsch et al., 2007), where useful ground
information is blocked or degraded. Hence, almost all studies calculated the mask
during the geocoding step and later re-used it to mask out the results, as illustrated in
Figure 2.6. However, these terrain-induced radiometric effects and the local
illuminated brightness should be mitigated by adding a terrain correction based on
DEM as well as the acquisition geometry of SAR (Small, 2011).

Moreover, for the backscattering-based approach, the influence of LIA on the SAR
signal was already identified in Nagler’s first research (2000), and confirmed by many
subsequent studies (Baghdadi et al., 2000; Guneriussen et al., 2001; Löw et al., 2002;
Magagi and Bernier, 2003; Besic et al., 2015). The backscattering of wet snow is more
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susceptible to the variability of LIA than dry snow because the backscatter of the latter
is mainly reflected from the snow/ground interface, as modeled by Malnes and
Guneriussen (2002). Nagler et al. (2016b) found the backscattering from snow can
decrease even more for a very high LIA, which reduces the difference between wet
and dry snow. This angle-dependency influences the accuracy of
backscattering-based thresholding approaches, especially for wide-swath SAR
images such as ASAR and Radarsat (Storvold and Malnes, 2004; Zhou and Zheng,
2017). It was also suggested that the LIA difference between the reference and the
observed image should not exceed 10° (Luojus et al., 2007). The range direction
resolution would also decrease dramatically in low LIA, and the signal-to-noise ratio
for low reflective surfaces decreases in high LIA (Nagler et al., 2016b). Therefore,
areas with extreme LIA values should be masked out by setting LIA limitations (Rott
and Nagler, 1995; Nagler and Rott, 2000; Schellenberger et al., 2012; Nagler et al.,
2016b).

The influences of LIA on both InSAR-based and PolSAR-based approaches are also
significant. He at al. (2015) found the coherence value increases from 0° to 30° LIA
and decreases from 30° to 90° LIA. Dedieu et al. (2012) found that when the LIA is
less than 35°, the dominant scattering mechanism changes from volume to
single-bounce scattering. Park et al. (2014) revealed that the change of H and α
caused by the snowpack would be smaller for lower LIA. Usami et al. (2016) observed
that the degree of polarization decreases when the LIA increases. Furthermore,
several studies found that the impact of surface roughness on the signal is more
significant for high LIA (Ulaby et al., 1986; Holah et al., 2005).

2.4.2. The Influence of Land Cover (Vegetation) on Snow Detection from

SAR-data

Another factor affecting SAR-based snow cover detection is land cover. This effect
was first described by Koskinen et al. (1997) when they analyzed the backscattering
coefficient values of different surface conditions depending on different types of land
cover. Results clearly showed that the presence of vegetation significantly decreases
the backscattering difference between wet snow and dry snow as well as bare ground.
Schellenberger et al. (2012) also reported that snow-covered and snow-free areas in
forest regions are difficult to discriminate as the backscatter is significantly influenced
by canopy (Karam et al., 1995).

According to the model proposed by Pulliainen (1994), SAR backscattering relates to

the transmissivity of a forest canopy, which is influenced by stem volume. The
different scattering coefficient levels of grassland, crop field and dense forest confirm
these results (Löw et al., 2002; Schellenberger et al., 2012). Duguay and Bernier
(2012) found that backscattering coefficient is continuously increasing with increasing
vegetation height. Therefore, applying only one fixed backscatter threshold to classify
snow cover in a region with varying land cover may lead to inaccurate results (Löw et

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al., 2002). Additionally, results from polarimetric models indicate that backscatter of
dry snow is strongly sensitive to the underlying surface as the backscattering
originates from the snow/ground surface interface (Martini et al., 2006; Park et al.,
2014). He et al. (2017) concluded that stems of snowcapped shrubs and grass lead to
higher volume scattering for dry snow than for wet snow. Dedieu et al. (2012) reported
difficulties detecting snow cover in forested areas as the tree structure affects the
scattering of the SAR signal (double-bounce with tree trunks, volume scattering with
foliage and single scattering with forest floor). The seasonal phenology of trees (leaf
fall before winter) also alters the scattering behavior. Park et al. (2014) concluded that
the presence of woodlands could increase volume scattering as well as H and α.

Forest also affects InSAR-based approaches. The coherence values of InSAR are
found to be commonly lower in densely vegetated regions (Guangjun et al., 2015; He
et al., 2017). Thakur et al. (2013) concluded that this reduction in coherence is
connected to both snow cover and the presence of forests. Kumar and Venkataraman
(2011) reported that the random motion of leaves due to wind would reduce the
coherence significantly.

Aforementioned studies intensively indicate that vegetation would limit the accuracy of
SAR-based snow detection approaches; however, based on previous studies there is
no decisive threshold for any vegetation index such as biomass or canopy closure. As
a result, many studies use masks to eliminate the influence of densely forested
regions. Rott and Nagler (1995; 2000) as well as Notarnicola et al. (2013) masked the
agriculture areas. Practically, external land cover products (Luojus et al., 2007;
Notarnicola C. et al., 2013; Guangjun et al., 2015; He et al., 2017) or land cover maps
generated during the pre-processing workflow (Dedieu et al., 2012; Notarnicola et al.,
2012; Thakur et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2015) may serve as masks. Masking of critical
land cover regions; however, may reduce the size of the study region considerably.
Therefore, Schellenberger et al. (2012) divided the backscattering ratio map for each
land cover and calculated the geometric mean for each class as its threshold; Tsai et
al. (2019b) built the model for each land cover type and mapped total SCE
individually.

2.4.3. Utillization of Temperature and the Need for Snow Record Data

Although most SAR-based algorithms such as “Nagler’s method” (Nagler and Rott,
2000) did not require ground information as an input, meteorological data about
temperature and precipitation makes estimating the snow cover conditions easier. For
example, it is possible to infer the retreat of snow between two observations if the
daily mean air temperature is rising (Pettinato et al., 2006) and the existence of wet
snow can be postulated when surface temperature is observed to be near 0 °C
(Solberg, Koren, et al., 2010). Thus, many studies included temperature information
gathered by ground surveying or meteorological stations (Park et al., 2014; Pettinato
et al., 2014; Singh et al., 2014; Guangjun et al., 2015; He et al., 2017; Paloscia et al.,

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2017; Muhuri et al., 2018).

However, the often sparsely distributed meteorological stations hardly satisfy the
required spatial resolution necessary to derive an areal inventory of surface
temperatures. Hence, Malnes et al. (2004) calculated a temperature map by
interpolating the data derived from meteorological station network. Another approach
is utilizing spaceborne thermal imagery. Salcedo and Cogliati (2014) used
atmospheric profiles of temperature and water vapor at the sensed time to derive the
surface temperature based on recorded satellite radiance. Moreover, snow record
data also helps to analyze the snow cover conditions. Luojus et al. (2009) utilized the
snow accumulation recorded by snow stations to decide when the snowmelt period
ended.

2.5. Discussion
The studies investigated in this review show that SAR-based methods to detect and
characterize snow cover have been developing rapidly and profoundly within the last
three decades. This development includes the design of new spaceborne SAR
sensors, new algorithms to detect snow, higher spatial and temporal resolutions of the
derived products, increasing accuracy, and a deeper understanding of the underlying
processes. The developments identified will be discussed in more detail in the
following sections.

2.5.1. The Developement of Spaceborne SAR Sensor Design

The development of SAR sensors advanced remarkably within the last 25 years in
terms of instrument design, temporal and spatial coverage, and data distribution policy.
Band design was limited to C-band, but has been extended to X-band, as shown in
Figure 2.2. This offers new opportunities to detect and monitor snow cover, because
the capabilities of X-band SAR to detect snow are superior to C-band, as outlined in
Section 3.2. Moreover, study suggested that Ku-band SAR may be most suitable to
detect snow cover as it can detect even shallow and dry snow (Mätzler, 1987), which
was planned (but not realized) for ESA’s 7th Earth Explorer mission candidate, Cold
Region Hydrology High-resolution Observatory (CoReH2O) satellite, meant to be
equipped with X- and Ku-band SAR sensors (Rott et al., 2007).

Furthermore, the capabilities to detect snow relying on different polarizations attracted

more attention. Among all snow cover detecting studies based on polarimetric
information, almost all employed SAR images in full-polarimetry mode including
PALSAR-1 (Venkataraman et al., 2010; Park et al., 2014; Singh et al., 2014; He et al.,
2017) and Radarsat-2 (Huang et al., 2011; Dedieu et al., 2012; Reppucci et al., 2012;
Callegari et al., 2016; Muhuri, Manickam, et al., 2017). Early airborne SAR and recent
spaceborne studies already suggested that multi-polarization SAR—and especially
fully polarimetric SAR—is more suitable to detect snow and ice than
single/dual-polarization (Rott and Davis, 1991; Thakur et al., 2013; Callegari et al.,

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2016). Possible reasons are that multi-polarimetric SAR has a higher sensitivity to the
state of snow (Dedieu et al., 2012) and that it can greatly eliminate the topographic
distortion (Singh et al., 2014).

Shortening the revisit time is another advantage of contemporary SAR missions.

Practically, the time difference between two repeat-pass SAR images is the most
important factor for InSAR-based approaches. Researchers have confirmed that the
coherence of InSAR within snow-covered areas would decrease dramatically if the
temporal difference is more than one month (Rao et al., 2006). In addition, if the revisit
time is too long, more than one melting/snow fall event may have occurred in the
meantime (Wang et al., 2015). In this regard, the value of the COSMO-SkyMed (CSK)
constellation is remarkable. Thanks to their orbit design, four satellites (CSK1-4)
significantly shorten the revisit time and thus largely eliminate temporal decorrelation
(Martone et al., 2012; Rizzoli et al., 2017), which provides a potential to map SCE with
a much higher temporal resolution (Notarnicola et al., 2012).

The wider swath coverage of contemporary SAR sensors allows snow monitoring in
larger spatial scales, which may also reduce costs. Nagler and Rott (2005) proved
that all sensing modes of ASAR images are suitable for processing “Nagler’s method”.
Although the definition of wide swath mode varies for different sensors (e.g., ASAR’s
150 or 500 km, Radarsat’s 300 or 500 km, PALSAR’s 250 or 350 km, and Sentinel-1’s
250 km), it is clear that they are more efficient than traditional sensing modes
providing swath widths below 100 km.

In addition to sensor’s hardware design, another important milestone is the free data
policy of ESA. Before Sentinel-1, no long-term, openly accessible SAR datasets were
available, which stands in contrast to the free of charge archives of optical sensors
such as Landsat and MODIS. As a result, until recently the cost of spaceborne SAR
data was much higher compared to optical imagery (Solberg, Koren, et al., 2010),
which inevitably limited the operational use of SAR-based snow cover detection or the
subsequent possibility of merging SAR and optical snow cover products.

2.5.2. The Advances of SCE-detection by SAR

Conventional backscattering-based approaches were subject to criticism for using a

hard threshold to classify snow cover, as numerous factors may affect the
backscattering value. For instance, in a warm winter more frequent melting/refreezing
cycles would lead to bigger grain sizes and thus influencing the backscattering
coefficient (Dedieu et al., 2014); sudden changes of air temperature or heavy snowfall
events may cause snow metamorphism, altering the snowpack conditions (Paloscia
et al., 2017). Variations of soil moisture may also disturb the backscattering coefficient
values (Baghdadi et al., 1999). Moreover, the geometry of two images needs to be
identical to preserve similar LIAs (Baghdadi et al., 1999). If thresholds are set too
low/high, the final SCE would be under/overestimated. However,
backscattering-based algorithms also show one great advantage, i.e., they do not
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require training samples for classification. This fact avoids the manual selection of a
classifier and saves time for the classification, which is an asset for an automated
processing over longer periods or large regions.

In contrast to backscattering-based approaches, PolSAR-based algorithms have the

merit of less LIA dependency. Hence, theoretically they are more suitable for
mountainous terrain. Another benefit is the availability of additional information such
as scattering angle and degree of randomness inherent to the polarimetric data.
Furthermore, PolSAR technique only requires one image, which increases the
sensing frequency and real-time monitoring capabilities. The different ways to
decompose the covariance matrix, however, results in countless derived parameters;
a suitable selection of included parameters and a proper filtering of redundant data
therefore is critical. Moreover, the process of decomposition is more time-consuming
when compared to backscattering-based approaches as it involves more matrix
calculations.

InSAR-based algorithms are supported by the maturity of available InSAR processing

software. The main challenge is the revisit interval of the SAR sensor and the
sometimes rapid change of snow cover conditions (depending on location, weather
conditions, and season). Nevertheless, it can be postulated that InSAR-based
approaches may become more promising in the near future, as the revisit time of SAR
sensors has enhanced significantly. Overall, the comparison of mainstream
SAR-based approaches is shown in Table 2.3, which provides guidance for choosing
the appropriate algorithm based on the targeted snow cover type and SAR image
availability.

Table 2.3 Overall comparison of the three mainstream SAR-based snow cover
detection approaches.

Detection Backscattering-
InSAR-based PolSAR-based
approach based
The Scattering
backscattering Coherence loss mechanisms of dry
Background
coefficent reduces over snow covered and wet snow and
theory
when snow surfaces the surface behave
becomes wet differently
Minimum
numbers of
2 2 1
required SAR
images
SAR image Pair sensed at the Pair has a short Image has dual or
requirements same geometry temporal baseline quad polarizations
The complexity of
Low Medium High
the algorithms

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 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

Primarily
Backscattering Polarimetric
analyzed Coherence
coefficient parameters
component
LIA dependency High Medium Low
The richness of
derived Medium Low High
information
The noisiness of
derived High Low Medium
information
Snow Type Sensing Capability
Wet snow Yes No Yes
Dry snow No No Yes
Total snow No Yes Yes
In addition to the aforementioned three main SAR-based approaches, other more
elaborate possibilities should be further investigated, such as the information theoretic
snow detection algorithm (ITSDA) proposed by Pettinato et al. (2014). A fusion of the
three mainstream SAR-based approaches is another option: He et al. (2017)
facilitated the information derived from all three mainstream technique to a SVM
classifier to map both dry and wet SCE; Tsai et al. (2019b) utilized RF to map total
SCE based on backscatter, InSAR coherence, and PolSAR H/A/α ̅ parameters in five
study areas around the globe. The total and wet SCE estimated by Tsai et al. (2019b)
is illustrated in Figure 2.11, which demonstrates the great value of fusing all three
main SAR-based approaches to derive the holistic (total + wet) SCE. The holistic SCE
enables not only investigating the dynamics of SCE and snowpack by comparing
different seasons’ SCE conditions but also the potential of further integration with
conventional optical sensor-based cloud-affected SCE results.

Figure 2.11 Total and wet SCE of Monte Rosa (MR) region (a) month1: 2018 March

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 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

12 (b) month2: 2018 May 11. Figures are revised from Tsai et al. (Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz
Andreas, et al., 2019b). Note the total SCE is modeled based on backscatter, InSAR
coherence, and PolSAR parameters; wet SCE is estimated based on conventional
backscatter-threshold approach.

When it comes to the ML classification method, considering the recent advances in

deep learning (DL) algorithms and computer hardware, there have been few attempts
utilizing the neural network to detect snow in SAR imagery, such as Usami et al. (2016)
and Nijhawan et al. (2018), which showed a classification accuracy that was
comparable to conventional ML algorithms.

2.5.3. Solutions for Addressing SAR-vegetation Interaction

As mentioned in 4.2., the presence of vegetation would limit the viability of

SAR-based snow cover classification approaches. The most successful algorithm
specifically for forested regions was developed by Koskinen et al. (1997), utilizing two
reference images to minimize the effect of a forest. Based on that, Luojus et al. (2006;
2006; 2007; 2009; 2009) accomplished several improvements resulting in the Helsinki
University of Technology (TKK)-developed snow cover detection method aiming at
boreal forest regions. Its forest compensation algorithm makes use of a
semi-empirical forest backscattering model, which utilizes the stem volume
information to estimate the amount of backscattering originating from the forest and
further eliminates this factor from subsequent calculations.

However, in addition to the general problem of lower accuracy in open areas, the
biggest limitation of the TKK method is that it requires prior knowledge of forest stem
volumes, which is difficult to obtain. Thus, a purely spaceborne image-based
approach to address the interaction between SAR imagery and vegetation needs to
be developed. Hopefully, in the recent paper published by Tsai et al. (2019b), a land
cover type-dependent classification strategy which can be applied to densely
vegetated forest and agricultural regions was proposed. The method was tested in
five mountainous study areas around the globe and the accuracy above 0.75 is
confirmed in all regions by validation with optical-based SCE product. This study
provides a novel way to map SCE in all land cover types and should be utilized in the
future studies.

Additionally, the potential of utilizing PolSAR, Polarimetric Interferometric SAR

(PolInSAR) as well as Tomographic SAR (TomoSAR) to estimate 3D forest structure
and biomass (Minh et al., 2014; Kaasalainen et al., 2015; Sinha et al., 2015) should
be further integrated into current SAR-based snow cover detection algorithms to
mitigate the negative effect of vegetation. This is also proposed in ESA’s 7th Earth
Explorer selected mission, BIOMASS (equipped with fully polarimetric P-band SAR,
planned to launch in 2020) (Heliere et al., 2014).

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2.5.4. Influence of Filtering Algorithms

The speckle noise in SAR images affects all SAR-based snow cover detection
algorithms, especially the backscattering-based approaches. The available options for
filtering algorithms to overcome this problem include Frost filter (Nagler and Rott,
2000, 2005; Valinia et al., 2006; Ventura, Schellenberger, Notarnicola, Zebisch,
Nagler, et al., 2011; Notarnicola et al., 2012; Notarnicola C. et al., 2013; Singh et al.,
2014), refined Lee filter (Longepe et al., 2009; Lessard-Fontaine et al., 2012; Huang
et al., 2013; He et al., 2017; Zhou and Zheng, 2017), median filter (Guneriussen et al.,
2001; Malnes and Guneriussen, 2002; Thakur et al., 2013), low pass filter (Nagler,
1996; Baghdadi et al., 1997), multichannel intensity filter (Nagler et al., 2016b), binary
partition tree (Reppucci et al., 2012), De Grandi filter (He GJ et al., 2016), multi-scale
multilooking (Wendleder et al., 2015), and Kuan filter (Pettinato et al., 2014). Some
studies attempted to compare the ability of different filters. Schellenberger et al. (2012)
used the effective number of looks (ENL) and standard deviations to compare the
performance of median, Gamma DEMAP and Frost filter. Results showed that the
median filter performs best in a purely statistical aspect; Frost filter, however, should
be selected since the median filter is not an adaptive filter, which preserves image
details while smoothing speckles by using unequal weights (Tso and Mather, 1999).
They also implied that the window size influences the performance of filters. Thakur et
al. (2013) preferred the median filter, as other filters might cause information loss at
the pixel level. However, these studies only compared few filters and so far, no
extensive comparison has been made to discuss the advantages and disadvantages
of all available filters in a comprehensive overview.

2.5.5. Reliability of Current Validation Approaches

As shown in Figure 2.10, around half of the available studies employed snow cover
classifications based on optical sensors as ground truth to validate the SAR-based
snow cover results. This approach, however, can encounter several problems. First,
for studies only aiming at wet snow monitoring, the date selection of optical images is
critical. Usually, late spring is selected when the snowpack theoretically melts even in
the highest elevation zones (Nagler et al., 2016b). This would ensure that the
SAR-based snow cover mapping detects the entire snow cover extent. However, it
cannot be guaranteed that no dry snow is left.

Additionally, acquisition times of SAR and optical images differ. The resulting temporal
gap leads to uncertainties, because melting processes, sudden snowfall or
precipitation events all may result in different SCE in the optical and SAR data (Luojus
et al., 2007). Most authors, however, selected the nearest sensed image pair, despite
the time difference (e.g., 14 days between PALSAR and Landsat (Park et al., 2014),
14 days between Radarsat-2 and Landsat (Muhuri et al., 2018), six days between
PALSAR and AVNIR-2 (Singh and Venkataraman, 2012)). Even though some
satellites equipped with both SAR and optical sensors at the same platform (e.g., the

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Advanced Land Observation Satellite (ALOS)) may acquire both images at the same
time, the presence of cloud may still hinder the optical observation.

Additionally, the difference between day and night might lead to great variations, as
proven by studies investigating the top layer of a snowpack, which might refreeze
after a cloud-free night with low temperatures. Such a refreeze event increases the
surface backscattering significantly (Floricioiu and Rott, 2001; Notarnicola C. et al.,
2013) and therefore would cause a high contrast between morning and evening
observations (Muhuri et al., 2018). Field surveys also revealed that the infiltration of
rain may cause both, thick ice crusts within the snowpack as well as larger snow
grains (Duguay and Bernier, 2012). On top of that, differing magnitudes of
temperature change in each elevation zone (Bartsch et al., 2007) impede the
possibility to compensate its influence on the snowpack.

When validating SAR-based snow cover classifications with products derived from
optical data, the accuracy of these reference datasets is of importance. Such products
are often calculated applying a threshold of 0.4 NDSI, which might cause an
underestimation as only pixels containing more than 50% of snow will be selected
(Crawford et al., 2013; Crawford, 2015). Some researchers therefore used 0.7 as a
threshold to allow only fully snow covered pixels for detection (Schellenberger et al.,
2012; Notarnicola C. et al., 2013). In addition, limiting the optical-based snow cover
detection to NDSI alone may introduce errors. It is generally advised to include
additional tests, such as Landsat TM band4 ≥ 0.11 (Winther and Hall, 1999) and
SPOT band3 ≥ 0.11 (Xiao et al., 2004) or using an NDSI-NDVI threshold to address
dense forest regions (Klein et al., 1998). Even though the need for these additional
tests is well-known in the optical snow cover community, SAR-based studies often fail
to include these tests. Finally, as the spatial resolutions of SAR and optical images
differ, the comparison procedures generally involve resampling operations (Pettinato
et al., 2006), i.e., aggregating the higher resolution snow cover product to match the
coarser one. Nevertheless, the definition of SCE in the coarser pixel may affect the
validation significantly (Nagler et al., 2016b).

To overcome the constraints related to comparisons between optical and SAR-based

snow cover classifications, a promising alternative approach is regional or global
scale weather forecasting and/or snow models as suggested in Beniston et al. (2018).
Although these models are criticized for their comparatively low spatial resolution,
dependency on empirical parameter setting (Lehning et al., 2002; Krol and Löwe,
2016) and the oversimplification of the snowpack (Steiger and Abegg, 2013), they can
provide useful information such as ground temperature and snow accumulation
amount (Wang et al., 2015; Zhou and Zheng, 2017). As the complexity and spatial
resolution of such models advance, they may constitute a notable alternative for
future validation approaches of SAR-based snow cover products.

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2.5.6. Opportunities of Data Fusion for SAR-based Snow Cover Detection

2.5.6.1. SAR flight direction (ascending and descending)

In Nagler’s study (2016a), merging ascending and descending SAR observations was
mentioned as a crucial future development, which was also discussed in the Sentinel
for science (SEN4SCI) scientific workshop (Malenovský et al., 2012). It was also
suggested that this combination could reduce the dependency of LIA (Baghdadi et al.,
1997; Callegari et al., 2016). However, only four studies utilized this solution, although
Rott and Nagler already tested this approach in their pioneer paper (1995). In their
paper, two ratio maps were masked with shadow and layover areas as well as regions
containing extreme LIA. Then they combined the images pixel-wise based on the LIA
value. Bartsch et al. (2007) applied a similar approach but considered potential
thawing. The general problem when combining different flight paths is the ground
temperature difference between sensing times may lead to a change of the snowpack
condition (Floricioiu and Rott, 2001). Thus, Bartsch et al. (2007) recommended a
separate classification threshold for each direction.

2.5.6.2. SAR polarization (co- and cross-polarization)

Several studies indicated that the influence of LIA on the backscattering difference
between dry and wet snow is also polarization-related, and that cross-polarization can
preserve a better difference under small LIA conditions (Strozzi et al., 1997; Nagler et
al., 2016b). Hence, the combination of different polarizations could be a promising
option. Nagler et al. (2016b) calculated the ratio map for VV and VH independently
and fused them with their weights based on LIA. So far, however, no other study
investigated this potential and, therefore, more research is required.

2.5.6.3. Combination of SAR with optical imagery

Although many studies referred to the benefit of synergizing cloud-penetrating SAR

with the high spatial/temporal resolution of optical imagery, so far there are only very
few studies available that actually followed this approach. In all reviewed studies, only
12 performed a fusion of optical- and SAR-based snow cover classifications. This
implies that there is still some potential to develop a dedicated algorithm combining
optical and SAR data for snow cover detection.

So far, most studies relied on optical-based NDSI calculation to map total SCE and
then apply Nagler’s method to map wet snow. Subsequently, dry, wet and total SCE
can be derived (Pettinato et al., 2017; Nagler et al., 2018; Snapir et al., 2019). This
simple areal calculation, however, is not a genuine fusion of the same SCE type
sensed by different sensors. A possible integration is to assign weights to both
SAR-based and optical-based snow cover classifications as pursued by Malnes et al.
(2004), Solberg et al. (2005) and Solberg et al. (2010). In these studies, time-series of
SAR-based total SCE’s were merged with total snow cover derived from MODIS by
applying (1) confidence values assigned to each sensor’s snow cover result, and (2) a

65
 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

time-dependent function defining how quickly the confidence value would decay over
time. Ultimately, the algorithm would select the snow cover result with the highest
confidence value for each pixel. Nevertheless, as those key parameters were
selected by finding the optimal solution through trial and error, the case-dependency
hinders transferability to other locations and periods. A more universally applicable
combination procedure, however, is still lacking.

2.5.6.4. Combination of SAR with passive microwave imagery

Theoretically, the temperature information sensed by passive microwave sensors

would support analysis and detection of SCE, as the temperature of wet and dry snow
and bare ground differs. However, the coarse spatial resolution of passive microwave
sensors aggravates an integration of this data into SAR processing. Moreover, Liu et
al. (2006) identified SAR-derived and passive microwave-derived SCE only match for
61%. They suggested this mismatch may be due to fact that the two sensors measure
different temporal-physical snow parameters as the passive microwave sensor
senses snow emissivity and brightness temperature, which can be analyzed for
deriving snow depth and then linked to the actual SWE. In contrast, SAR records the
backscattering representing long-term morphology processes prior to the sensing
time. Consequently, combining the two data sources led to biased results, which
represent different temporal-physical snow parameters. A similar magnitude of
mismatch was also observed by Zhou and Zheng (2017).

2.5.7. Overall Trajectory of Spaceborne SAR-Based SCE Detection and Future

Possibilities

According to the available studies reviewed in the present paper, the overall trajectory
of spaceborne SAR-based SCE detection may be summarized into three phases as
depicted in Figure 2.12.

After the launch of ERS-1 in 1991 and before the launch of ASAR in 2002, the
repeat-pass imagery of ERS-1 allowed for a bi-temporal image analysis. Using this
data source, Rott and Nagler developed their pioneer wet SCE mapping algorithm
based on backscattering information (1995). The same applies to their dry SCE
detection approach (2000) as well as Strozzi et al.’s total SCE mapping with InSAR
technique (1999). Moreover, merging different flight paths for achieving higher
mapping accuracy (Rott and Nagler, 1995) and calculating fractional SCE detection
(Koskinen et al., 1997) were also proposed. In this phase, most of the available
studies only utilized backscattering or InSAR techniques.

New breakthroughs were achieved in the second phase after the launch of ASAR and
before the launch of Sentinel-1 in 2014. Dual/quad-polarization, multi-band, and
constellations of SAR sensors significantly stimulated the development of new snow
cover detection methods. The rich information derived from PolSAR became
achievable. For dealing with the overwhelming amount of parameters from this new
source of information (appendix), machine learning classifications were introduced. In
66
 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

addition, various improvements of wet SCE mapping algorithms were achieved,

including the combination with optical-based SCE (Malnes et al., 2004), and
proposing an algorithm with a multi-year usable reference image optimized for forest
regions (Luojus K. P. et al., 2006).

Topic has already shifted into the third phase since the launch of Sentinel-1 in 2014. In
the hardware aspect, the fine spatial/temporal resolution and freely accessible
Sentinel-1 offer an opportunity for long-term SAR-based SCE detection. Together with
the prosperity of emerging X-band SAR sensors, more SAR-based studies are
foreseeable such as integration and comparison of SCE information achieved from
different bands of SAR sensors. In addition, the Sentinel series’ satellites
constellations significantly improve the potential of multi-sensor fusion as
demonstrated in Nagler et al. (2018). In the algorithm aspect, thanks to the all land
cover applicable total SCE detection approach proposed by Tsai et al. (2019b), it
largely solves the previous studies’ limitation that SAR-based approaches cannot
detect snow accurately in vegetated regions and can only monitor wet SCE. This
provides a great opportunity for future studies to integrate and complement
SAR-based SCE with conventional optical-sensor-based cloud-affected SCE results
to achieve more comprehensive SCE dynamics information in both spatial
(conquering the influence of polar darkness and frequent cloud coverage, with ~20 m
spatial resolution) and temporal (long time-series, daily temporal resolution) aspects.
Another key development is DL, although only few studies exploited Sentinel-1 in
combination with DL techniques so far, it is foreseeable that there will be further
studies utilizing it to solve the current technical challenges, including the influence of
different filtering algorithms, impact of different sensing geometry, less classification
accuracy in the forest regions, and fusion of heterogeneous sensors’ such as Light
detection and ranging (Lidar) as well as passive sensors. In validation aspect; the
need of proper validation for SAR-based SCE—especially wet SCE—still needs to be
addressed. Most of the previous studies did not provide reliable validation due to the
limitation of sparse in situ measurements. Finally, in the application aspect, as
previous studies did not fully utilize the benefit that SAR can distinguish wet and dry
SCE, but only regard the wet SCE as total SCE during snow melting season (Nagler
et al., 2016a), the information of wet SCE which cannot be derived from conventional
optical-based approach (can only detect total SCE) should be further utilized.

Consequently, based on the trajectory and the recent developments of SAR sensors
and snow detection algorithms, it can be expected that in the near future once the
SAR-based SCE detection approach (1) achieves daily temporal resolution by fusing
different SAR sensors’ information (2) reaches satisfactory classification accuracy and
global transferability as proved by Tsai et al. (2019b); SAR-based monitoring
approach would replace the conventional optical-sensor-based SCE detection
approach as more snowpack information can be inferred (such as wet or dry and
surface roughness) and can fundamentally solve the cloud coverage and polar
67
 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

darkness issues.

Figure 2.12 Overall development of algorithms and methods relying on spaceborne

SAR data for snow cover extent (SCE) detection. The three phases denote the
different main algorithms based on available SCE detection algorithms and SAR data.

2.5.8. Difficulties of Sensing Additional Snow Parameters

SWE and SD are two commonly desired snow parameters as both of them can be
used to estimate the amount of water stored within a snowpack. So far, there are
numerous studies aiming to identify the relationship between the information stored in
SAR data and SWE as well as SD. At present, however, there is no solid conclusion to
solve this challenge since various other factors affect the interactions between SAR
signals and both, SWE and SD. The wetness of the snowpack, for example, would
change the relative surface roughness and further affect SAR backscatter (Snehmani
et al., 2015). The correlation between backscattering and SWE would therefore vary
with the conditions of snow, soil (Shi and Dozier, 2000), and the surface roughness
(Shi and Dozier, 1995). The relationship between SD and SAR also links to grain size,
snow density, melting conditions, and temperature (Paloscia et al., 2017; Pettinato et
al., 2017). Simulations suggest that the backscattering would increase with SD in a
coarse-grained snowpack, but decrease in a fine-grained snowpack (Zhou and Zheng,
2017). Consequently, it is unreliable to derive SWE or SD merely from SAR
information as it either requires inversions or empirical models (Arslan et al., 2001;
Singh et al., 2006; Niang et al., 2007; Thakur et al., 2016).

2.6. Conclusion
Snow cover extent is one of the most important cryospheric components, as it
controls global radiation balance, hydrological behavior, vegetation coverage and
affects human activities. Spaceborne SAR offers the capability to quantify snow cover
conditions even under clouded or nighttime conditions, which enables a better

68
 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

understanding of the global snow cover dynamics. Moreover, its polarizations and
phase data provide valuable information about the snowpack characteristics. Three
mainstream SAR-based approaches to map snow cover have been pursued in last
three decades: 1) Detecting wet snow based on SAR backscattering behavior; 2)
PolSAR technique inverting the scattering mechanism of the targeted snow type; and
3) the coherence value calculated from InSAR techniques enabling estimation of total
SCE.

After evaluating relevant studies published within the last three decades, we draw the
following conclusions for monitoring snow cover using spaceborne SAR:

(1) C-band SAR based algorithms dominate the studies, but the recent prosperity of
X-band SAR provides a promising option. Due to the long-term preference of the
C-band wavelength and its better capability to detect snow when compared to L-band
SAR, C-band SAR has the longest history and is utilized for snow cover detection
more often than any other sensor. However, many recent studies have proven that
X-band is more suitable to detect dry snow; considering the amount of new and
planned X-band missions, an increase in popularity of X-band based snow cover
detection algorithms therefore can be expected for the near future.

(2) Most studies focused on mountainous regions, especially the European Alps (32%)
and the Asian Himalaya (31%), leading to an imbalanced distribution of study sites.
The relatively small size of the study sites also implies the lack of utility of the recent
wide-swath sensing mode.

(3) The majority of studies investigated snow cover for one year with an average of
two observations within this year to account for the dynamics of the snowpack. These
temporal aspect-limited studies indicate that there is still a gap in understanding the
long-term capability of SAR-based algorithms to detect snow consistently.

(4) For detecting wet SCE, the majority of studies relied on backscattering-based
approaches. More than 55% of the reviewed studies only detected wet snow, with
82% of those studies applying a backscattering-based approach proposed by Nagler
et al. in 2000. However, we observed a recent increase in studies relying on InSAR-
and PolSAR-based algorithms especially for the detection of dry and total SCE.

(5) This review confirms the importance of ancillary data such as a DEM, a land cover
map as well as meteorological data as additional inputs into SAR-based snow
detection algorithms. Based on the DEM data, information about LIA, SAR shadow
and layover can be derived; land cover information is useful to mitigate the negative
effects of vegetated areas on the classification accuracy, and the actual snow melting
conditions can be inferred from meteorological data.

(6) Commonly employed classification methods shifted from supervised ML approach

towards more sophisticated DL approaches, and the maturity of optical-based snow
cover products enables a selection of suitable training samples for supervised
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 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

classifications.

(7) Technical advances in recently launched SAR missions such as wider sensing
swaths, shorter revisit times and quad-polarization make SAR-based snow cover
detection more promising. These technical developments and the mainstream
SAR-based algorithms complement each other well, as the extended coverage can
increase the efficiency of the classification, the shortened revisiting time can support
InSAR-based approaches to sustain more usable coherence, and the
quad-polarization can enrich the information decomposed by PolSAR-based
techniques.

(8) The difficulty of SCE detection in vegetated land cover regions is recently
addressed but further exploration of PolInSAR and TomoSAR techniques should be
investigated. In addition, the influence of filter algorithms on the quality of the final
snow cover product requires additional research.

(9) The synergy of SAR with other sensors (e.g., optical and passive microwave) to
improve the quality of snow cover classifications is still immature and requires further
research. The synergic use with other sensors may also help develop and establish
generally accepted validation strategies.

(10) Thanks to the characteristics of SAR which can penetrate through clouds and
sense ground independently of solar illumination conditions, together with the recent
prosperity of different SAR satellites and advancement of ML/DL algorithms, it is
foreseeable that SAR-based SCE detection approaches can complement
conventional optical sensor-based SCE detection approaches in the near future as
SAR provides more snowpack condition information and can fundamentally solve the
cloud coverage and polar darkness limitations.

Acknowledgments: Support by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

fellowship to Ya-Lun S. Tsai is gratefully acknowledged.

70
 Appendix A

Table 2.4 The summary of included studies’ SCE monitoring strategy (targeted snow type, classification method and data synergy).

Wet snow Dry snow Total snow

Band

Classification Synergy
Sensor Employed approach
Un- Dual-
Backscatter PolSAR InSAR Topo-based Others Supervised
supervised
Optical
orbits
(Ventura, Schellenberger,
X-Band

Notarnicola, Zebisch,
Maddalena, et al., 2011;
Ventura, Schellenberger,
Notarnicola, Zebisch, Nagler,
COSMO- (Schellenberg
et al., 2011; Notarnicola et
SkyMed er et al., 2012)
al., 2012; Schellenberger et
al., 2012; Notarnicola C. et
al., 2013; Pettinato et al.,
2014; Paloscia et al., 2017;
Pettinato et al., 2017)
(Rizzol (Rizzoli
i et al., et al.,
(Besic, Vasile, Chanussot, (Rizzoli et
2016; (Besic, Vasile, 2015;
Stankovic, Ovarlez, et al., al., 2015;
(Wendled Guo et Chanussot, Rizzoli
2012; Duguay and Bernier, Rizzoli et
TerraSAR-X er et al., al., Stankovic, et al.,
2012; Pettinato et al., 2014; al., 2016;
2015) 2017; Ovarlez, et al., 2016;
Besic et al., 2015; Rizzoli et Rizzoli et
Rizzoli 2012) Rizzoli
al., 2015) al., 2017)
et al., et al.,
2017) 2017)
(Rott and Nagler, 1995;
C-Band

(Li et
Nagler, 1996; Baghdadi et
al.,
al., 1997; Koskinen et al., (Nagl
2001;
1997; Nagler and Rott, 2000; er
Kumar
Löw et al., 2002; Tampellini, (Nagler and and
ERS-1/2 and
2003; Pettinato et al., 2004; Rott, 2000) Rott,
Venkat
Brogioni et al., 2006; Luojus 2000
arama
K. P. et al., 2006; Koskinen et )
n,
al., 2010; Huang et al., 2013;
2011)
Salcedo and Cogliati, 2014)
 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

(Nagler and Rott, 2000;

Guneriussen et al., 2001;
Haefner, 2001; Haefner et
al., 2001; Löw et al., 2002;
Malnes and Guneriussen,
2002; Magagi and Bernier,
2003; Anttila et al., 2005;
Hongxing et al., 2006; Luojus (Malnes and
Radatsat-1 K. et al., 2006; Pettinato et Guneriussen,
al., 2006; Luojus et al., 2007; 2002)
Luojus et al., 2008; Luojus K.
et al., 2009; Luojus K. P.,
Pulliainen J. T., Blasco
Cutrona A., et al., 2009;
Luojus K. P., Pulliainen J. T.,
Metsämäki S. J., et al., 2009;
Huang et al., 2013)
(Malnes et al., 2004; (Malnes et al., (Malnes
Pettinato et al., 2004; 2004; Pettinato et al.,
Solberg et al., 2004; Storvold et al., 2004; 2004;
and Malnes, 2004; Nagler Solberg et al., Solberg
and Rott, 2005; Solberg et (Singh, 2004; Storvold et al.,
al., 2005; Brogioni et al., Venkat and Malnes, 2005;
(Vali
2006; Solberg et al., 2006; arama 2004; Solberg Solberg
nia et
Storvold, Malnes, and n, et al., 2005; et al.,
al.,
Lauknes, 2006; Valinia et al., Rao, Brogioni et al., (Kumar 2006;
2006
2006; Bartsch et al., 2007; et al., 2006; Solberg and Solberg
;
ENVISAT Longépé et al., 2008; Singh, 2008; et al., 2006; Venkatara et al.,
Barts
Venkataraman, Rao, et al., Kumar Storvold, man, 2008;
ch et
2008; Solberg et al., 2008; and Malnes, and 2011) Pettinato
al.,
Valenti et al., 2008; Longepe Venkat Lauknes, S et al.,
2007
et al., 2009; Pettinato S et arama 2006; Solberg 2009;
)
al., 2009; Pettinato Simone n, et al., 2008; Pettinato
et al., 2009; Pettianato et al., 2011) Pettinato S et Simone
2010; Solberg, Koren, et al., al., 2009; et al.,
2010; Huang et al., 2013; Pettinato 2009;
Thakur et al., 2013; Ji et al., Simone et al., Pettianat
2014) 2009; o et al.,
72
 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

Pettianato et 2010;
al., 2010; Solberg,
Solberg, Koren,
Koren, et al., et al.,
2010; Ji et al., 2010)
2014)
(Dedieu (Huang et
et al., al., 2011;
(Huang et
2012; Zhen et
al., 2011;
Lessard (Guangjun al., 2012;
Dedieu et
-Fontain et al., 2015; Guangjun
al., 2012;
(Dedieu et al., 2012; Duguay e et al., Callegari et et al.,
Zhen et
and Bernier, 2012; 2012; al., 2016; 2015; (Call
al., 2012; (Muhuri,
Lessard-Fontaine et al., (He et Reppuc He GJ et Callegari egari
Wendlede (Thakur et al., Manickam
Radarsat-2 2012; Zhen et al., 2012; He al., ci et al., al., 2016; et al., et al.,
r et al., 2016) , et al.,
Guangjun et al., 2016; 2017) 2012; Muhuri, 2016; He 2016
2015; He 2017)
Thakur et al., 2016; He et al., He Manickam, Guangjun )
et al.,
2017) Guangju et al., 2017; et al.,
2017;
n et al., Muhuri et 2016; He
Muhuri,
2016; al., 2018) GJ et al.,
Ratha, et
He et 2016; He
al., 2017)
al., et al.,
2017) 2017)
(Nagler et al., 2016a; Zhou
(Nijhawan (Nijhawan
and Zheng, 2017; Nagler et
et al., 2018; et al., (Nagler
al., 2018; Pratola and
Wang et al., 2018; Tsai et al.,
Navarro-Sánchez, 2018;
(Zhou and 2018; Tsai Ya-Lun S, 2018;
Sentinel-1 Thakur et al., 2018;
Zheng, 2017) Ya-Lun S, Dietz Snapir et
Wendleder et al., 2018;
Dietz Andreas, al.,
Snapir et al., 2019; Tsai
Andreas, et et al., 2019)
Ya-Lun S, Dietz Andreas, et
al., 2019b) 2019b)
al., 2019b)
(Longepe (Singh, (Singh,
L-Band

(Singh et
et al., Venkatara Venkatara
(Longep al., 2014)
2008; man, and man, and
ALOS-1 e et al., (Longepe
Singh et Rao, 2008; Rao,
2008) et al.,
al., 2011; Venkatara 2008;
2008)
Park et man et al., Singh and
73
 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

al., 2014) 2010; Venkatara

Singh et al., man,
2011; 2012)
Venkatara
man et al.,
2011; Singh
and
Venkatara
man, 2012;
Singh et al.,
2014;
Wang et al.,
2015)
(Usami et (Usami et
ALOS-2
al., 2016) al., 2016)

74
 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

Table 2.5 Summary of included studies’ SCE monitoring strategy (studying region type, validation data and usage of land cover information).

Land cover
Study regions type Validation dataset Involved Only
analysis mask
Band

Meteo
Mountainous Forest Glacier Landsat MODIS AVNIR-2 Aerial
Station

(Ventura,
X-Band

Schellenberg
(Ventura,
er,
Schellenberger,
Notarnicola,
Notarnicola, Zebisch, (Ventura,
Zebisch,
Maddalena, et al., Schellenber
Maddalena,
2011; Ventura, ger,
et al., 2011;
Schellenberger, Notarnicola
Ventura,
Notarnicola, Zebisch, , Zebisch,
Schellenberg
COSMO- Nagler, et al., 2011; Maddalena,
er,
SkyMed Notarnicola et al., et al., 2011;
Notarnicola,
2012; Schellenberger Notarnicola
Zebisch,
et al., 2012; C. et al.,
Nagler, et al.,
Notarnicola C. et al., 2013;
2011;
2013; Pettinato et al., Pettinato et
Notarnicola
2014; Paloscia et al., al., 2014)
et al., 2012;
2017; Pettinato et al.,
Schellenberg
2017)
er et al.,
2012;
75
 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

Notarnicola
C. et al.,
2013;
Pettinato et
al., 2014)
(Rizzoli
(Besic, Vasile, et al.,
Chanussot, 2015;
Stankovic, Ovarlez, Rizzoli
(Guo et al.,
TerraSAR-X et al., 2012; Pettinato et al.,
2017)
et al., 2014; Besic et 2016;
al., 2015; Wendleder Rizzoli
et al., 2015) et al.,
2017)
(Löw et
C-Band

al.,
(Baghdadi et al., (Koskinen et 2002;
1997; Nagler and al., 1997; Luojus
(Nagler and (Löw et
Rott, 2000; Li et al., Luojus K. P. K. P. et
ERS-1/2 Rott, 2000; Li al.,
2001; Tampellini, et al., 2006; al.,
et al., 2001) 2002)
2003; Salcedo and Koskinen et 2006;
Cogliati, 2014) al., 2010) Koskine
n et al.,
2010)
(Guneriussen et al., (Luojus K. et (Hongxi (Luojus K. (Guneri (Luojus
Radatsat-1 2001; Haefner, 2001; al., 2006; ng et al., et al., 2006; ussen et K. et al.,
Haefner et al., 2001; Luojus et al., 2006) Luojus et al., 2006;
76
 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

Malnes and 2007; Luojus al., 2007; 2001; Luojus

Guneriussen, 2002; et al., 2008; Luojus et Pettinat et al.,
Anttila et al., 2005; Luojus K. et al., 2008; o et al., 2007;
Pettinato et al., 2006) al., 2009; Luojus K. et 2006) Luojus
Luojus K. P., al., 2009; et al.,
Pulliainen J. Luojus K. 2008;
T., Blasco P., Luojus
Cutrona A., Pulliainen K. et al.,
et al., 2009; J. T., 2009;
Luojus K. P., Blasco Luojus
Pulliainen J. Cutrona A., K. P.,
T., et al., 2009; Pulliaine
Metsämäki Luojus K. n J. T.,
S. J., et al., P., Blasco
2009) Pulliainen Cutrona
J. T., A., et
Metsämäki al.,
S. J., et al., 2009;
2009) Luojus
K. P.,
Pulliaine
n J. T.,
Metsäm
äki S. J.,
et al.,
2009)
ENVISAT (Malnes et al., 2004; (Valinia (Solberg, (Malnes et (Solberg (Pettinat (Brogioni et
77
 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

Pettinato et al., 2004; et al., Koren, et al., al., 2004; , Koren, o S et al., 2006;
Solberg et al., 2004; 2006; 2010) Storvold et al., al., Pettinato S
Storvold and Malnes, Singh, and 2010) 2009; et al., 2009;
2004; Nagler and Venkata Malnes, Pettinat Pettinato
Rott, 2005; Solberg et raman, 2004; o Simone et
al., 2005; Brogioni et Rao, et Storvold, Simone al., 2009;
al., 2006; Solberg et al., Malnes, et al., Pettianato
al., 2006; Storvold, 2008; and 2009; et al., 2010;
Malnes, and Kumar Lauknes, Pettiana Thakur et
Lauknes, 2006; and 2006; to et al., al., 2013)
Bartsch et al., 2007; Venkata Thakur et 2010)
Longépé et al., 2008; raman, al., 2013; Ji
Solberg et al., 2008; 2011; et al., 2014)
Valenti et al., 2008; Huang
Longepe et al., 2009; et al.,
Pettinato S et al., 2013)
2009; Pettinato
Simone et al., 2009;
Pettianato et al.,
2010; Solberg,
Koren, et al., 2010;
Thakur et al., 2013; Ji
et al., 2014)
(Dedieu et al., 2012; (Huang (Dedieu et (Huang
(Muhuri,
Lessard-Fontaine et et al., al., 2012; (Thakur et et al.,
Radarsat-2 Manickam, et
al., 2012; Reppucci et 2011; Lessard-Font al., 2016) 2011;
al., 2017)
al., 2012; Guangjun Zhen et aine et al., Guangju
78
 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

et al., 2015; He al., 2012; n et al.,

Guangjun et al., 2012; Callegari et 2015;
2016; He GJ et al., Callegar al., 2016; He He et
2016; Thakur et al., i et al., et al., 2017; al.,
2016; He et al., 2017; 2016) Muhuri, 2017;
Muhuri, Manickam, et Manickam, et Muhuri
al., 2017; Muhuri, al., 2017; et al.,
Ratha, et al., 2017; Muhuri, 2018)
Muhuri et al., 2018) Ratha, et al.,
2017; Muhuri
et al., 2018)
(Nagler et al., 2016a;
Nagler et al., 2018;
Nijhawan et al., 2018;
Pratola and (Nagler et al., (Tsai (Tsai
(Tsai
Navarro-Sánchez, (Tsai Ya-Lun (Zhou 2016a; Tsai Ya-Lun Ya-Lun
Ya-Lun S,
2018; Thakur et al., S, Dietz and Ya-Lun S, S, Dietz S, Dietz
Sentinel-1 Dietz
2018; Wang et al., Andreas, et Zheng, Dietz Andreas Andreas
Andreas, et
2018; Wendleder et al., 2019b) 2017) Andreas, et , et al., , et al.,
al., 2019b)
al., 2018; Snapir et al., 2019b) 2019b) 2019b)
al., 2019; Tsai Ya-Lun
S, Dietz Andreas, et
al., 2019b)
(Singh, (Venkatara
L-Band

(Singh
Venkataraman, and (Park et al., man et al.,
ALOS-1 et al.,
Rao, 2008; 2014) 2010;
2011)
Venkataraman et al., Singh and
79
 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

2011; Singh and Venkatara

Venkataraman, 2012; man, 2012;
Park et al., 2014; Park et al.,
Singh et al., 2014; 2014;
Wang et al., 2015) Singh et al.,
2014)

ALOS-2 (Usami et al., 2016)

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 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

Table 2.6 The PolSAR decomposition techniques and parameters employed in the included studies.

Wet and dry Used for final classification

Decomposition Total snow
Parameter snow Employed by studies Wet and Dry Snow-
type response
response snow covered/ free
𝐵𝐻𝐻 , 𝐵𝐻𝑉 (Longepe et al., 2008; 𝐵𝐻𝑉 (Huang 𝐵𝐻𝑉 (Park et al.,
Backscattering
𝐵𝑉𝐻 , 𝐵𝑉𝑉 Huang et al., 2011) et al., 2011) 2014)
(Huang et al., 2011;
Dedieu et al., 2012; 𝑃𝑣𝑜𝑙 (He et al.,
𝑃𝑜𝑑𝑑 single/odd
Pauli Reppucci et al., 2012; 2017)
Cloude and bounce, Low 𝑃𝑑𝑏𝑙 and
decomposition Park et al., 2014; 𝑃𝑑𝑏𝑙 (Huang All (Longepe et
Pottier 𝑃𝑑𝑏𝑙 double/even 𝑃𝑣𝑜𝑙 (Park et
(Cloude and Singh et al., 2014; He et al., 2011) al., 2008)
1996 bounce, al., 2014)
Pottier, 1996) et al., 2017; Muhuri, All (Longepe
𝑃𝑣𝑜𝑙 volume scattering
Manickam, et al., et al., 2008)
2017)
(Martini et al., 2006; 𝜆3
Longepe et al., 2008; (Venkataraman et
Low 𝜆3 for wet
Low H and Singh, al., 2011; Singh et
snow (Singh et 𝜆3 (He
H entropy H(1-A) (Singh Venkataraman, and al., 2014)
al., 2014) Guangjun et
A anisotropy et al., 2014) Rao, 2008; Huang et 𝜆1 , 𝜆2 , 𝜆3 , α
̅
̅
H/A/α Cloude and Low α
̅ for wet al., 2016; He
α
̅ angle Low H, α
̅ al., 2011; Singh et al., (Callegari et al.,
(Cloude and Pottier snow (Dedieu et et al., 2017)
𝜆1 , 𝜆2 , 𝜆3 (Singh et al., 2011; Venkataraman 2016)
Pottier, 1996) 1996 al., 2012) ̅ (Dedieu
H/α
1-H 2011) et al., 2011; Dedieu et H (Singh and
High H for wet et al., 2012)
H(1-A) High A (Singh al., 2012; Reppucci et Venkataraman,
snow (Dedieu et
et al., 2014) al., 2012; Singh and 2012; Park et al.,
al., 2012)
Venkataraman, 2012; 2014; Muhuri,
Park et al., 2014; Manickam, et al.,

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 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

Singh et al., 2014; 2017)

Callegari et al., 2016; A (Singh and
He Guangjun et al., Venkataraman,
2016; He et al., 2017; 2012; Muhuri,
Muhuri et al., 2018; Manickam, et al.,
Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz 2017)
Andreas, et al., α (Singh and
2019b) Venkataraman,
2012)
(Longepe et al., 2008;
Freeman Freeman 𝐹𝑜𝑑𝑑 surface, Singh and
(Freeman and and Durden 𝐹𝑑𝑏𝑙 double-bounce, Venkataraman, 2012;
Durden, 1998) 1998 𝐹𝑣𝑜𝑙 volume scattering Park et al., 2014; He
et al., 2017)
Helix scattering of (Singh and
𝑌ℎ𝑙𝑥 coefficient, Venkataraman, 2012; 𝑌𝑣 (He
Yamaguchi Yamaguchi
𝑌𝑜𝑑𝑑 surface, Park et al., 2014; Guangjun et
(Yamaguchi et et al.
𝑌𝑑𝑏𝑙 double-bounce, Singh et al., 2014; He al., 2016; He
al., 2006) 2006
𝑌𝑣𝑜𝑙 volume scattering Guangjun et al., 2016; et al., 2017)
𝑃𝑠 , 𝑃𝑑 , 𝑃𝑣 , 𝑃𝑐 He et al., 2017)
𝜓1 (Callegari et
𝜓1 , 𝜓2 , 𝜓3
al., 2016)
Touzi (Touzi, 𝜏1 , 𝜏2 , 𝜓𝜏3 (Muhuri, Manickam,
Touzi 2007 𝜏1 , 𝜏2 (Muhuri,
2007) 𝛼1 , 𝛼2 , 𝛼3 et al., 2017)
Manickam, et al.,
𝜙1 , 𝜙2 , 𝜙3
2017)
(Antropov et al., Antropov et Generalized volume (Muhuri, Ratha, et al.,
2011) al. 2011 scattering 2017)
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 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

Low 𝐾0 for wet

Kennaugh
Schmitt et al. Kennaugh elements snow (Wendleder et al., 𝐾0 (Wendleder
(Schmitt et al.,
2015 𝐾1 ~𝐾9 (Wendleder et 2015) et al., 2015)
2015)
al., 2015)
Derived
parameter
Low TP
Total power (TP) (Singh et al., (Singh et al., 2011)
2011)
(Singh et al., 2011;
(Venkataraman et
Polarization fraction High PF for wet High PF Venkataraman et al.,
Van Zyl et al. al., 2011; Singh et
(PF) (Van Zyl et al., snow (Muhuri et (Singh et al., 2011; Singh et al.,
1987 al., 2014; Muhuri
1987) al., 2018) 2011) 2014; Muhuri et al.,
et al., 2018)
2018)
Ainsworth et Polarimetric High PA
al. asymmetry (PA) (Singh et al., (Singh et al., 2014)
2002 (Ainsworth et al., 2002) 2014)
Low LA
Lüneburg Lüneburg anisotropy
(Singh et al., (Singh et al., 2014)
2001 (LA) (Lüneburg, 2001)
2014)
single-bounce High SERD
eigenvalue relative when snow is
difference (SERD) wet as the SERD
Allain et al. (Dedieu et al., 2012;
double-bounce surface (Dedieu et al.,
2006 Singh et al., 2014)
eigenvalue relative scattering 2012)
difference (DERD) dominates
(Allain et al., 2006) (Dedieu et al.,
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 2 Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

2012)
Lee and Copolarization
Pottier Coherence (Lee J. and (Singh et al., 2014)
2009 Pottier E., 2009)
polarimetric
Lee and copolarization phase
Pottier difference (Singh et al., 2014)
2009 (PPD) (Lee J. and
Pottier E., 2009)
Huynen parameter 𝐴0 (Longepe et al., 2008)
Radar Vegetation Index
(Longepe et al., 2008)
(RVI)
Degree of polarization
(Usami et al., 2016)
(DoP)

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3 Wet and Dry Snow Detection Using Sentinel-1 SAR Data for
Mountainous Areas with a Machine Learning Technique
Tsai, Y.-L.S., Dietz, A., Oppelt, N., & Kuenzer, C. (2019). Wet and Dry Snow
Detection Using Sentinel-1 SAR Data for Mountainous Areas with a Machine
Learning Technique. Remote Sensing, 11, 895

Abstract

Traditional studies on mapping wet Snow Cover Extent (SCE) often feature limitations
especially in vegetated and mountainous areas. The aim of this study is to propose a
new total and wet SCE mapping strategy based on freely accessible spaceborne SAR
data. The approach is transferable on a global scale as well as for different land cover
types (including densely vegetated forest and agricultural regions), and is based on
the use of backscattering coefficient, interferometric SAR coherence, and polarimetric
parameters. Furthermore, four topographical factors were included in the simple
tuning of random forest-based land cover type-dependent classification strategy.
Results showed the classification accuracy was above 0.75, with an F-measure
higher than 0.70, in all five selected regions of interest located around globally
distributed mountain ranges. Whilst excluding forest type land cover classes, the
accuracy and F-measure increases to 0.80 and 0.75. In cross-location model set, the
accuracy can also be maintained at 0.80 with non-forest accuracy up to 0.85. It has
been found that the elevation and polarimetric parameters are the most critical factors,
and that the quality of land cover information would also affect the subsequent
mapping reliability. In conclusion, through comprehensive validation using optical
satellite and in-situ data, our land cover-dependent total SCE mapping approach has
been confirmed robustly applicable and the holistic SCE map for different months
were eventually derived.

Keywords: Synthetic Aperture Radar, InSAR, PolSAR, Backscattering, Random

Forest, Snow Cover Area, Land Use Land Cover, Sentinel-2, Landsat

3.1. Introduction

Snow cover is an important parameter in the context of water availability, the global
radiation balance and natural disasters such as floods and avalanches. It is also a
crucial resource for tourism and hydropower generation (Ancey and Bain, 2015; Huss
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 3 Wet and Dry Snow Detection Using Sentinel-1 SAR Data for Mountainous Areas with a Machine
Learning Technique

et al., 2017; Kevin et al., 2017; Dorji et al., 2018). Climate change has been affecting
snow cover extent (SCE), its amount, and its distribution globally, generally leading to
a decline of the aforementioned parameters (Bulygina et al., 2009; Brown and
Robinson, 2011; Dyrrdal et al., 2013; Beniston et al., 2018). This was also stated in
the Synthesis Report of Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (Pachauri et al., 2014). The latest IPCC special
report of 2018 reveals severe potential risks due to more extreme SCE changes and
melting caused by global warming, which would affect winter tourism and hydrology
(Hoegh-Guldberg et al., 2018). As summarized by Beniston et al. (2018) and Brown et
al. (2011), because of the rising temperature as well as changes in atmospheric
circulation patterns, snow depth (SD) and snow cover duration (SCD) have exhibited
a decreasing trend in the past decades. Additionally, based on climate model
simulations and the IPCC special report, a declining trend of SCE must be expected,
with an even more severe impact on mountain regions (Schmucki et al., 2015;
Beniston et al., 2018).

Because snow cover represents such an important component of the Earth’s

cryosphere, it is crucial to detect and monitor snow cover, its conditions and the
processes that lead to its current and future developments. As a result, several
international monitoring projects and products exist, comprising the National Snow
and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)’s MODIS-based snow cover products (Riggs and Hall,
2015), the European Space Agency (ESA)’s GlobSnow products (Solberg,
Wangensteen, et al., 2010), the German Aerospace Center (DLR)’s Global SnowPack
(Dietz et al., 2015), ESA’s Satellite Snow Product Inter-comparison and Evaluation
Exercise (SnowPEx) (Metsämäki et al., 2017). Most of the aforementioned SCE
products are based on multispectral data. Applied methods to detect snow cover from
multispectral data are mature, but lack the ability to detect snow under cloud-covered
conditions or during the (polar) night. Since spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar
(SAR) has the advantage of sensing without the dependency of solar illumination and
weather conditions, it has been progressively explored for SCE mapping. Moreover,
regarding the information derived from backscattering and phase records, SAR data
is not affected by confusions between snow and ice-clouds – a common problem
occurring in multispectral imagery (Macander et al., 2015). Thus, after the launch of
the ERS-1 in 1991, many studies investigated the viability of repeat-pass
multi-temporal SAR-based approaches to detect SCE. The most frequently employed
SAR-based approach is the backscattering-based method, also known as the
“Nagler’s method” (Nagler and Rott, 2000). It utilizes two SAR images sensed at
snow-covered and snow-free conditions, and derives the wet SCE by thresholding the
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 3 Wet and Dry Snow Detection Using Sentinel-1 SAR Data for Mountainous Areas with a Machine
Learning Technique

ratio image of their backscattering coefficients value. This approach was thoroughly
improved (Luojus K. P. et al., 2006; Notarnicola C. et al., 2013; Salcedo and Cogliati,
2014); hence, it has been widely applied to various new spaceborne SAR sensors
(Magagi and Bernier, 2003; Venkataraman et al., 2008; Schellenberger et al., 2012;
Nagler et al., 2016b).

However, as the backscattering-based approach can only map wet SCE,

interferometric SAR (InSAR) as well as polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) have been
additionally investigated for their potential to detect total SCE, i.e. dry SCE plus wet
SCE. The coherence information derived from InSAR can map both wet and dry snow
as the snow-free area would feature relatively high coherence due to more stable
scatter mechanism (Singh, Venkataraman, Rao, et al., 2008; Snehmani et al., 2015).
In contrast, PolSAR technique can theoretically distinguish dry snow, wet snow and
snow-free areas, based on the PolSAR parameters decomposed from
multi-polarization SAR image stating the geometrical scattering mechanism (Cloude
and Pottier, 1996). Considering the more complicated and rich information derived
from InSAR and PolSAR, these input parameters are not suitable to be analyzed with
a traditional thresholding approach alone. Fortunately, acknowledging the advance of
computation hardware and increased processing power in recent years, machine
learning (ML) is now becoming a viable option for large scale processing of SAR data
in the context of SCE detection. Several studies such as Huang et al. (2011) and
Longepe et al. (2008), already tested the feasibility employed SVM with PolSAR
parameters to classify dry SCE, wet SCE and bare-ground areas. He et al. (2017)
utilized 36 PolSAR parameters and interferometric coherence to map the dry and wet
SCE; Usami et al. (2016) even proposed using a quaternion neutral network to map
the wet SCE with PALSAR-2, PolSAR information and local incidence angle (LIA).

So far, available studies are still being considered at a developing stage, which
constrains their transferability to different sites and years. Currently available studies
to map SCE from SAR data have at least one of the following limitations: (1) regional
aspect: only focused on the Asian Himalaya and European Alps; (2) spatial aspect:
only processed on a local scale; (3) temporal aspect: only monitored SCE for a year
with few different observations; (4) algorithm: only detected wet SCE with Nagler’s
backscattering-threshold approach and did not consider topographical information; (5)
vegetation: rarely considered land cover information in the algorithm itself, or simply
just masked out the forest region; (6) classification: only employed SVM approaches
and concluded that the tuning of the SVM and the limited data handling capacity pose
severe challenges (Pal, 2005; Adam et al., 2014; Rodriguez-Galiano et al., 2015). The
constraints mentioned above largely limit the currently available SAR-based SCE
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 3 Wet and Dry Snow Detection Using Sentinel-1 SAR Data for Mountainous Areas with a Machine
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detection algorithms as they are often not transferable, not operated on forest regions,
or they can only detect wet snow. Consequently, the aim of the presented study is to
introduce a simple tuning ML technique to detect total SCE in different regions based
on spaceborne SAR imagery, and to validate this method comprehensively. The
following objectives will be addressed: (1) employing openly accessible dataset with
global coverage to build a universally applicable approach (2) fusing different
SAR-based information as well as topographical factors to detect total SCE (3)
applying the model to five regions based on each region’s multi-months data to
examine the model’s robustness (4) utilizing a simple tuning random forest (RF)
approach to solve the multi-SAR information-based classification problem (5) building
a universal cross-temporal/spatial land cover-dependent classification model set (6)
validating the results comprehensively based on in-situ data and reference data sets
originating from multispectral data sources (7) analyzing the influence of different land
cover types on the classification’s accuracy.

3.2. Study Areas and Dataset

3.2.1. Study Areas

As this study intends to examine the global transferability of our approach, five
regions around the globe were selected as shown in Figure 3.1, where land cover
types for each region is shown (with detailed information presented in Table 3.1).
Because one of our objectives is to compare the influence of different land cover
types on the SCE detection, we selected regions in different continents, mountain
ranges and elevation zones, increasing the overall land cover diversity.

Table 3.1 Attributes of five selected study areas along with their location, mountain
range, country, and their highest peak.

Test sites 1 (MR) 2 (ZG) 3 (MW) 4 (LL) 5 (AG)

Hemisphere North North North North South
Continent Europe Europe Northern Asia Southern
America America
Mountain Alps Alps Sierra Himalaya Andes
range (Switzerland) (Germany) Nevada (Nepal) (Argentina)
(Country) (United
States)
Highest Monte Rosa Zugspitze Mount Langtang Aconcagua
peaks (4,634 m) (2,962 m) Whitney Lirung (6,960 m)
(Height) (4,421 m) (7,234 m)
Nearby city Lausanne Munich Bakersfield Kathmandu Santiago

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 3 Wet and Dry Snow Detection Using Sentinel-1 SAR Data for Mountainous Areas with a Machine
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Figure 3.1 Land cover types (derived from ESA Climate Change Initiative (CCI) land
cover product) for the five selected test sites: (a) Monte Rosa (MR), (b) Zugspitze
(ZG), (c) Mount Whitney (MW), (d) Landtang Lirung (LL), and (e) Aconcagua (AG).
Location of each region around the globe is illustrated in (f).

3.2.2. SAR Data

As this study aims at using openly accessible data sources, Sentinel-1 imagery
provided by the European Space Agency (ESA) were employed. The conventional
interferometric wide swath (IW) acquisition mode was used in this study. Both level 1
Single Look Complex (SLC) and Ground Range Detected (GRD) products were used,
with the latter merging all sub-swath and debursting.

To validate our algorithm across different years and months/seasons, a total of three
datasets (including one for the first hydrological year and two for the second
hydrological year) were selected for each study area (details are shown in Figure 3.2
and Table 3.2). In order to represent snow cover conditions as well as to maximize the
similarity of period sample used in each region, the months of November, February
and May of the first year were selected in each region. However for MW and LL sites
the months of February, April and May were chosen instead. This is due to the fact
that in the MW and LL regions, the imagery were stable only after February 2017, as a
result of a much rarer revisiting frequency of Sentinel-1, according to their orbit design,
in comparison to European regions. Regarding AG, the only site located in the
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 3 Wet and Dry Snow Detection Using Sentinel-1 SAR Data for Mountainous Areas with a Machine
Learning Technique

southern hemisphere, has opposite season, the corresponding months samples were
used. Two different months of imagery were used for external validation in examining
the month-dependency of established model set.

Figure 3.2 Selected date of SAR imagery for five regions in two hydrological years.

Table 3.2 Summary of the SAR data (Sentinel-1) and optical data (Sentinel-2, S2;
Landsat-7/8, L7/8) used for training and validation set of this study. Note: reference
image of each region for calculating wet snow cover extent (SCE) is marked with an
asterisk (*); optical images employed in validation set are included in brackets after
the used SAR image dates.

Validation Set
(Second hydrological year)
Training Set
Month 1 Month 2
(First hydrological year)
(Month not included (Month included
in training set) in training set)
Test Site 1: Monte Rosa (MR)
(Sentinel-1A, Ascending, relative orbit number: 88)
(Landsat-7/8, path: 195, row: 28)
2018 Mar 12-24 2018 May 11-23
2016 Nov 17-29
(L7: Mar 23) (L8: May 18)
2017 Feb 09-21
2017 May 16-28
* 2017 Aug 08
Test Site 2: Zugspitze (ZG)
(Sentinel-1A, Ascending, relative orbit number: 117)
(Landsat-7, path: 193, row: 27) (Sentinel-2, tile number: T32TPT)
2016 Nov 07-19 2018 Mar 14-26 2018 May 13-25

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 3 Wet and Dry Snow Detection Using Sentinel-1 SAR Data for Mountainous Areas with a Machine
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(L7: Mar 25) (S2: May 07)

2017 Feb 23- Mar 07
2017 May 18-30
* 2017 Aug 10
Test Site 3: Mount Whitney (MW)
(Sentinel-1A, Ascending, relative orbit number: 144)
(Landsat-7, path: 41, row: 35)
2018 Mar 04-16 2018 May 03-15
2017 Feb 25-Mar 09
(L7: Mar 16) (L7: May 03)
2017 Apr 02-14
2017 May 08-20
* 2017 Aug 12
Test Site 4: Landtang Lirung (LL)
(Sentinel-1A, Ascending, relative orbit number: 85)
(Landsat-7, path: 141, row: 40)
2018 Feb 28-Mar 12 2018 May 11-23
2017 Feb 09-21
(L7: Mar 13) (L7: May 16)
2017 Apr 10-22
2017 May 16-28
* 2017 Aug 08
Test Site 5: Aconcagua (AG)
(Sentinel-1B, Descending, relative orbit number: 83)
(Landsat-7/8, path: 233, row: 82)
2018 Jun 10-22 2018 May 05-17
2017 May 10-22
(L8: Jun 13) (L7: May 04)
2017 Aug 14-26
2017 Nov 06-18
* 2018 Jan 29

3.2.3. Auxiliary Data

In addition to SAR-derived information, it is also critical to include both land cover as

well as topographical information for building a model for the total SCE classification.
Considering the global availability, accessibility and data sustainability, we relied on
the version 4 of the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) based on National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA)’s Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) as well as
the land cover data provided by ESA Climate Change Initiative (CCI) product version
2.0.7. SRTM DEM was used to derive elevation, slope and aspect and curvature
topographical information.

Even though the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection

Radiometer (ASTER) DEM has 30 m spatial resolution and global coverage, which is

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 3 Wet and Dry Snow Detection Using Sentinel-1 SAR Data for Mountainous Areas with a Machine
Learning Technique

better when compared to the SRTMv4 DEM (around 80% global coverage and 90 m
spatial resolution), SRTM was chosen as a source for the DEM as it provides higher
vertical accuracy (Jarvis et al., 2008; Hirt et al., 2010; Frey and Paul, 2012; Athmania
and Achour, 2014). For land cover data, we selected the ESA CCI land cover product
because CCI not only provides a global coverage with 300 m resolution and quality
flags denoting the number of valid observations used for classification, but is also
annually updated since 1992 with the latest update in 2015.

The ESA CCI land cover product typology follows the land cover classification system
(LCCS) defined by the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
(ESA, 2017). It originally categorizes 37 different land cover types including some
detailed distinguishes such as different ratio of mosaic tree and shrub with
herbaceous cover; hence all original 37 classes were re-categorized to 16 classes for
our study (definition shown in Appendix A) to maintain class differences while avoiding
complexity.

To train and validate our models, DLR’s Global SnowPack (Dietz et al., 2015) was
employed as it provides daily full globe SCE in 500 m spatial resolution without the
influence of cloud coverage or polar darkness. Moreover, its daily SCE availability
allows for a same-day training and validation when the Sentinel-1 scenes are
acquired.

3.3. Methodology
3.3.1. SAR Imagery Processing

The processing of SAR-based observations requires several steps in order to support

the three mainstream SAR-based SCE detecting approaches comprising
backscattering, InSAR and PolSAR-based methods.

For backscattering-based information, each GRD SAR image was subset to the
extent of the study region. Each image was calibrated, had its thermal noise removed
and underwent speckle filtering with Lee sigma filter (Lee, 1983) (7×7 window size). It
was then corrected for terrain flattening and distortion with the SRTM DEM, and
converted to decibel (dB) units. Finally, each season’s SAR dB dataset was set in
relation to the summertime’s reference dB image (i.e. theoretically bare/snow-free
ground) (Table 3.2). It is important that, as the quantitative analysis is involved (ratio),
the original intensity value or digital numbers (DN) of GRD images need to be
calibrated. This is to represent the genuine brightness value based on the incidence
angle information (Lavalle and Wright, 2009).

Two SLC images were co-registered for InSAR processing to estimate the coherence
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 3 Wet and Dry Snow Detection Using Sentinel-1 SAR Data for Mountainous Areas with a Machine
Learning Technique

value. As IW mode Sentinel-1 imagery is sensed at TOPS mode, it is necessary to

respectively split each sub-swath and merge each burst, before and after
co-registration. The coherence map was then terrain corrected to remove distortions.
For InSAR, the temporal baseline between master and slave images should be
shortened to reduce the magnitude of temporal variability that may affect the
coherence value considerably (Zebker and Villasenor, 1992). Thus, the temporally
nearest SAR imagery of a selected master scene was used as slave image.

Finally, for polarimetric information, each SLC image was calibrated, debursted and
the polarimetric matrix was constructed. As the employed Sentinel-1 IW mode
imagery only provides dual polarizations (VV and VH in all five study regions), the
incoherent polarimetric C2 (2×2) complex covariance matrix formed by co- and
cross-polarized complex scattering amplitudes was used (Pellizzeri, 2003; Lee J.-S.
and Pottier E., 2009). The refined Lee filter (Lee, 1981) with 7×7 window size was
then applied to de-speckle, and a decomposition was performed before the final
terrain correction. In the presented study, the H/A/α decomposition proposed by
Cloude and Pottier (Cloude and Pottier, 1996) was selected due to the availability of
dual-polarizations as well as the intensive employment frequency and its viability to
detect SCE (Dedieu et al., 2012; Singh and Venkataraman, 2012; Singh et al., 2014;
Callegari et al., 2016). Under the commonly used assumption of reciprocal targets (i.e.
scattering amplitude of VH and HV are the same) (Pellizzeri, 2003), H/A/α
decomposition utilizes the eigenvalues and eigenvectors calculated from the
coherency matrix, which then composes the H/A/α, representing the entropy
(randomness of depolarization of scattering type), anisotropy (normalized difference
of importance of scattering type) and scattering angle (dominant scattering angle and
type). The comprehensive descriptions of decomposition can refer to (Cloude and
Pottier, 1996; Pellizzeri, 2003).

3.3.2. Total SCE Detection

3.3.2.1. Random Forest Classification

As the aim of this study is to detect snow cover on the land surface of various regions
around the globe, a simple tuning classifier which is capable of efficiently solving a
two-class classification problem is necessary. According to the Global Observing
System for Climate (GCOS) (Key et al., 2007), a spatial resolution of at least 100 m is
necessary for snow cover mapping in mountain regions. Therefore it has been set as
the output of the implemented model setup. In this study, the random forest (RF)
(Breiman, 2001) was chosen to classify snow cover based on SAR observations.
Compared to other supervised classifiers, RF has multiple advantages including a

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Learning Technique

relatively short training time, low computation load, capability to handle high
dimensional data with missing values, support of parallel processing, simple tuning of
parameters, avoiding of over-fitting, providing importance indexes of input variables,
and providing an internal quality index (out-of-bag (OOB) error) (Breiman, 2001;
Gislason et al., 2006; Archer and Kimes, 2008; Ali et al., 2012; Sazonau, 2012;
Horning, 2013; Belgiu and Drăguţ, 2016). Due to these advantages, RF has been
widely applied to many remote sensing-based classification topics (Ham et al., 2005;
Pal, 2005; Cutler et al., 2007; Chan and Paelinckx, 2008; Immitzer et al., 2012;
Rodriguez-Galiano et al., 2012; Feng et al., 2015; Belgiu and Drăguţ, 2016; Immitzer
et al., 2016). However, it is still surprising that, so far, studies relying on RF classifiers
for SCE mapping are very rare.

In the present study, the two required tuning parameters for saving memory
consumption and computation time while yielding the highest classification
performance after several test runs, that is, the parameters of the number of trees L
and number of random features assigned to each tree 𝜃𝑘 , are respectively set to 600
and the default value (square root of total feature numbers). Although several studies
demonstrated that L has less influence than 𝜃𝑘 on the classification accuracy (Ghosh
et al., 2014; Du et al., 2015; Belgiu and Drăguţ, 2016), different L values were tested
(ranging from 50 to 1000) in Monte Rosa (MR) region and the resultant classification
accuracy and processing time are presented in Appendix B. It is found that the RF
model with 600 trees can efficiently achieve on optimized accuracy. This finding
agrees with previous studies suggesting that a tree number of around 500 is generally
sufficient (Canovas-Garcia and Alonso-Sarria, 2015; Cánovas-García et al., 2017).

3.3.2.2. Random Forest Model Setup

For building the RF models, the selected input variables include: (1) SAR-based
observations (backscattering ratio, interferometric coherence, and polarimetric H/A/α
parameters as mentioned in 3.1); (2) topographical information: elevation, slope,
aspect, and curvature derived from SRTM DEM; (3) land cover classes (ESA CCI land
cover product); (4) total SCE (Global SnowPack daily SCE).

The RF models were established separately for each land cover class. Namely, each
modelling trial consists of N RF models with N referring to the number of land cover
classes in the study region. To test the influence of the three SAR observations and
the four topographical factors on the RF performance, they were combined in varying
setups. Firstly, uni-, dual- and three SAR observation-combined based models were
tested. Then, the highest accuracy model was added with uni- and all topographical
information. Eventually, the best observation-factor combination model was then
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applied in two individual RF model scenarios. In the first case, each region’s first
year’s data was used to build the model for each region individually, which were then
correspondingly applied to the region’s second year’s data. Consequently in the
second case, the input data of all test regions were merged from the first year’s data
to build one aggregated model, which was applied to the second year.

3.3.2.3. Data Splitting for Model Training and Validation, Calculation of

Accuracy Evaluation Measurements

To establish the RF model as well as to achieve a comprehensive validation, in the

presented study many different sources of data were used, including GSP,
optical-based SCE, and snow depth data of meteorological stations. The overall data
splitting for each region’s each land cover class’s model training and validation is
illustrated in Figure 3.3.

First, to train the RF model, 70% of the pixels of the first year’s data (including
SAR-based observations and topographical factors mentioned in 3.2.2) were
randomly selected and facilitated to build the model. The established model was then
internally validated with 30% of the first year’s GSP data which were manually omitted
from building the model. It must be noted that the OOB samples, which account for
around 37% of input data which were automatically not employed in the training
sample when building the RF model and assigning features to the model trees, were
not used for cross-validation in the presented study. The coarse resolution of GSP
(500 m) would inevitably lead to spatial autocorrelation between training and OOB
samples. Namely, the value between two sample sets are dependent, which could
lead to overestimation of OOB accuracy (Cánovas-García et al., 2017).

Then the established RF model (only trained by first year’s GSP data) was used to
predict the SCE of the second year, which was then validated with additional external
validation sources, including the second year’s GSP (two sets of data, as shown in
Table 3.2), Landsat/Sentinel-2-based SCE, and meteorological data.

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Figure 3.3 Data splitting for model training and validation including internal-, external
validation, Out-of-bag (OOB) sample, and training sample based on Global
SnowPack (GSP), optical-based snow cover extent (SCE), and snow depth data.

When comparing the different model inputs and setups, one of the most critical steps
is to evaluate the specific model performances. Hence, an accuracy assessment was
introduced, including overall accuracy, F-measure (Lewis and Gale, 1994), and ’Area
Under the ROC’ (receiver operating characteristic curve) (AUC) (Fawcett, 2006).
These indexes provide different evaluation aspects (Sokolova et al., 2006; Ferri et al.,
2009) as overall accuracy. F-measure focuses on minimizing the number of errors
based on thresholding and qualitative evaluation. In contrast, AUC’s purpose is to
show how accurate the classes are separated, by checking how the model ranks the
examples. Moreover, as it is commonly known that forest-covered areas could
produce erroneous results (based on SAR data snow cover classifications (Pulliainen
et al., 1994; Koskinen et al., 1997; Kumar and Venkataraman, 2011; Dedieu et al.,
2012), the abovementioned accuracy measurements were also used to calculate
non-forested regions separately (the criteria of forest type listed as Appendix ) in order
to examine the influence of vegetation.

Considering the overall accuracy, F-measure, and AUC, all of them can be derived
from the confusion matrix. In this study, overall accuracy is defined as:

𝑂𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝐴𝑐𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑦

𝑝𝑖𝑥𝑒𝑙𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑆𝐶𝐸 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑠 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑆𝐶𝐸 + 𝑝𝑖𝑥𝑒𝑙𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑠𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑒 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑒
=
𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑝𝑖𝑥𝑒𝑙𝑠

(3.1)
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The F-measure score (a.k.a. F1 score), is a composed weighted measurement which

considers both, recall as well as precision. In this study, these accuracy indices were
calculated as following:

𝑝𝑖𝑥𝑒𝑙𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑆𝐶𝐸 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑠 total 𝑆𝐶𝐸 (3.2)

𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 =
𝑝𝑖𝑥𝑒𝑙𝑠 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑓𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑠 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑆𝐶𝐸

𝑝𝑖𝑥𝑒𝑙𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑆𝐶𝐸 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑠 total 𝑆𝐶𝐸 (3.3)

𝑅𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙 =
𝑝𝑖𝑥𝑒𝑙𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑆𝐶𝐸

𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 × 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙 (3.4)

𝐹1 𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 =
𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 + 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙

The last quality index that is calculated to evaluate the performance of the model is
the AUC score, which is based on ROC. The ROC curve is plotted with False Positive
Rate and True Positive Rate on the x- and y-axis, respectively. The specificity can be
defined as:
𝑝𝑖𝑥𝑒𝑙 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑆𝐶𝐸 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑆𝐶𝐸 (3.5)
𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 =
𝑝𝑖𝑥𝑒𝑙 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑆𝐶𝐸
ROC can be interpreted as the probability of ranking randomly selected actual positive
samples over randomly selected negative samples. AUC is defined as the area
between the ROC and y=x function, which has a value range from 0.5 to 1.0.
According to Metz (1978), AUC values range from 0.5 to 0.6, 0.6 to 0.7, 0.7 to 0.8, 0.8
to 0.9, and 0.9 to 1.0, representing bad, satisfactory, good, very good, and excellent
model performance, respectively.

3.3.2.4. Tests for Selecting the Optimized Model Input Variables

As described in section 3.2.2, the possible inputs for the implemented model to detect
total SCE include SAR-based observations (backscattering ratio, InSAR coherence
and PolSAR H/A/α parameters, abbreviated as B, I and P), topographical parameters
(elevation, aspect, slope and curvature, abbreviated as e, a, s and c), and land cover
information originating from the CCI land cover product. To select the optimized input
combination for the model, Monte Rosa in the Swiss Alps (MR) was chosen as a pilot
study site for an in-depth accuracy assessment, as it is characterized by complex
topography and land cover.

To test the influence of the SAR parameters on the model performance, different
combinations of SAR-based observations were employed to train MR’s model set. To
assess their uncertainties, 20 iterations were processed for each trial. Resultant
accuracy assessments are illustrated in Figure 3.4(a). It is obvious that for all land

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cover classes, the combination of all available SAR parameters (B+I+P) produces the
highest accuracy. When relying only on one SAR-based observation, using P leads to
higher classification accuracy than relying on I or B. The accuracy improvement
between using only single SAR parameters and the combination of all available
parameters (B+I+P) is significant. Moreover, it is observed that for land cover classes
that pose considerable challenges in detecting snow cover using SAR (e.g. forested
areas), combining all available SAR parameters leads to a significant improvement of
classification accuracy.

For evaluating the influence of topographical parameters on the model performance,

elevation (e), aspect (a), slope (s), and curvature (c) were added as input parameters
to the ML approach separately. Their influence on the classification accuracy is
presented in Figure 3.4(b). Results show that by successively adding more
topographical parameters the performance of the model increases, leading to its
highest performance if all parameters are added collectively (‘asce’ case in Figure
3.4b). The overall accuracy for all land cover classes could be improved by around
8.4%, while the F1 score improved by 9.4% when compared to using only the
combination of B+I+P as inputs. Even in non-forested areas, the accuracy (NF OA)
rises by around 7.7%. Additionally, the AUC value could be improved by more than
12%. Of all tested topographical parameters, elevation has the biggest impact on the
model performance. For example, using only B+I+P to classify snow cover within the
mixed shrub and herbaceous land cover, the accuracy only reaches around 0.62. This
value could be improved to 0.72 by only adding elevation (e) as an auxiliary input. By
adding the remaining three topographical parameters (s+a+c), the accuracy increases
to 0.74. Testing the influence of different combinations of input parameters (SAR as
well as topographic), it became clear that the combination of all available SAR-based
observations and all topographical parameters leads to the best model performance
for classifying total snow cover. The same tests have been performed for all test sites
listed in Table 3.2, which are not illustrated here for clarity, but leading to the same
results as for the Monte Rosa test site. Therefore, all available SAR-based
observations and all topographical parameters have been used as model inputs for
the subsequently presented results.

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Figure 3.4 Assessment of the influence of different input combinations on the

performance of the model for Monte Rosa (MR) region. SAR-based observations
including backscattering ratio, InSAR coherence and PolSAR H/A/α parameters are
abbreviated as B, I and P. Topographical factors including aspect, slope, curvature,
and elevation are abbreviated as a, s, c, and e. Accuracy of each land cover type
modeled with SAR-based observations only/ together with topographical factors is
shown in (a) and (b), respectively.

3.3.3. Holistic (Total + Wet) SCE Detection and Overall Workflow Overview

The wet SCE detection was performed, in addition to the RF-based classification of
the total SCE, in order to exploit the full potential of the SAR data and to discriminate
between wet and dry snow. To map the wet SCE, the backscattering coefficient-based
‘Nagler’s method’ was applied. As summarized in the introduction, this method

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requires two SAR images sensed at snow-covered and snow-free conditions. It

utilizes a backscattering threshold (-3 dB) to the ratio map of the two images for
detecting the wet SCE. In present study, according to the feasibility of using
cross-temporal reference image proved by Luojus et al. (2006), both years’ SAR data
observed during the snow cover season were combined with the reference scene
(summertime observation) of the first year (Table 3.2).

The overall workflow of mapping total SCE, by applying a supervised RF classification

model set as well as detecting wet SCE with ‘Nagler’s method’, is illustrated in Figure
3.5.

Figure 3.5 Overall workflow of mapping and validating holistic (total + wet) Snow
Cover Extent (SCE) with SAR-based observations, topographical information, land
cover information, and Global SnowPack (GSP) daily snow cover information.

3.4. Results

Based on the optimized input variable combinations tested in 3.2.4, the same
modelling approach was applied to all five study areas. Also, to examine the
transferability of the model setups, the results were comprehensively validated with
different data sets (Landsat/Sentinel-2 and in-situ snow depth information). Finally,
the holistic (total + wet) SCE was derived based on the modeled total SCE and wet
SCE calculated from ‘Nagler’s method’.

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3.4.1. Accuracy Assessment of Modeled Total SCE

As presented in section 2.1, five different study areas located around the globe were
selected and applied with the proposed model. The total SCE mapping model set can
be trained by either (1): using each region’s data to train an individual model set and
therefore training a region-dependent model set, or (2): merging all regions’ data to
train one universal model set, which was then applicable for all regions simultaneously.
Depending on the intentional application of the model, it might be sufficient to have a
spatially confined model which only works for a specific region. However, if it is
required to derive snow cover information for several varying locations, a universal
model set has to be implemented. For both cases, the performance of the model has
to be known and therefore has to be assessed.

For the first (individual) case, the results of the accuracy assessment are presented in
Figure 3.6(a-e). The overall accuracy of MR, ZG, MW, LL and AG are around 80%,
75%, 90%, 90%, and 80%, respectively. The F1 score for each test site is higher than
70%. AUC scores for all regions are around 70% or higher which indicates a good
model performance; with the exception of ZG, with around 60%, which is still
satisfying. The amount and distribution of land cover vary between the test sites and
affect the overall accuracy of the model performance. The complexity of land cover
types within the CCI land cover product used as auxiliary data in this study is
considerably higher in the Europeans Alps and Asian Himalaya when compared to the
Andes and Rocky Mountains (see Figure 3.1). As already reported in earlier
SAR-based snow cover studies (Nagler and Rott, 2000; Notarnicola C. et al., 2013),
lower accuracy values are achieved in grassland as well as forested areas (classes
marked as * in Figure 3.6), with the exception of the LL test site. To examine the
negative effect of grassland and forest areas of the classification performance, the
accuracy values have also been calculated for non-forest classes (indicated in Figure
3.6 with NF OA, NF AUC, and NF F1).

As outlined above, building individual models for each test site separately can
guarantee a more customized classification with higher accuracy. The overall
accuracy of these individual cases including forests and grassland ranges from 75.2%
to 89.6% (of which 79.4% - 98.6% excluding forests and grassland) with F1 scores
ranging from 71.9% to 89.6% (of which 76.0% - 98.6% excluding forests and
grassland, see Figure 3.6a-e). All input data were also merged to build a universally
applicable model, which shows only slightly lower accuracy values of 81.1% of the
overall accuracy (of which 84.5% excluding forests and grassland) and an F1 score of
80.4% (of which 83.9% excluding forests and grassland, see Figure 3.6f). These

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values prove a good model performance. This evaluation reveals the robustness of
the classification approach proposed in this study whilst merging all input data to
create a globally transferable model setup; even if the model is trained universally.
The sturdiness can also be exposed from the neglected accuracy difference of 20
trials for each land cover class of each region.

Figure 3.6 Results of each model set built in each region: (a) Monte Rosa (MR), (b)
Zugspitze (ZG), (c) Mount Whitney (MW), (d) Landtang Lirung (LL), and (e)
Aconcagua (AG); and the five regions’ merging case (f). SAR-based observations
including backscattering ratio, InSAR coherence and PolSAR H/A/α parameters are
abbreviated as B, I and P. Topographical factors including aspect, slope, curvature,
and elevation are abbreviated as a, s, c, and e.

3.4.2. External Validation

Although previous studies often neglect the importance of a detailed validation

approach, it is indispensable to comprehensively examine the robustness and
correctness of a proposed model with internal and external validation efforts.
Consequently, several validation steps have been incorporated into the presented
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study. It complements the internal validation illustrated in section 4.1 with addition to
external validation based on the GSP, optical-based SCE and in-situ snow depth data,
as illustrated in the data splitting of Figure 3.3 and workflow of Figure 3.5. The results
of these accuracy assessments are presented in the following sections.

3.4.2.1. Results of the External Validation with the Global SnowPack and
Landsat/Sentinel-2 Derived Snow Cover Maps

In order to examine each land cover type’s influence on the model’s accuracy, the
comparison between the ‘training accuracy’ (the overall accuracy of the internal
validation, calculated based on 30% of the first year’s data manually kept (Figure 3.3))
and the ‘validation accuracy’ (the overall accuracy of the external validation,
calculated based on the second year’s GSP) were calculated and presented as blue
and red bar in Figure 3.7, respectively. Most of the land cover types show a slightly
lower accuracy for all test sites of the second year validation accuracy, with the
exception of the ZG region. However, almost all land cover types within all study areas
are still characterized by a satisfying accuracy (>0.6), with the exception of forested
classes of the MR region. This affirms the robustness of the employed model set.

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Figure 3.7 Each region’s land cover type’s accuracy comparison between training
(first hydrological year) and validation set (second hydrological year). Model built for
each region: (a) Monte Rosa (MR), (b) Zugspitze (ZG), (c) Mount Whitney (MW), (d)
Landtang Lirung (LL), and (e) Aconcagua (AG); and the five regions’ merging case (f).

The 500m spatial resolution GSP product may not accurately depict the actual SCE in
mountain regions due to missed pixel effects and the negative influence of temporal
interpolation for cloud-gap filling. Therefore, in addition to this product, higher
resolution optical imagery originating from Landsat-7/8 (30 m) and Sentinel-2 (20 m)
were also employed to derive SCE for validation. All available observations from
these two sensors were screened for suitable data (i.e. cloud-free). The observations
chosen for processing are listed in Table 3.2. The aim is to keep the observation date
of the optical sensor as close as possible to the SAR data’s date, which could be
achieved for most cases with temporal gaps of less than one week.

To extract the optical-based total SCE, the Fmask algorithm was employed (Qiu et al.,
2017). Fmask is an algorithm aiming to extract clouds, cloud shadows, snow and
waterbody from Landsat 4-8 and Sentinel-2 imagery. Thanks to its mountainous
Fmask function which utilizes additional DEM information, the accuracy of mapping
cloud shadow and removing terrain shadow in mountainous regions is significantly
improved. For parameter setting, the dilation size of cloud, cloud shadow and snow
were set to 3, 3 and 0, respectively. The threshold for cloud probability was set to
10.0% for Landsat-7, 17.5% for Landsat-8, and 20.0% for Sentinel-2. The resultant
total SCE and original true color composites for each study site are shown in Figure
3.8. Overall, the Fmask classification results are reasonable except for AG region
showing misclassification of waterbody. However, it is also obvious that there is still
serious cloud contamination. Also, due to the orbit design and sensing swath of the
satellites, the study area is not always completely covered by the Landsat/Sentinel-2
observation.

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Figure 3.8 Fmask-based total snow cover extent classification derived from Landsat
and Sentinel-2 as well as true-color composites for each test site: (a) Monte Rosa
(MR), month 1 (Mar 23, 2018); (b) Monte Rosa, month 2 (May 18, 2018); (c)
Zugspitze (ZG), month 1 (Mar 25, 2018); (d) Zugspitze, month 2 (May 07, 2018); (e)
Mount Whitney (MW), month 1 (Mar 16, 2018); (f) Mount Whitney, month 2 (May 03,
2018); (g) Landtang Lirung (LL), month 1 (Mar 13, 2018); (h) Landtang Lirung, month
2 (May 16, 2018); (i) Aconcagua (AG), month 1 (Jun 13, 2018); (j) Aconcagua, month
2 (May 04, 2018).

To compare two total SCE results (the SAR-based one based on the RF classification
and the optical-based classification based on Fmask), a total of 10,000 random points
were equally distributed in both snow-covered as well as bare ground areas (5,000
points each). The points were distributed based on the result of the Fmask product,
excluding cloud-covered areas by treating them as no-data. Although some studies
reported that Fmask may tend to over-estimate cloud (Selkowitz and Forster, 2016;
Nagare et al., 2017), in the present random-point-allocating method it would not
damage the reliability of validation. A confusion matrix as well as evaluation indexes
(overall accuracy and F1 score) were then computed for each test site and each
month of the second year, and the results of this assessment are presented in Table
3.3. To simplify the interpretation, the numbers of points in each column/row of the
confusion matrix were converted into a percentage of total 10,000 points. All ten
months’ cases show good accuracy and F1 score (> 0.72); except for month1 of AG
region, which shows significant under-estimation. Under-estimation is also shown in
non-used month (month1) of the first year in ZG and LL region. Furthermore, the
month2 of AG region show a mild over-estimation.

Table 3.3 Confusion matrix of the accuracy assessment relying on optical-based

snow cover classifications of Landsat and Sentinel-2 for each test site. The
assessment includes classifications for months that were trained in the first year
(month2) as well as those that were not used in the training of the first year (month1).
Overall Accuracy (OA) and F1-score are depicted under the respective confusion
matrix.

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3.4.2.2. Validation Relying on In-situ Data Originating from Meteorological

Stations

In addition to the validation based on satellite observations, snow depth (SD)

measurements originating from meteorological stations are available for some study
area. For the European region, few countries’ national meteorological agencies, for
example in Switzerland, provide free access to these data. Additional measurements
of daily SD are available from the European Climate Assessment & Dataset Project
(ECA&D) (Tank et al., 2002). The study sites MR and ZG were chosen to be validated
with 28 stations of MeteoSwiss and 114 stations of ECA&D, respectively. The
locations of the meteorological stations are illustrated in Figure 3.9. However, as more
than 50% of the stations are located in relatively low elevation zones, which are
generally completely snow-free in May, only March observations were validated for
the presented study. For the study site MW, only one meteorological station was
available, while for LL and AG, no suitable and freely accessible station data could be
acquired. Therefore, these three regions were not validated with meteorological
records. The confusion matrix, displaying the accuracy derived from the comparison
of the SAR-based SCE classification with station data, is illustrated in Table 3.4.
Whilst not considering the skewed observations (station records contain less
‘snow-covered’ data (i.e. SD higher than 0cm)), both regions achieve overall accuracy
values of more than 87%. However, a slight under-estimation can be found in ZG
region. This could be because there might exist a certain threshold of SD for
spaceborne SAR-based approach to detect that pixel is snow-covered, such as 1 cm
for MODIS snow cover product (Hall et al., 2002) and 2 cm for passive sensors (Che

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et al., 2008).

Figure 3.9 Location of meteorological stations in Monte Rosa (MR) and Zugspitze
(ZG) regions.

Table 3.4 Confusion matrix of Monte Rosa (MR) and Zugspitze (ZG) regions validated
with meteorological snow depth (SD) station data records of MeteoSwiss and
European Climate Assessment & Dataset Project (ECA&D), respectively.

3.4.3. Holistic SCE Maps Including Discrimination Between Wet and Dry Snow

According to the comprehensive internal and external validation approaches relying

on different data sources, all study regions turned out to achieve reliable accuracy
values; with the exception of AG region, which shows comparably weaker results. As
the RF classification approach relies on training data originating from optical-based
products (GSP), it is not possible to train for the discrimination between wet and dry
snow. However, as this information is required, we also detected the wet SCE based
on Nagler’s algorithm (Nagler and Rott, 2000). For the subsequent merge of the total
SCE derived from the RF classification and the wet SCE derived from Nagler’s
classification, the presence of wet SCE is only allowed for regions where the RF
classification has successfully detected snow. Figure 3.10 contains the results of this
merging approach for all test sites, including month 1 and 2, to illustrate the dynamics
of SCE. During March (month 1, Figure 3.10a, c, e, g, i), the total extent of snow cover
is larger but wet SCE is proportionally small. As snow melt proceeds during spring
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time, wet SCE increases (month 2, Figure 3.10b, d, f, and h, with AG region
constituting an exception) while the total SCE decreases.

Figure 3.10 Total and wet SCE of each region’s two months: (a) Monte Rosa (MR),
month 1 (Mar 12, 2018); (b) Monte Rosa, month 2 (May 11, 2018); (c) Zugspitze (ZG),
month 1 (Mar 14, 2018); (d) Zugspitze, month 2 (May 13, 2018); (e) Mount Whitney
(MW), month 1 (Mar 04, 2018); (f) Mount Whitney, month 2 (May 03, 2018); (g)
Landtang Lirung (LL), month 1 (Feb28, 2018); (h) Landtang Lirung, month 2 (May 11,
2018); (i) Aconcagua (AG), month 1 (Jun 10, 2018); (j) Aconcagua, month 2 (May 05,
2018).

3.5. Discussion
3.5.1. Influence of Different Input Factors on the Classification Accuracy

As shown in section 3.2.4, the highest classification accuracy can be obtained when
including all three SAR-based observations and all four topographical factors. This
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finding is not surprising as the influence of the abovementioned parameters has

already been reported in previous studies (Strozzi et al., 1999; Park et al., 2014;
Nagler et al., 2016a; Guo et al., 2017; Zhou and Zheng, 2017). Nevertheless, the
impact of these variables has only been evaluated separately. The combination of all
parameters in one single approach, as it was implemented for the presented study,
turned out to achieve the best results. Topography influences the melting and
distribution of snow in mountain regions and was therefore included in several
approaches to map dry SCE based on wet SCE (Nagler and Rott, 2000; Malnes et al.,
2004; Zhen et al., 2012; Park et al., 2014; Thakur et al., 2016). Hence, its influence on
the RF-based approach implemented for the presented study is also significant.
Moreover, among all three SAR-based observations and the four topographical
parameters, PolSAR and elevation resulted in having the highest impact on the
classification accuracy as illustrated in Figure 3.4. Comparing the classification
accuracy relying on only one SAR-based observation (Figure 3.4(a)), PolSAR
parameters (P) can generate the highest accuracy comparing to backscattering (B)
and InSAR coherence (I). For instance, in the urban land cover type, the accuracy of
the B/I/P-based cases is around 0.71, 0.72, and 0.79, respectively. Comparing the
accuracy testing with only adding one topographical factor (Figure 3.4(b)), elevation
shows the most significant improvement as the accuracy of grass land can improve
from original 0.71 (using only SAR-based observations) to 0.83 when only adding
elevation information, but only enhance to 0.72, 0.73, and 0.76 when adding aspect,
curvature, and slope information. This might be because PolSAR contains much more
physical information of the ground condition, such as characteristics of ground surface,
than the relatively noisy backscattering and the InSAR coherence.

The importance of both PolSAR parameters and elevation can also be revealed by
the ranks of importance of the variables generated by the RF model. The importance
of each input variable of each land cover-targeted RF model was weighted, averaged
by the percentage of land cover class for each region. The average importance of
each variable for all five study areas is illustrated in Figure 3.11. Although the
importance of the variables in each region is different, it is obvious that for all of the
regions, elevation and PolSAR parameters have the highest importance. InSAR
coherence also shows considerable contribution to the model accuracy comparing to
less important variables such as slope, backscatter, aspect, and curvature. However,
due to the fact that (1) all those input variables were confirmed related to snow cover
by previous studies, (2) even the least important variable, i.e. curvature, still has an
importance of more than 5%, (3) the importance of each input variable differs for each
region, and (4) the goal of the proposed approach is to guarantee global transferability,
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no input variable was trimmed out in the proposed modeling approach to ensure
broader suitability and flexibility.

Figure 3.11 The average importance of input variables for all five study regions. Blue
and green bars represent SAR-based observations and topographical factors,
respectively.

3.5.2. Influence of Vegetation and Land Cover Type on the Classification

Accuracy

The evaluation of the RF performance revealed that the snow cover classification
accuracy varies significantly between land cover classes (compare Figure 3.4, Figure
3.6 & Figure 3.7). Densely vegetated regions tend to yield lower SCE accuracy when
compared to e.g. bare area, sparse vegetation, urban areas, or even grasslands.
These findings match with previous studies’ conclusions: Koskinen et al. (1997) stated
that the existence of vegetation will greatly reduce the difference between SCE and
other land cover features. It has further been confirmed by simulation that the stem
volume of forests directly relates to SAR signals (Pulliainen et al., 1994), which
influences land cover classes with even less biomass such as grassland or cropland
(Löw et al., 2002; Schellenberger et al., 2012). Duguay and Bernier (2012) found that
the vegetation height would impact the SAR backscattering as well. Moreover, Dedieu
et al. (2012) suggested that the structure and phenological change of trees would also
affect how the SAR signal reflects and bounces, as it was also observed by Park et al.
(2014). Venkataraman (2011) realized that the random motion of vegetation also
causes dramatic loss of InSAR coherence.

3.5.3. Challenges for Validating SAR-based Snow Cover Classifications; the

Case of Aconcagua (AG) Region

After validating the modeled total SCE results, some regions ended up performing
better than others. The most apparent example where several factors come into play
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is the AG test site. The external validation with optical-derived SCE maps (Table 3.3)
proves the under-estimation of the actual SCE in month1 and the over-estimation in
month2. One of the possible reasons is that the land cover product provided by of
ESA CCI might be biased for this region. Some of the classes (e.g. scrubland) appear
to be overestimated when checked manually, relying on very high resolution imagery
from, for example, Google Earth. Around 57% of the AG region is labeled scrubland in
the land cover product. When reviewing the quality flag of the ESA CCI land cover
product, a lack of available input data can be constituted. As shown in Figure 3.12, the
AG region’s land cover product is based on considerably less input data than any
other region, which might be an indicator that the quality is also poor. In addition to
that, according to the ESA CCI land cover product user guidance (ESA, 2017), some
specific classes such as sparse vegetation (which accounts for around 23.5% of the
AG region) have relatively low classification accuracies. Considering that the total
SCE mapping approach proposed in this study is land cover dependent, possible
biases in the land cover product would inevitably reduce the robustness of model. As
a result, a significant under- and over-estimation could be connected to this issue. To
prove this assumption, we also tested the influence of erroneous land cover classes
on the classification accuracy in the Monte Rosa (MR) region. First, land cover class
labels were randomly shuffled, and the first year’s model internal validations as well
as the second year’s external validation of the resultant SCE were examined
(according to Figure 3.3). A decline of around 3% in overall accuracy was found in the
internal cross-validation using first year GSP data, and around 20% and 31% of
overestimation were shown in month1/2 validated with optical-based SCE,
respectively. Based on this test, it is confirmed that the quality of land cover labelling is
important.

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Figure 3.12 Number of available observations for the ESA CCI land cover product
(based on the ESA CCI quality flag). (a) Monte Rosa (MR), (b) Zugspitze (ZG), (c)
Mount Whitney (MW), (d) Landtang Lirung (LL), (e) Aconcagua (AG), (f) global
overview

The influence of the topographical parameters on the classification performance is

equally significant as outlined in section 3.2.4 (compare also Figure 3.4 and 3.11).
Possible errors in the SRTM version 4 DEM could therefore also contribute to
miss-classifications of SCE. As reported by Rodriguez et al. (2006), the SRTM DEM
can have absolute height errors of more than 30 m. Since all four topographical
parameters are directly derived from the height measurements, biases could cause
false model presumptions that would further translate into classification errors.

Finally, the snow cover product (GSP, which is based on MODIS) utilized to train the
model could be biased, too. GSP was chosen as an input because it provides daily
snow cover information, which is desirable as snowfall events can occur
spontaneously. The relatively coarse resolution (500 m), and the fact that clouds can
cover large proportions of the study regions, contribute to uncertainties when training
the model.

Any of these factors could be responsible for the relatively poor SCE classification
accuracy of the AG test region. It is difficult to determine which the pivotal factor is
though, as more tests would be required; while also for some input datasets (like
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SRTM and GSP) no quality flag is available, which quantitatively characterizes the
pixel-wise errors.

3.5.4. Uncertainties of Mapping Wet and Dry SCE in a Holistic Map; the Case of
Monte Rosa (MR) Region

As shown in Figure 3.10b, it is clear that during the melting season, there is a dry SCE
boundary buffering around the wet SCE especially for Alpine Monte Rosa region. The
possible reasons could include both the over-estimation of our modeled total SCE and
the under-estimation of wet SCE detected by “Nagler’s method”.

According to the confusion matrix comparing ‘modeled and optical-based’ total SCE
as shown in Table 3.3, there is a slight over-estimation observed in month2 of Monte
Rosa region caused by classification error. However, Nagler’s backscattering-based
“hard” thresholding approach was also commonly found to under-estimate wet SCE,
especially around the snow line where wet snow is patchy (Nagler and Rott, 2000;
Malnes and Guneriussen, 2002; Pettinato et al., 2006; Storvold, Malnes, Larsen, et al.,
2006). In detail, because snow has significantly lower scattering cross-section than
bare ground, the stronger backscattering signals of bare soil, rock and vegetation
would thus dominate that mixed pixel (Malnes et al., 2006; Pettinato et al., 2006;
Storvold, Malnes, Larsen, et al., 2006). This situation mostly can only be
compensated by enhancing the spatial resolution of SAR image as tested by Malnes
et al. (2006).

3.5.5. Improvements Achieved in this Study

Although there have been some studies employing machine-learning to classify total
SCE, the presented study utilized a novel fusion of multiple SAR-based observations
and topographical factors to achieve a higher reliability. The proposed land
cover-dependent model has successfully been applied in different study areas. In
detail, the improvements when compared to earlier studies can be summarized as
follows:

(1) The method provides global suitability and transferability

To achieve a universal, global transferability, the method needs to satisfy both data
availability and model robustness. First, for data availability, all datasets being used in
this study are available globally. More importantly, all input data are openly accessible,
including the spaceborne SAR and optical imagery, the DEM, and the land cover
product. Additionally, no field measurements for snow depth, temperature or forest’s
stem volume are needed. When it comes to the model’s robustness, most of the
previous studies applied the SCE mapping to a single regional site (Luojus K. P.,
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Learning Technique

Pulliainen J. T., Blasco Cutrona A., et al., 2009; He et al., 2017; Muhuri et al., 2018),
which implies that they might be site-dependent approaches. In contrast, the
presented method is tested in five independent regions located in different mountain
ranges and even hemispheres. The achieved accuracy confirms that the proposed
method can be applied to map SCE around the globe, which ensures the
transferability. Moreover, merging the five regions’ data to build a universal model set,
a stable classification accuracy could also be confirmed.

(2) The method can efficiently deal with all land cover types, including forests

Because of challenging SAR-vegetation interactions, many existing studies simply

masked out the forest or even agricultural regions (Rott and Nagler, 1995; Nagler and
Rott, 2000; Luojus et al., 2007; Notarnicola C. et al., 2013; Guangjun et al., 2015;
Wang et al., 2015; He et al., 2017). As illustrated in Figure 3.1, vegetation is a
dominant part of land cover in all five study regions. Masking out the vegetation would
significantly reduce the suitability of the SCE mapping approach to provide snow
cover information for further applications. To overcome this limitation, the presented
study includes all land cover types, comprising vegetation-dominated classes such as
forest, scrub, grass, and cropland. The model is trained individually for each land
cover type to form a land cover-dependent model set. Thanks to the simplicity and
robustness of random forest classifiers, they can efficiently process various SAR
observations under low computation demands.

(3) The method provides holistic wet and total SCE

Existing methods to detect snow cover from SAR data often focus on wet SCE only.
The presented study proposes a method to derive both wet and total SCE, relying on
a combination of an RF-based classifier to map the total SCE and a
backscattering-based approach to detect wet SCE (Nagler’s method). Thanks to the
performance of the RF classifier, the workflow offers an option for near real-time and
automatic classification of wet and dry SCE, thus enhancing the viability of
spaceborne SAR data to map SCE. Since the method provides both wet and dry SCE,
it could offer new ways of how remote sensing-based snow cover products can be
incorporated into hydrological models.

3.5.6. Future Work

Considering the PolSAR data, existing studies have demonstrated that

quad-polarization imagery can provide more satisfying results than dual-polarization,
as it can reduce topographical distortions (Singh et al., 2014) and is also more
sensitive to the state of snow (Dedieu et al., 2012). Thus, the potential of utilizing the
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Learning Technique

TerraSAR-X or Radarsat-2 should be explored. Moreover, their ultra-high resolution

sensing mode can also enhance the accuracy of wet SCE mapping as discussed in
5.4.

Regarding the auxiliary data, one of the future developments, to improve the
classification accuracy in vegetated areas will include the use of quantitative
vegetation measurements, such as biomass density; the normalized difference
vegetation index; or the leaf area index. The local incidence angle (LIA) of the SAR
imagery related to the local topography may also be included to justify the impact of
topography.

3.6. Conclusions

There are many studies available for detecting wet snow cover extent (SCE) utilizing
spaceborne SAR imagery. However, there exists no properly-validated, globally
transferable, total SCE mapping approach which would be applicable to all land cover
classes. The presented study proposed a novel approach to map total and wet SCE
based on openly accessible datasets (including SAR imagery, DEM and land cover
product) with global coverage. Thanks to the simplicity and efficiency of the
implemented random forest classifier, it is possible to incorporate non-linear and
complex SAR-based observations (InSAR, PolSAR, backscattering). In regards to the
influence of topography, four topographical factors, including elevation, slope, aspect
and curvature, were also included as model inputs. The method has been applied to
different mountainous locations (five regions located in different mountain ranges,
continents, and hemispheres)over a period of different months and years. By
extending the RF-based classification with a backscattering-based thresholding
approach, information about wet SCE was additionally supplemented. Internal as well
as external independent validation have been comprehensively conducted, confirming
the robustness and transferability of the proposed method.

In addition to the global transferability, another merit of the presented approach is the
capability to detect snow cover in vegetated areas such as forests, grass-, scrub-, and
croplands. Compared to previous studies, which often masked out the forest or even
agricultural regions, this study proposed a land cover-dependent classification
procedure to solve this limitation. Namely, total SCE was classified with SAR
observations and topographical factors in each land cover class separately, before
merging each class’ model to form a universal model set. To explore the influence of
all inputs, the accuracy of each model set built by different combinations of SAR
observations and topographical factors was evaluated. Results prove that the model
set including all three SAR-based observations (InSAR, PolSAR, backscattering) as
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well as all four topographical factors (elevation, slope, aspect, curvature) yields the
highest classification accuracy for all land cover types. Overall accuracy, F-measure
and AUC score can reach around 80%, 80%, and 70% for the majority of the regions.
The accuracy can even be higher around 5% if vegetation land cover classes are
excluded. It was also found that PolSAR and elevation provide more information than
the remaining parameters. Additionally, when merging all input data for all test sites
into one universal, general model (i.e. building a universally applicable model set), the
accuracy remains satisfying. Future developments will include the incorporation of
quantitative vegetation parameters (leaf area index, biomass, normalized difference
vegetation index) as well as the local incidence angle of the SAR observations.

Acknowledgments: Support by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

fellowship to Ya-Lun S. Tsai is gratefully acknowledged. The authors thank the
providers of the meteorological data used in this article, including MeteoSwiss (the
Swiss Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology) as well as the ECA&D project
(Data and metadata available at http://eca.knmi.nl).

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Appendix A

Table 3.5 Re-classification of ESA CCI land cover product.

ESA CCI land cover classes Label Re-classified classes Forest

type
No data 0 NoData X
Cropland, rainfed 10 Cropland X
Herbaceous cover 11 Herbaceous X
Tree or shrub cover 12 Tree_Shrub O
Cropland, irrigated or post-flooding 20 Cropland X
Mosaic cropland (>50%) / natural vegetation 30 Crop&NaturalVege O
(tree, shrub, herbaceous cover) (<50%)
Mosaic natural vegetation (tree, shrub, 40 Crop&NaturalVege O
herbaceous cover) (>50%) / cropland (<50%)
Tree cover, broadleaved, evergreen, closed 50 Tree_Broadleaf O
to open (>15%)
Tree cover, broadleaved, deciduous, closed 60 Tree_Broadleaf O
to open (>15%)
Tree cover, broadleaved, deciduous, closed 61 Tree_Broadleaf O
(>40%)
Tree cover, broadleaved, deciduous, open 62 Tree_Broadleaf O
(15-40%)
Tree cover, needleleaved, evergreen, closed 70 Tree_Needleleaf O
to open (>15%)
Tree cover, needleleaved, evergreen, closed 71 Tree_Needleleaf O
(>40%)
Tree cover, needleleaved, evergreen, open 72 Tree_Needleleaf O
(15-40%)
Tree cover, needleleaved, deciduous, closed 80 Tree_Needleleaf O
to open (>15%)
Tree cover, needleleaved, deciduous, closed 81 Tree_Needleleaf O
(>40%)
Tree cover, needleleaved, deciduous, open 82 Tree_Needleleaf O
(15-40%)
Tree cover, mixed leaf type (broadleaved and 90 Tree_Needle&Broad O
needleleaved)
Mosaic tree and shrub (>50%) / herbaceous 100 Shrub&Herbaceous O
cover (<50%)
Mosaic herbaceous cover (>50%) / tree and 110 Shrub&Herbaceous O
shrub (<50%)
Shrubland 120 Tree_Shrub O
Shrubland evergreen 121 Tree_Shrub O
Shrubland deciduous 122 Tree_Shrub O
Grassland 130 Grass X
Lichens and mosses 140 Lichens X

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Sparse vegetation (tree, shrub, herbaceous 150 SparseVegetation X

cover) (<15%)
Sparse tree (<15%) 151 SparseVegetation X
Sparse shrub (<15%) 152 SparseVegetation X
Sparse herbaceous cover (<15%) 153 SparseVegetation X
Tree cover, flooded, fresh or brakish water 160 FloodedVegetation O
Tree cover, flooded, saline water 170 FloodedVegetation O
Shrub or herbaceous cover, flooded, 180 FloodedVegetation O
fresh/saline/brakish water
Urban areas 190 Urban X
Bare areas 200 BareArea X
Consolidated bare areas 201 BareArea X
Unconsolidated bare areas 202 BareArea X
Water bodies 210 Water X
Permanent snow and ice 220 SnowIce X
Total classes: 37 Total classes: 16

Appendix B

Figure 3.13 Comparison of random forest models’ performance with different number
of trees (tested with Monte Rosa (MR)) region.

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4 A Combination of PROBA-V/MODIS-based Products with Sentinel-1 SAR Data for Detecting Wet and
Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

4 A Combination of PROBA-V/MODIS-based Products with

Sentinel-1 SAR Data for Detecting Wet and Dry Snow Cover
in Mountainous Areas
Tsai, Y.-L.S., Dietz, A., Oppelt, N., & Kuenzer, C. (2019). A Combination of
PROBA-V/MODIS-based Products with Sentinel-1 SAR Data for Detecting
Wet and Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas. Remote Sensing, 11, 1904

Abstract

In the presented study we explore the value of employing both, vegetation indexes as
well as land surface temperature derived from PROBA-V and MODIS sensors,
respectively, to support the detection of total (wet + dry) snow cover extent (SCE)
based on a simple tuning machine learning approach, and provide reliability maps for
further analysis. We utilize Sentinel-1-based synthetic aperture radar (SAR)
observations, including backscatter coefficient, interferometric coherence, and
polarimetric parameters, and four topographical factors as well as vegetation and
temperature information to detect the total SCE with a land cover-dependent random
forest-based approach. Our results show that the overall accuracy and F-measure are
above 90% with an ’Area Under the ROC’ (receiver operating characteristic curve)
(AUC) score of around 80% over five study areas located in different mountain ranges,
continents, and hemispheres. These accuracies are also confirmed by a
comprehensive validation approach with different data sources, attesting the
robustness and global transferability. Additionally, based on the reliability maps, we
find an inversely proportional relationship between classification reliability and
vegetation density. In conclusion, comparing to a previous study only utilizing
SAR-based observations, the method proposed in the presented study provides a
complementary approach to achieve a higher total SCE mapping accuracy while
maintaining global applicability with reliable accuracy and corresponding uncertainty
information.

Keywords: Synthetic Aperture Radar, InSAR, PolSAR, Backscatter, Machine

Learning, Snow Cover Area, Land Use Land Cover, Sentinel-2, Landsat

4.1. Introduction

Global warming leads to a significant decrease of snow cover extent (SCE) as proven
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Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

in both, observations and models (Najafi et al., 2016; Hori et al., 2017). This
development has also been recorded in the Synthesis Report of Fifth Assessment
Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (Pachauri et
al., 2014). As SCE is an important factor for various human activities as well as the
natural environment, a decrease of SCE affects and deteriorates the balance of
ecosystems, the hydrological cycle of major river catchments, and the global radiation
budget. The latest IPCC special report of 2018 states that extreme SCE changes
could affect winter tourism and hydrology (Hoegh-Guldberg et al., 2018). In addition,
several studies suggest that runoff generated by snowmelt dominates not only the
amount but also the distribution, quality, and seasonality of its downstream regions
(Schöber et al., 2014; Singh et al., 2014; Huss et al., 2017) and that it further controls
water resources of whole populations (Barnett et al., 2005). Moreover, snow would
also interact with other cryospheric components such as the equilibrium of glaciers
(Beniston et al., 2018), the active layer thickness of permafrost (Pogliotti et al., 2015),
and the retention of sea and lake ice (Yang Y. et al., 2012). Hence, a continuous
monitoring strategy for SCE is necessary.

Although there have been various spaceborne multispectral sensor-based SCE

products, such as the MODIS-based snow cover products (Riggs and Hall, 2015) and
the European Space Agency (ESA)’s GlobSnow product (Solberg, Wangensteen, et
al., 2010), these are still fundamentally constrained by cloud coverage, polar
darkness, and the confusion between snow and ice-clouds (Bartsch et al., 2007;
Macander et al., 2015). Thus, the utilization of active synthetic aperture radar (SAR)
has been explored in the recent three decades (for a comprehensive review we refer
to Tsai et al. (2019)). Thanks to its longer wavelength, SAR can sense ground
features under all weather and solar illumination conditions. Since the first pioneer
study published by Nagler and Rott (2000), various studies have been conducted
utilizing the backscatter information to detect wet SCE. This is based on the fact that
once the snow becomes wet, the dielectric constant of the snowpack increases
significantly, leading to a dramatic shortening of the penetration depth of SAR signal
(Tsai Ya-Lun S. et al., 2019). This behavior can be exploited to detect wet snow
relying on a backscatter-threshold-based approach. Dry SCE, however, cannot be
detected by this approach alone. Because information about the total (wet+dry) SCE
is critical for further applications (e.g., hydrological modeling), interferometric SAR
(InSAR) as well as polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) have been investigated (Tsai Ya-Lun S,
Dietz Andreas, et al., 2019b). InSAR coherence enables total SCE mapping based on
the fact that the snow-covered areas would show lower coherence due to a change of
the SAR signal penetration depth (Snehmani et al., 2015), and PolSAR decomposed
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Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

parameters enable dry/wet/total SCE mapping as they can reveal the scattering
mechanism of different ground features (Cloude and Pottier, 1996). For a detailed
discussion and comparison of three mainstream SAR-based SCE detection
approaches we refer to Tsai et al. (2019).

An important tool in detecting SCE relying on SAR data are machine learning (ML)
techniques. Thanks to their strength in dealing with massive data, they allow for full
exploitation of the PolSAR and InSAR parameters, as well as a combination with the
conventional (often noisy) backscatter values. Although so far there have been some
ML-based SCE mapping studies (Longepe et al., 2008; Huang et al., 2011; He et al.,
2017), they only utilized sophisticated Support Vector Machines (SVM) for
classification, which was suggested relatively challenging to tune and handle the data
(Pal, 2005; Adam et al., 2014; Rodriguez-Galiano et al., 2015). Hence, a universally
applicable and straightforward ML approach needed to be explored. Furthermore,
most of the studies only tested their SAR-based total SCE detection algorithms on a
local scale without proper validation , and often masked out the forested and
agricultural regions to avoid vegetation-caused classification ambiguities (Luojus et al.,
2007; Dedieu et al., 2012; He et al., 2017; Tsai Ya-Lun S. et al., 2019). Therefore,
these algorithms might be site-dependent and not globally transferable.

In a previous study (Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz Andreas, et al., 2019b), we proposed a

globally transferable, freely accessible data-only, all land cover class-applicable total
and wet SCE mapping strategy utilizing only SAR-based observations (backscattering,
InSAR coherence, and PolSAR parameters) as well as topographical factors. Based
on a comprehensive validation approach, an overall accuracy of around 80% was
confirmed. Although this accuracy level is already much higher than those of previous
SAR-based studies (Tsai Ya-Lun S. et al., 2019), it is still relatively low when compare
to conventional, optical sensor-based SCE detection approaches. Thus, a further
enhancement of the mapping accuracy is desirable. To improve the SCE mapping
accuracy, previous studies commonly employed ground temperature information
derived from passive microwave sensors (Hongxing et al., 2006; Tedesco, 2007; Zhou
and Zheng, 2017), as the snow-covered regions would show a lower temperature
when compared to other, snow free regions. In addition to the temperature information,
vegetation indexes might also help to detect SCE especially in forested regions. We
found in a previous study (Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz Andreas, et al., 2019b) that the
densely vegetated regions tend to show a lower SCE mapping accuracy when
compared to e.g. bare area, sparse vegetation, and grassland. Moreover, previous
studies also suggested that SAR backscatter, InSAR coherence, and PolSAR
parameters are all related to vegetation types and conditions (Pulliainen, 1994;
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Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

Pulliainen et al., 1994; Park et al., 2014; He et al., 2017). Therefore, quantitative
vegetation information should be added in addition to the qualitative vegetation
information we already include (i.e., land cover map). Consequently, in the present
study, we explore the value of including PROBA-V/MODIS-based vegetation and
surface temperature products for enhancing the total SCE mapping accuracy. Also, as
so far no procedure exists that provides a reliability map along with the estimated SCE,
the presented study also includes a workflow for an automatically generated reliability
map. Summarized, the following objectives have been addressed in this study: (1)
enhancement of the mapping accuracy of total SCE by including vegetation indexes
and temperature information (2) provision of reliability maps along with the modeled
total SCE for further analysis (3) analysis of the influence of land cover classes with
different vegetation densities on the total SCE mapping reliability.

4.2. Study Areas and Dataset

4.2.1. Study Areas

To test the transferability of our method, we selected five study areas located at
different major mountainous regions around the globe with different land cover and
topography, including the European Alps (Monte Rosa, (MR) and Zugspitze (ZG)),
Sierra Nevada (Mount Whitney (MW)), Himalaya (Langtang Lirung (LL)), and
Southern Alps in New Zealand (Aoraki (AK)). The locations and characteristics of
each region are represented in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1 Attributes of the five selected study areas including Monte Rosa (MR),
Zugspitze (ZG), Mount Whitney (MW), Landtang Lirung (LL), and Aoraki (AK) with
their location, mountain range, country, and the highest peak.

Testing 1 (MR) 2 (ZG) 3 (MW) 4 (LL) 5 (AK)

sites
Continent Europe Europe North Asia Australia
America
Mountain Alps Alps Sierra Himalaya Southern
range (Switzerland) (Germany) Nevada (Nepal) Alps
(Country) (U.S.A.) (New
Zealand)
Highest Monte Rosa Zugspitze Mount Langtang Aoraki /
peaks (4,634 m) (2,962 m) Whitney Lirung Mount
(Height) (4,421 m) (7,234 m) Cook
(3,724 m)

4.2.2. SAR and Optical Imagery

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Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

As we utilized a supervised classification approach, two consecutive hydrological

years were chosen, with first and second year’s Sentinel-1 SAR imagery used as a
training and validation set, respectively. For the training set, SAR images of three
different months, representing different snow cover conditions, were selected as
shown in Table 4.2. Also, we included two different months (Month1: month not
included in training set; Month2: month included in training set) for mapping to
exclude the possibility that the selection of only a single month might influence the
classification accuracy. Additionally, as the snowpack and its structure are changing
continuously throughout the season, selecting different months ensures that the
developed method will work under different snowpack conditions. For validating the
SAR-based total SCE, optical imagery recorded during the validation year were also
employed. To ensure the reliability of the validation, optical scenes from Sentinel-2
and Landsat-7/8 containing minimum cloud coverage were chosen that were recorded
at similar dates as the respective Sentinel-1 imagery. Hence, the temporal gap
between SAR and optical imagery for all cases is within a week. The summary of the
employed SAR and optical imagery for each test site is listed in Table 4.2.

Table 4.2 Summary of the SAR data (Sentinel-1) and optical data (Sentinel-2, S2;
Landsat-7/8, L7/8) used in the training and validation set. Note: reference image of
each region for calculating the wet snow cover extent (SCE) is marked with an
asterisk (*); optical images employed in validation set are included in brackets below
the used SAR image dates.

Training set Validation set

(First (Second hydrological year)
hydrological Month1
Region Month2
year) (Month not
(Month included
* Reference included
in training set)
image in training set)
Test Site 1: Monte 2016 Nov 17-29
Rosa (MR)
(Sentinel-1A, 2017 Feb 09-21 2018 Mar 24- 2018 May 23-
Ascending, relative Apr 05 Jun 04
2017 May 16-28
orbit number: 88) (L7: Mar 23) (L8: May 18)
(Landsat-7/8, path:
* 2017 Aug 08
195, row: 28)
Test Site 2:
2016 Nov 07-19 2018 Mar 26-
Zugspitze (ZG) 2018 May 13-25
Apr 07
(Sentinel-1A, 2017 Feb 23- (S2: May 07)
(L7: Mar 25)
Ascending, relative Mar 07

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Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

orbit number: 117)

2017 May 18-30
(Landsat-7, path:
193, row: 27)
(Sentinel-2, tile * 2017 Aug 10
number: T32TPT)
Test Site 3: Mount 2017 Feb 25-
Whitney (MW) Mar 09
(Sentinel-1A, 2017 Apr 02-14
2018 Mar 16-28 2018 May 03-15
Ascending, relative
(L7: Mar 16) (L7: May 03)
orbit number: 144) 2017 May 08-20
(Landsat-7, path:
41, row: 35) * 2017 Aug 12

Test Site 4:
2017 Feb 09-21
Landtang Lirung
(LL) 2017 Apr 10-22
(Sentinel-1A, 2018 Mar 12-24 2018 May 11-23
Ascending, relative 2017 May 16-28 (L7: Mar 13) (L7: May 16)
orbit number: 85)
(Landsat-7, path: * 2017 Aug 08
141, row: 40)
Test Site 6: Aoraki 2017 May 06-18
(AK)
(Sentinel-1B, 2017 Aug 10-22
2018 Jun 30-Jul 12 2018 May 01-13
Ascending, relative
2017 Oct 21- (L8: Jun 26) (L7: May 01)
orbit number: 23)
Nov 02
(Landsat-7/8, path:
75, row: 90) * 2018 Feb 06

4.2.3. Auxiliary Data

Due to the trade-offs between global availability, sustainability, and data quality, the
SRTM digital elevation model (DEM) as well as land cover data originating from the
ESA Climate Change Initiative (CCI) were used as auxiliary data. The former was
employed to calculate the topographical factors (elevation, slope, aspect, curvature).
The CCI land cover product was reclassified from original 37 to 16 classes to reduce
redundancy (Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz Andreas, et al., 2019b). The daily and global SCE
derived from DLR’s Global SnowPack (GSP) (Dietz et al., 2015) was employed as
ground truth for training the model, which has been validated using in situ and higher
resolution reference data to have a accuracy of around 80% globally (Dietz et al.,
2015).

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Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

In the present paper, to enhance the SCE mapping accuracy, two vegetation indexes
as well as surface temperature derived from the PROBA-V satellite and MODIS
sensors, respectively, were also employed. The vegetation index products including
leaf area index (LAI) and fractional vegetation cover (FVC) are provided by the
Copernicus Global Land Service which are calculated based on three PROBA-V
bands (blue, red, and near-infrared) (Baret et al., 2016). It must be noted that a
correlation between LAI and FVC might exist. However, as the classification algorithm
we employed (random forest) is capable of dealing with collinearity between features
and the goal of our approach is to provide a universally applicable model which can
yield the highest classification accuracy, we don’t consider this a problem. A possible
redundancy between input variables is acceptable for ensuring flexibility.

The surface temperature is based on merging both Terra and Aqua satellite data of
MODIS Level-3 8-day composite products (MOD/MYD11A2), which are averaged
from clear-sky daily products (MOD/MYD11A1) based on MODIS’s band 31 and 32
emissivities (Wan, 2007; Wan et al., 2015). MOD/MYD11B1 and MOD/MYD11C1
were not selected because they are resampled to a much coarser resolution (6 km
and 0.05°, respectively), making them more applicable for global analysis or climate
modelling applications (Wan, 2007, 2008; Mao et al., 2017). We selected the
composite product instead of daily products because (1) the revisit time of Sentinel-1
SAR (12 days) is comparable with MOD/MYD11A2’s 8-days period; and (2) a more
complete spatial data availability can be achieved. Together with the SAR-based
observations and topographical factors, the data types, sources, and spatial/temporal
resolution of the data employed in the present study are listed in Table 4.3.

Table 4.3 Attributes of input data with their source, spatial and temporal resolution.

Spatial Temporal
Input variable Data category Source
resolution resolution
Total SCE Ground truth Global SnowPack 500 m Daily
Land cover Land cover label ESA CCI land cover 300 m Annually
Backscattering
coefficient
InSAR
coherence SAR image
PolSAR SAR observation processing 5 × 20 m 12 days
entropy (Sentinel-1)
PolSAR
anisotropy
PolSAR angle

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Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

Elevation
Slope Topographical
SRTM DEM 90 m N/A
Aspect factor
Curvature

Leaf area index

Copernicus Global
Vegetation index Land Service 300 m 10 days
Fractional
(PROBA-V-based)
vegetation
cover
Land surface MOD/MYD11A2
Temperature 1000 m 8 days
temperature (MODIS-based)

4.3. Methodology

For calculating the SAR-based observations, including backscatter ratio, InSAR

coherence, and PolSAR H/A/α parameters, Sentinel-1 imagery was processed with
ESA’s SentiNel Application Platform (SNAP). To derive backscatter ratio, Ground
Range Detected (GRD) images were calibrated, filtered, terrain corrected and
flattened with SRTM DEM, and finally converted to decibel (dB) units. Each image
was set in relation to a reference image originating from summer season. InSAR
coherence was derived from two co-registered Single Look Complex (SLC) images,
which were then terrain corrected and filtered. For PolSAR parameters, the
polarimetric matrix was first constructed from the calibrated and debursted SLC
images and the derived eigenvalues and eigenvectors were then used for calculating
H/A/α parameters (Cloude and Pottier, 1996). For a more detailed description of the
SAR pre-processing we refer to Tsai et al. (2019b).

Random forest (RF) was employed in the present study as a two-class supervised
classifier owing to its simplicity of parameter tuning. It guarantees a wider applicability
than algorithms such as SVM and neural network. Moreover, RF provides other
benefits including a short training time, low computation load, support of parallel
processing, simple tuning of parameters, avoiding of over-fitting, and providing
information about the importance of the input variables (Ali et al., 2012; Sazonau,
2012; Belgiu and Drăguţ, 2016). Regarding the parameter setting, numbers of trees
and the number of random features assigned to each tree, they were set to 600 and
the default values (square root of total feature numbers) after several testing trials
(Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz Andreas, et al., 2019b), respectively. For building the RF model,
different input combinations (inputs are listed in Table 4.3) were tested. After finding
the optimized combination, the model was applied to each land cover class
individually. Accordingly, each modeling trial for each study area consists of N RF
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Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

models with N referring to the number of land cover classes. We processed the input
data for two distinct scenarios: (1) single-area scenario: each region’s first year data
was used to build the model for each region individually, which were then
correspondingly applied to the region’s second year data; (2) merging-region scenario:
the input data of all test regions were merged for the first year to build one aggregated
model, which was then applied to the second year.

To build the models, 70% of the pixels of the first year’s data (including GSP data as
ground truth and the selected inputs from Table 4.3) were randomly selected and
used to train the model. The trained model was then used to estimate total SCE,
which was validated with internal (30% of the first year’s GSP data not included in the
training process) and external data (optical-based SCE data and snow depth station
data). An extensive description of the data splitting is presented in Tsai et al. (2019b).
For evaluating the performance of the different input and model settings, overall
accuracy, F-measure (Lewis and Gale, 1994), and ’Area Under the ROC’ (receiver
operating characteristic curve) (AUC) (Fawcett, 2006) were calculated, which provide
a comprehensive evaluation (Sokolova et al., 2006; Ferri et al., 2009). To examine the
negative effect of vegetation on the classification accuracy, these measurements
were also calculated separately for non-forested regions.

To select the optimized input combinations and evaluate the benefits of adding
vegetation indexes and surface temperature information in addition to SAR-based
observations and topographical factors employed in Tsai et al. (2019b), the Monte
Rosa (MR) region in the Swiss Alps was chosen for accuracy assessment, as it
features complex land cover and topography. To assess the robustness of the model,
20 iterations were processed for each trial. The results of the different classification
accuracies are illustrated in Figure 4.1. It was found that adding both vegetation
indexes and temperature information can yield the highest accuracy: Overall accuracy
and F-measure can reach more than 93%, with an AUC score of around 84%. The
original SAR-based (BIP) and topographical factors (asce)-based approach without
vegetation and temperature information produced only 82% and 70%, respectively
(Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz Andreas, et al., 2019b).

The increase in overall classification accuracy is largely due to improvements in

regions covered by forests. For the mixed needle and broadleaf tree class, the original
SAR-based (BIP) and topographical factors (asce) approach achieves an overall
accuracy of around 71%. After including vegetation indexes and temperature
information, the accuracy increases to around 87%. This demonstrates the benefit of
including not only qualitative vegetation information (i.e. land cover map) but also the
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Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

quantitative vegetation information. This finding agrees with previous studies which
revealed that SAR signals would largely relate to the transmissivity of vegetation
(Pulliainen et al., 1994; Tsai Ya-Lun S. et al., 2019) which is correlated to the LAI and
FVC (Vander Jagt et al., 2015). The accuracy improvement achieved by including
temperature data is straightforward, as it provides general surface thermal information.
The temperature data allows for a differentiation into cold (potentially snow covered)
and warm regions (potentially snow-free). Consequently, even though the
MODIS-based temperature product has a lower spatial resolution (1000 m) than the
PROBA-V-based medium resolution (300 m) vegetation indexes, the SCE mapping
accuracy for all land cover classes is higher when compared to the benefit gained by
including the two vegetation indexes (BIP+asce+V2) . A detailed overview is
illustrated in Figure 4.1.

Ultimately, nearly 90% accuracy can be achieved when all inputs are included.
Therefore, all available SAR-based observations, topographical parameters, two
vegetation indexes, and temperature information have been used as model inputs for
the subsequently presented results. For these results, we do not filter variables based
on the importance of variables calculated from RF because (1) the RF’s importance
metrics are found to be biased when predictor variables vary in scales of
measurements or share collinearity (Strobl et al., 2007; Strobl et al., 2008); and (2) the
goal of the proposed approach is to provide universal applicability and a slight
redundancy of variables can ensure broader transferability and flexibility.

Figure 4.1 Assessment of the influence of different input combinations on the

performance of the model for Monte Rosa (MR) region. Different classification
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Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

accuracies based on different input combinations are marked in different colors, and
the accuracy for each land cover class is marked in the same horizontal axis.
SAR-based observations, including backscatter, interferometric SAR (InSAR)
coherence, and polarimetric (PolSAR) H/A/α parameters are abbreviated as B, I, and
P, respectively. Topographical factors, including aspect, slope, curvature, and
elevation are abbreviated as a, s, c, and e, respectively. Two vegetation indexes and
land surface temperature are abbreviated as V2 and lst, respectively. Non-forest
classes’ overall accuracy, F measure, and area under the receiver operating
characteristic curve are abbreviated as NF OA, NF F1, and NF AUC, respectively.

Based on the RF model sets, the total SCE for each month of each region’s validation
year can be derived. Additionally, a conventional backscatter-based wet SCE
detection approach was also employed (Nagler and Rott, 2000) to utilize the full
potential of the SAR data for discriminating between wet and dry snow. Reference
images were selected from the summertime of the first year as shown in Table 4.2.
The ratio of the backscattering coefficient values between observation and reference
SAR images was set to a threshold of -3 dB to depict wet SCE. Hence, it became
viable to generate holistic dry and wet SCE results based on SAR data. In the present
study, both years’ SAR backscatter observations were combined with the reference
image (summertime observation) of the first year (Table 4.2), as the feasibility of using
a cross-temporal reference image was proven by Luojus et al. (2006).

The overall workflow of mapping total SCE based on a land cover-dependent RF

classification model set as well as detecting wet SCE by “Nagler’s method” is
illustrated in Figure 4.2.

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Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

Figure 4.2 Overall workflow of mapping and validating holistic (total + wet) Snow
Cover Extent (SCE) with SAR-based observations, topographical factors, vegetation
indexes, temperature information, land cover information, and Global SnowPack
(GSP) daily snow cover information. Single look complex, ground range detected,
shuttle radar topographic mission digital elevation model, and land cover are
abbreviated as SLC, GRD, SRTM DEM, and LC, respectively.

4.4. Results
4.4.1. Accuracy Assessment of the Modeled Total SCE

Based on the optimized input variable combinations tested in the Methodology section
(SAR-based observations, topographical factors, vegetation indexes, and
temperature information), the same modeling approach was applied to all five study
areas individually. The resultant internal validation of the first year is shown in Figure
4.3. To highlight the improved classification accuracy achieved by adding vegetation
indexes and temperature information, the results of using only the previous variable
combination (BIP+asce) (Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz Andreas, et al., 2019b) are also plotted.
To assess the robustness of the model, 20 iterations were processed for each trial.
For the single-area scenario, the total SCE mapping accuracies of all five regions are
illustrated in Figure 4.3(a-e). Overall accuracy and F-measure were around 93%, 90%,
96%, 93%, and 92% for MR, ZG, MW, LL, and AK, respectively. The AUC score for
each region was also above 77%, which is more than satisfying. To compare the
negative effect of vegetation on the classification accuracy, the non-forest classes
were assed separately (represented in Figure 4.3 with NF OA, NF AUC, NF F1). The
non-forest overall accuracy and F-measure were around 96%, 93%, 99%, 89%, and
93% for MR, ZG, MW, LL, and AK, respectively.

For the merging-region scenario (Figure 4.3(f)), a comparable accuracy was observed.
Overall accuracy and F-measure were above 92% with an AUC score around 89%.
This accuracy confirms the robustness of the proposed method together with the
included model inputs, and that it can achieve transferability to other regions even if
the model was trained universally, merging all input data to create a globally
transferable model setup.

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Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

Figure 4.3 The results of each model set built in each region: (a) Monte Rosa (MR); (b)
Zugspitze (ZG); (c) Mount Whitney (MW); (d) Landtang Lirung (LL); and (e) Aoraki
(AK); and the five regions’ merging case (f). Different classification accuracies based
on different input combinations are marked in different colors, and the accuracy for
each land cover class is marked in the same horizontal axis. SAR-based observations,
including backscatter, interferometric SAR (InSAR) coherence, and polarimetric
(PolSAR) H/A/α parameters are abbreviated as B, I, and P, respectively.
Topographical factors, including aspect, slope, curvature, and elevation are
abbreviated as a, s, c, and e, respectively. Two vegetation indexes and land surface
temperature are abbreviated as V2 and lst, respectively.

4.4.2. External Validations with Optical-based SCE and Snow Depth Records

To thoroughly validate the modeled total SCE for the second year, two different
external validation approaches were utilized, including validating with optical
imagery-based SCE and meteorological snow depth information. These two datasets
provide higher spatial resolution than the GSP data.

As shown in Table 4.2, high-resolution Landsat as well as Sentinel-2 data were

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Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

chosen based on the criteria of least cloud cover in the shortest temporal distance.
The Fmask algorithm (Qiu et al., 2017) was then applied to each scene to derive total
SCE (for detailed parameters setting refer to (Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz Andreas, et al.,
2019b)). Based on the resultant total SCE, 10,000 random points were stratifiedly
sampled in both snow-covered and snow-free areas. The confusion matrix and
evaluation measurements can thus be calculated as presented in Figure 4.4. For all
five regions’ two validation months, overall accuracy and F-measure always maintain
more than 82%. Only slight over- and under-estimation were observed in the first
month of MR and LL, respectively. These evaluations confirm the robustness of the
proposed model/data. The months with relatively low accuracy such as month1 of MR
(82%) and month1 of LL (82%) might be affected by sudden snowfall/snowmelt events
occurring during the temporal gap between the SAR and the optical image
acquisitions. In study regions with no temporal gap, the accuracies are generally
higher (see month2 of MW (93%) as well as month1 (90%) and month2 (91%) of AK).

To evaluate the improvement of the classification accuracy compared to the previous

variable combinations (Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz Andreas, et al., 2019b), a confusion
matrix and evaluation measurements using only SAR-based observations and
topographical factors (BIP+asce) are also presented in Figure 4.4. In addition and to
summarize the improvement, we used simple rules to judge the performance: (1) if
the evaluation measurements of the present study are considerably higher/lower than
the previous study, then we marked that case with “O”/”X”; if no significant difference
is found, it is marked as “-“. (2) if the present study eliminates the significant under- or
over-estimation shown in the previous study, then we marked that case with another
“O”; if the present study shows either under- or over-estimation which is not presented
in the previous study, then we marked that case with another “X”. According to these
rules, we can summarize the overall improvement level for all ten months. It was
found that seven cases showed an improvement while only two cases showed a
worse performance; therefore, the present study can be considered as a general
improvement.

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Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

Figure 4.4 Confusion matrix of the accuracy assessment relying on optical-based

snow cover classifications of Landsat and Sentinel-2 for each test site. The
assessment includes classifications for months that were trained in the first year
(month2) as well as those that were not used in the training of the first year (month1).
Overall accuracy (OA) and F1-score are depicted under the respective confusion
matrix. The temporal difference (days) between SAR observation image and optical
image used for validation is mentioned on the upper-left corner of each confusion
matrix. The summary of improvement depicts the improvements achieved by adding
vegetation indexes and temperature information: OO for major improvement, O for
slight improvement, - for no change, X for slight degradation, and XX for major
degradation. The confusion matrixes marked in light and dark grey colors represent
the results of using the present and previous (Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz Andreas, et al.,
2019b) variable combination, respectively.

Another validation approach is utilizing the snow depth (SD) information of local
meteorological stations. Considering the data availability, only MR and ZG regions
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Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

located in European Alps provide a suitable dataset. The daily SD records of 28

MeteoSwiss’s stations and 114 stations of European Climate Assessment & Dataset
Project (ECA&D) (Tank et al., 2002) were used for validation of the two regions,
respectively (for exact locations of the stations refer to (Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz Andreas,
et al., 2019b)). Due to the fact that the locations of meteorological stations are
generally at a lower elevation and there is less snow in May (melting season), only
SCE of March was validated. The confusion matrix between SAR-based modeled
total SCE and SD (if SD is higher than 0 cm, it is defined as snow-covered) is
illustrated in Figure 4.5. Overall, the accuracy was satisfyingly high, i.e., above 82% in
both cases. The validation results of the SCE estimated with the previous variable
combination (without vegetation and temperature information) (Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz
Andreas, et al., 2019b) is also shown in Figure 4.5, which generally presents a lower
accuracy. This finding agrees with the validation using optical-based SCE as
mentioned above, i.e. the present study does demonstrate a modest improvement in
classification accuracy.

Figure 4.5 Confusion matrix of (a) Monte Rosa (MR) and (b) Zugspitze (ZG) regions
validated with meteorological snow depth (SD) station data records of MeteoSwiss
and European Climate Assessment & Dataset Project (ECA&D), respectively. The
summary of improvement depicts the improvements achieved by adding vegetation
indexes and temperature information: OO for a major improvement, O for a slight
improvement, - for no change, X for a slight degradation, and XX for a major
degradation. The confusion matrixes marked in light and dark grey colors represent
the results of using the present and previous (Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz Andreas, et al.,
2019b) variable combination, respectively.

4.4.3. Holistic Wet and Dry SCE Maps with Reliability Maps

Via comprehensive internal and external validation based on different data sources as
mentioned in 4.1 and 4.2, it is confirmed that all five regions yield credible modeled
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Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

total SCE. Based on that and to fully utilize the advantages of SAR data, a
conventional backscatter-based wet SCE detection approach (Nagler and Rott, 2000)
was also employed. In the present study, the presence of wet snow is only allowed for
areas where SCE has been detected by our modelling approach, which helps
removing patchy wet snow caused by salt-and-pepper noise of SAR imagery. By
merging both total and wet SCE, dry SCE can therefore be separately depicted as
shown in Figure 4.6. It was clear that the coverage of total/wet SCE is
decreasing/increasing in all five regions from month1 to month2 (Table 4.2) as the
melting season starts due to rising temperature.

It should be noted that currently, there is no comprehensive way to validate the wet
SCE in a comparable spatial resolution. Considering the general acceptance of the
conventional backscatter-threshold-based approach for wet SCE detection in
previous studies (Tsai Ya-Lun S. et al., 2019), we did not examine the quality of wet
SCE in the presented study. Nevertheless, as we mentioned in (Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz
Andreas, et al., 2019b), the conventional backscatter-threshold-based method is
sometimes found to be under-estimating wet SCE especially in patchy snow-covered
areas due to the mixture of different scattering characteristics of different ground
surfaces.

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Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

Figure 4.6 Total and wet SCE for each region’s two months: (a) Monte Rosa (MR),
month 1 (Mar 24, 2018); (b) Monte Rosa, month 2 (May 23, 2018); (c) Zugspitze (ZG),
month 1 (Mar 26, 2018); (d) Zugspitze, month 2 (May 13, 2018); (e) Mount Whitney
(MW), month 1 (Mar 16, 2018); (f) Mount Whitney, month 2 (May 03, 2018); (g)
Landtang Lirung (LL), month 1 (Mar 12, 2018); (h) Landtang Lirung, month 2 (May 11,
2018); (i) Aoraki (AK), month 1 (Jun 30, 2018); (j) Aoraki, month 2 (May 01, 2018).

To overcome the limitation of previous studies, i.e. the lack of reliability information of
the produced SCE (Tsai Ya-Lun S. et al., 2019) (which is state-of-the-art in other
spaceborne-based cryosphere products (Tsai et al., 2018)), we utilize the advantage
of RF to generate a reliability map for the modeled total SCE for each region and each
month as illustrated in Figure 4.7. The reliability for the results is high except for the
transition zone (or snow line) between snow-covered and snow-free areas, which is
caused by ambiguities in the SAR signal within patchy snow fields (caused by a mix of
bare soil, rock, vegetation, and snow) (Malnes et al., 2006; Pettinato et al., 2006;
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Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

Storvold, Malnes, Larsen, et al., 2006). However, as concluded by Malnes et al.

(2006), this situation can only be compensated by enhancing the spatial resolution of
the SAR imagery. Nevertheless, the reliability information along with the modeled total
SCE can provide the users a valuable reference about uncertainty for further
applications and analysis.

Figure 4.7 Reliability map with total SCE for each region’s two months: (a) Monte
Rosa (MR), month 1 (Mar 24, 2018); (b) Monte Rosa, month 2 (May 23, 2018); (c)
Zugspitze (ZG), month 1 (Mar 26, 2018); (d) Zugspitze, month 2 (May 13, 2018); (e)
Mount Whitney (MW), month 1 (Mar 16, 2018); (f) Mount Whitney, month 2 (May 03,
2018); (g) Landtang Lirung (LL), month 1 (Mar 12, 2018); (h) Landtang Lirung, month
2 (May 11, 2018); (i) Aoraki (AK), month 1 (Jun 30, 2018); (j) Aoraki, month 2 (May 01,
2018).

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Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

4.5. Discussion
4.5.1. The Influence of Different Input Variables Combinations to Classification
Accuracy

In the Methodology section, different input combinations were tested, where the “all
input included” case yields the highest classification accuracies. To clarify the
misunderstanding that it would always have better modeling accuracy when including
more inputs, Figure 4.8 presents the results of employing SAR local incidence angle
(LIA) as well as multi-spectral data from high-resolution optical imagery. The results
show that neither adding LIA (Figure 4.8(a)) nor the six different bands of Sentinel-2
(band 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 8A) (Figure 4.8(b)) can provide higher accuracy than the
previous case only relying on the SAR-based observations and topographical factors
(Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz Andreas, et al., 2019b). We presume that this is for two reasons:
The terrain correction step in the pre-processing of the SAR-observations already
eliminates most of the influence of LIA; and the snow-cloud-ice ambiguity within
optical imagery largely limits the usable information. Thus, both LIA and Sentinel-2
multi-spectral data were not included in the proposed model.

Figure 4.8 Examination of the accuracy improvement benefits of employing (a) SAR
local incidence angle (LIA) and (b) Sentinel-2 multi-bands imagery on the
performance of the model for Monte Rosa (MR) region. Different classification
accuracies based on different input combinations are marked in different colors, and
the accuracy for each land cover class is marked in the same horizontal axis.
SAR-based observations, including backscatter, interferometric SAR (InSAR)
coherence, and polarimetric (PolSAR) H/A/α parameters are abbreviated as B, I, and
P, respectively. Topographical factors, including aspect, slope, curvature, and
elevation are abbreviated as a, s, c, and e, respectively. Six bands of Sentinel-2
imagery is abbreviated as 6bS2.

4.5.2. The Influence of Different Land Cover (Vegetation) Types on the

Classification Reliability

To investigate the relationship between vegetation and classification reliability, the

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Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

reliability of the second year’s total SCE was analyzed based on different land cover
classes as shown in Figure 4.9. The land cover classes were categorized to densely,
lightly, and non-vegetated land cover classes and colored with deep green, light green,
and light blue, respectively. It is obvious that generally, the reliability is inversely
proportional to the density of vegetation, except for the LL region in Himalaya which
may differ due to local vegetation characteristics and lower quality of the land cover
map caused by more rugged terrain (Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz Andreas, et al., 2019b).
Namely, densely vegetated classes such as shrubs, broad and needle leaf forest have
the poorest reliability; they are followed by mild vegetated classes, including the grass,
herbaceous, and sparse vegetation; non-forest classes like bare areas, urban, and
snow/ice normally have the highest reliability. This analysis proves previous studies’
findings, i.e., stem volume and vegetation height would directly influence the snow
detecting abilities of SAR signals (Löw et al., 2002; Duguay and Bernier, 2012;
Schellenberger et al., 2012). However, although these vegetated classes have
relatively poor accuracies, most regions still provide an accuracy of more than 60%
for 75% of the pixels (the tail of each box).

Figure 4.9 Assessment of the relationship between reliability and land cover class in
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Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

each region: (a) Monte Rosa (MR); (b) Zugspitze (ZG); (c) Mount Whitney (MW); (d)
Landtang Lirung (LL); and (e) Aoraki (AK). Densely, lightly, and non-vegetated land
cover classes are colored in deep green, light green, and light blue, respectively.

4.5.3 The Heterogeneity between Multispectral-based Results/Products for

Model Training and Validation

Although the GSP SCE, which is used for training the model, the Landsat/Sentinel-2
Fmask-based SCE which is used for validation, and the PROBA-V-based vegetation
products, which is used for modeling as well all stem from multispectral sensors, they
should not be affected by considerable correlations/biases. These products are
calculated with different algorithms/techniques for different purposes, and they are
based on several different sensors which acquire the data at varying times. In detail,
the total SCE of GSP is calculated by combining both MODIS daily snow cover
products (MOD10A1 and MYD10A1) and then applying temporal interpolation,
snowline determination with a DEM reference, and a seasonal filter to eliminate the
effect of polar darkness and cloud coverage (Dietz et al., 2015). The GSP is therefore
based on an aggregation approach. In the contrary, the Fmask-based
Landsat/Sentinel-2 SCE is estimated by executing a water detection relying on the
NDVI and the NIR band, cloud detection using thermal bands, and cloud shadow
mapping using segmentation of objects’ shapes (Qiu et al., 2017). Fmask can
therefore be considered a segmentation approach. Therefore, the way how total SCE
is derived from both approaches is technically different. When it comes to the
PROBA-V-based LAI and FVC products, a machine learning-based approach is
employed. The products are processed by neural networks with calibrated reflectance
inputs, then post-processed with outlier rejection, composition, smoothing, and gap
filling (Baret et al., 2016). Although being derived from multispectral data, these three
datasets are calculated with different techniques, which prevents a direct
correlation/bias between them. Thus, reliability of the validation can be ensured.

4.5.4. Applying the Total SCE Detection Approach to a Wider Spatial Scale －
the Whole Alps

To test the robustness and transferability of the employed model and to examine the
practical usability, we applied our approach to the whole Alps for the melting season of
2018 to monitor the total SCE dynamics. By utilizing the same dataset and
classification routine as mentioned in Section 2.2, 2.3, and 3, we can sense the total
SCE for the whole Alps from March to May of 2018. To emphasize the dynamics of the
SCE visually, we only illustrate the results in 24-days interval as shown in Figure 4.10.
It is clear that the pattern of the modeled total SCE matches well with the topography
of the mountain ranges. A decrease of total SCE can be observed from March to May
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Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

as the snow starts to melt due to the increase of temperature. The results indicate that
it is practical to depict the total SCE in both dry snow-dominated months (March) as
well as wet snow-dominated months (May). This outcome confirms the maturity of our
approach and that it is comparable to the conventional optical sensor-based
approaches in both spatial and temporal scales.

Figure 4.10 Map of the modeled total SCE for the whole Alps including 2018/3/8-3/19,
2018/4/1-4/12, and 2018/4/25-5/6 based on Sentinel-1 SAR observations,
topographical factors, vegetation indexes, and temperature information. The total
SCE for the different dates are colored differently.

4.5.5. Improvements Achieved in This Study and its Future Potential

In our previous study (Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz Andreas, et al., 2019b), we confirmed that
by utilizing SAR-based observations (backscatter, InSAR coherence, and PolSAR
parameters), topographical factors (elevation, slope, aspect, and curvature), and land
cover information, it is possible to map the total SCE with an accuracy of around 80%
(calculated based on validation with high resolution optical sensors-based SCE)
which was already much higher than previous SAR-based studies (Tsai Ya-Lun S. et
al., 2019). However, this level of accuracy is still generally lower than the conventional
optical-based SCE detection approaches. For instance, the MODIS daily snow cover
product is confirmed to have accuracy of around 90% under clear sky conditions
(Dietz et al., 2015). Consequently, to improve the usability of SAR-based results, we
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Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

added two more variable sets which are derived from multi-spectral sensor-based
products, including surface temperature (derived from MODIS) and vegetation
indexes (derived from PROBA-V), which are commonly employed to map SCE, to
enhance the classification accuracy to around 90%. These two different input variable
combinations and mapping accuracies provide a comprehensive strategy for users to
utilize SAR-based observations for total SCE mapping based on data availability. If a
region is neither cloud covered nor affected by polar darkness, the multi-spectral
sensor-based vegetation and temperature products are trustable. They allow for an
RF-based SCE detection with an accuracy of around 90%, which is comparable to
traditional cloud-free optical-based classification accuracies. If multi-spectral sensors
are not available for a region (PROBA-V-based vegetation indexes are influenced by
cloud coverage and polar darkness; the MODIS-based temperature product is also
affected by cloud coverage), users can still rely on the all-weather sensible,
cloud-penetrating SAR-based observations to map total SCE with an accuracy of
around 80%. Although this accuracy is lower, it largely compensates the void
information provided by optical sensors.

However, there is still a limitation for SAR-based SCE detection approaches.

According to the Global Observing System for Climate (GCOS) (Key et al., 2007), the
minimum SCE mapping requirements for the subsequent hydrological and climate
applications is 1000 m spatial resolution and one to five days temporal resolution.
Although the current novel spaceborne SAR sensors can easily satisfy the spatial
resolution threshold (the spatial resolution of Sentinel-1 is around 20 m); their revisit
time normally is longer than five days even when a multi-satellite constellation is
formed (Sentinel-1A and B can shorten the revisit frequency to six days from original
12 days). Thankfully, the extension of the Sentinel-1 missions has been confirmed,
and the launches of Sentinel-1C and D are planed from 2021 onwards (Torres et al.,
2017). They will compose a more completed constellation system and provide a much
denser SAR observation frequency which will provide a great niche for spaceborne
SAR-based SCE mapping approaches.

4.6. Conclusions

Snow cover not only influences many environmental phenomena but also human
activities, thus snow monitoring is a critical topic especially because recently, snow
cover extent (SCE) shows a significant decreasing trend globally due to climate
change. To overcome the limitations of conventional optical-based approaches,
including cloud coverage and polar darkness, the utilization of spaceborne SAR is
explored in the present study. Compared to our previous paper (Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz

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Dry Snow Cover in Mountainous Areas

Andreas, et al., 2019b) which only utilized SAR-based observations (backscatter,

InSAR coherence, and PolSAR parameters) and topographical factors (elevation,
slope, aspect, and curvature), the value of employing vegetation indexes (LAI and
FVC) as well as land surface temperature (LST) derived from the PROBA-V satellite
and MODIS sensors, respectively, has been examined. It was confirmed that the
overall accuracy, F-measure, and AUC score can be enhanced from previously 80%,
80%, and 70% to around 90%, 90%, and 80% for all five study areas located in
different mountain ranges, continents, and hemispheres.

Based on the satisfying accuracy among all validation trials with different data sources,
the transferability of the method and data proposed in the present study was also
ensured. Moreover, the newly generated reliability maps along with the modeled total
SCE provides a potential for evaluating the uncertainty for further application and
analysis. For instance, a relationship between lower modeled reliability with densely
vegetated land cover classes was confirmed and discussed. Additionally, to examine
the assumption of “more inputs can always yield better classification accuracy,” both,
the SAR’s local incidence angle as well as multi-bands imagery from the
high-resolution optical sensor were also tested, which did not improve the accuracy
significantly. Eventually, we successfully applied our approach to map the total SCE
dynamics for the whole Alps during the melting season of 2018, which confirms
transferability and applicability of the approach.

Most important of all, based on the present study, we provide an alternative approach
to map the total SCE (wet + dry snow) in the scenario that multi-spectral auxiliary
products (LAI, FVC, LST) are trustable. Together with our previous paper (Tsai Ya-Lun
S, Dietz Andreas, et al., 2019b) only relying on SAR-based observations and static
topographical factors, these two different input variable settings provide users a
package to achieve satisfactory total SCE mapping accuracies based on different
data availability. It largely compensates the traditional limitation of optical-based SCE
detection approaches and also provides extra wet SCE information which cannot be
detected by optical sensors.

Acknowledgments: Support by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

fellowship to Ya-Lun S. Tsai is gratefully acknowledged. The authors thank the
providers of the meteorological data used in this article, including MeteoSwiss (the
Swiss Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology) as well as the ECA&D project
(Data and metadata available at http://eca.knmi.nl).

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Data and by Analyzing Causal Effects of Snowmelt

5 Monitoring Large-scale Inland Water Dynamics by Fusing

Sentinel-1 SAR and Sentinel-3 Altimetry Data and by
Analyzing Causal Effects of Snowmelt
Tsai, Y.-L.S., Klein, I., Dietz, A. and Oppelt, N. (2020). Monitoring Large-scale
Inland Water Dynamics by Fusing Sentinel-1 SAR and Sentinel-3 Altimetry
Data and by Analyzing Causal Effects of Snowmelt. Remote Sensing, 12, 3896

Abstract

The warming climate is threatening to alter inland water resources on a global scale.
Within all waterbody types, lake and river systems are vital not only for natural
ecosystems but also for human society. Snowmelt phenology is also altered by global
warming, and snowmelt is the primary water supply source for many river and lake
systems around the globe. Hence, (1) monitoring snowmelt conditions, (2) tracking
the dynamics of snowmelt-influenced river and lake systems, and (3) quantifying the
causal effect of snowmelt conditions on these waterbodies are critical to understand
the cryo-hydrosphere interactions under climate change. Previous studies utilize
in-situ or multispectral sensors to track either the surface area or water level of
waterbodies, which is constrained to small-scale regions and limited by cloud cover,
respectively. On the contrary, in the present study, we employ the latest Sentinel-1
synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and Sentinel-3 altimetry data to grant a high resolution,
cloud-free and illumination-independent comprehensive inland water dynamics
monitoring strategy. Moreover, in contrast to previous studies utilizing in-house
algorithms, we employ freely available cloud-based services to ensure a broad
applicability with high efficiency. Based on altimetry and SAR data, water level and the
water-covered extent (WCE) (surface area of lakes and the flooded area of rivers) can
be successfully measured. Furthermore, by fusing water level and surface area
information, for Lake Urmia we can estimate the hypsometry and derive water volume
change. Additionally, for the Brahmaputra River, the variation of both water level and
the flooded area can be tracked. Last but not least, together with the wet snow cover
extent (WSCE) mapped with SAR imagery, we can analyze the influence of snowmelt
conditions on water resource variation. The distributed lag model (DLM) initially
developed in the econometrics discipline is employed, and the lagged causal effect of
snowmelt conditions on inland water resources is eventually assessed.

Keywords: Snow Cover; Water Level; Surface Area; Flooded Area; Hypsometry;
Distributed Lag Model

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Data and by Analyzing Causal Effects of Snowmelt

5.1. Introduction

Inland water resources play an essential role in not only the prosperity and stability of
human society but also the sustainability and balance of various ecosystems.
According to the reports of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) (2010),
UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) (Food and Nations, 2011), and the latest
UN World Water Development Report (WWDR) 2019 (Water, 2019), transboundary
surface water resources largely influence the socio-economic-ecological systems;
therefore, it is enlisted as the sixth 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Expressly, the importance of local rivers and lakes should be noted as they are critical
freshwater sources for many regions (Water, 2019) and also influence the climate
(Crétaux et al., 2016). However, as studies suggested (Bhaduri et al., 2016; Costanza
et al., 2016), these vague SDGs provide no dependable guideline on how to achieve
them. As a result, to elaborate the practical research gap of SDG target 6.6, i.e.,
protect and restore water-related ecosystems, an investigation of the main drivers of
change in the high-mountain cryosphere is recommended (Bhaduri et al., 2016). The
importance of snowmelt water to downstream freshwater is widely recognized.
Assessing this cryo-hydrosphere interaction is indispensable to understand the future
trend of water resources we have in severer climate change scenarios. Due to the
global warming, the shrinking of snow cover extent (SCE), earlier snowmelt season,
and shorter snow cover duration has been observed almost globally as stated in the
Synthesis Report of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) (Pachauri et al., 2014).
Moreover, in the same report it is also indicated that the change of melting snow is
altering hydrological systems and affecting water resources in both, quantity and
quality. Thus, monitoring snowmelt conditions and the dynamics of
snowmelt-influenced river and lake systems and quantifying the causal effect of
snowmelt water on these waterbodies are critical. It would allow us not only to
understand the impact of global warming’s to inland water resources but also to
assess the vulnerability and variability of regional freshwater supply.

For the observation and investigation of the influence of snowmelt on global

waterbodies, the employment of spaceborne remote sensing data is preferred, owing
to its high efficiency and broad applicability. As mentioned in the latest report
published by UN-Water assessing the progress of SDG indicator 6.6.1 (Water, 2018),
i.e., tracking time-series changes in the extent (including quality, quantity, and area) of
water-related ecosystems (including rivers and lakes), the utilization of globally
transferable satellite data is strongly advocated. For monitoring the snowmelt
conditions, as summarized in Tsai et al. (2019), it is hardly possible to discriminate wet
and dry snow with conventional multi-spectral data sources solely based on the
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Data and by Analyzing Causal Effects of Snowmelt

reflectance differences, as the spectral characteristics of both snow types share high
similarity. SAR data, on the other hand, is excellent for wet SCE (WSCE) mapping:
The snowmelt-caused wetness in the snowpack would change the dielectric constant
of the snowpack and thus dramatically shorten the penetration depth of the SAR
signal, which eventually leads to a significant decrease of the backscatter coefficient
when the snowpack starts to melt (Nagler and Rott, 2000; Marin et al., 2019; Tsai
Ya-Lun S. et al., 2019).

For monitoring the dynamics of river and lake systems, conventional studies focus on
either water level or surface area. For tracking the surface area, multi-spectral
sensor-based band ratio water indices, such as the Normalized Difference Water
Index (NDWI) (McFeeters, 1996), Modified NDWI (MNDWI) (Xu, 2006), and
Automated Water Extraction Index (AWEI) (Feyisa et al., 2014), are commonly used
due to their simplicities. However, in addition to the difficulty of the selection among
these various band ratios, these indices are based on multi-spectral sensor. Therefore,
they are inevitably affected by cloud cover and polar darkness, which frequently
happen for alpine regions and high latitude zones (Tsai Ya-Lun S. et al., 2019).
Moreover, the spectral feature of water in the multi-spectral sensor is also affected by
the variation of atmospheric/illumination conditions and water dynamics, such as
water depth, sediment load, eutrophication degree, turbidity, sun angle, and sensor
view angle (Klein et al., 2017; Dirscherl et al., 2020). On the contrary SAR data can be
utilized for waterbody monitoring thanks to its cloud-penetrating applicability and
illumination-independent characteristics. Yet it might suffer from relatively coarse
resolution compared to optical sensors, the higher cost of the imagery, and most
importantly, the requirement of computation-intensive processing.

Regarding the monitoring of the water level of lakes or rivers, using in-situ gauging
station measurements is the optimal approach. However, although it provides the
chance of continuous observations, it is not widely achievable in all lake and river
systems because of the cost of instruments setup, intensive maintenance
requirements, or the difficult accessibility of remote waterbodies. In fact, the number
of available gauging stations has been decreasing globally (Alsdorf et al., 2007; Duan
and Bastiaanssen, 2013). Also, the data might not be publically available. Another
alternative is combining the surface area of a waterbody with the bathymetry of the
lake or river channel to derive the water surface height. Nevertheless, accurate
information of bathymetry is still needed, which is only available for very few
waterbodies, which were surveyed thoroughly (Duan and Bastiaanssen, 2013;
Crétaux et al., 2016). On the contrary, spaceborne altimetry provides a favorable
alternative for waterbody surface height monitoring due to its global availability. Many
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Data and by Analyzing Causal Effects of Snowmelt

altimetry databases have therefore been established, including the Database for
Hydrological Time Series of Inland Waters (DAHITI) (https://dahiti.dgfi.tum.de/en/)
(Schwatke et al., 2015), The Global Reservoir and Lake Global Reservoir and Lake
Monitor (G-REALM) (https://ipad.fas.usda.gov/cropexplorer/global_reservoir/) (Birkett
et al., 2017), and Hydroweb (http://hydroweb.theia-land.fr/) (Crétaux et al., 2011).
Unfortunately, because the design of spaceborne altimetry sensors is generally
targeted for ocean surface surveying, i.e., a flat, isotropic, and ample reflecting
surface, the footprint sizes of their echoes are enormously coarse (> 2 kilometers),
and the sampling distance between these echo points is vast (Yuan et al., 2017).
These characteristics hinder the viability of inland waterbody monitoring, especially for
rivers, which usually have a more inhomogeneous neighboring topography
(Fernandes et al., 2014). Thus, to overcome the waveform difference to the standard
Brown model (Brown, 1977), a computation-intensive waveform reprocessing
(retracking) analysis is usually required for inland waterbodies (Calmant et al., 2008;
Crétaux et al., 2016; Cretaux et al., 2018; Wang et al., 2019). However, the selection
of retrackers (ground processing techniques which estimate the range to the point of
closest approach on the surface) varies in different studies and most of them use
in-house algorithms or refinements (Uebbing et al., 2014; Crétaux et al., 2016; Yuan
et al., 2017; Gao et al., 2019), which largely limit the transferability of the method to
other regions.

With the aim to overcome these limitations for monitoring surface area and water level,
in the present study, we utilize the new generation of high-resolution, freely accessible
spaceborne SAR and altimetry data of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-3, together with freely
available online cloud-based processing services to achieve a comprehensive inland
waterbody dynamics (time-series surface area and water level) tracking strategy with
broad applicability. Although there have been some studies employing either
spaceborne SAR or altimetry sensors for waterbody monitoring, yet few studies have
integrated them to achieve an in-situ measurement-free approach. Also, in contrast to
studies relying on multi-spectral sensors, this altimetry-SAR sensor combination
provides a cloud-free and illumination-independent monitoring method. Furthermore,
as the Sentinel fleet is the newest generation of spaceborne satellites with freely
accessible data policy, data availability is ensured for the following decades. Last but
not least, based on the depicted comprehensive waterbody dynamics together with
the SAR-based WSCE maps, we can further analyze the relationship between
snowmelt conditions and inland water resource variation. By employing a
sophisticated regression model adopted from the econometrics domain, we
guarantee a quantified and unbiased lagged influence of the snowmelt condition on
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Data and by Analyzing Causal Effects of Snowmelt

the waterbody dynamics; hence the cryo-hydrosphere interaction can be

well-identified.

5.2. Study areas and data

5.2.1 Study areas

Since the goal of the present study is to (1) monitor the dynamics (both water level
and surface area) of inland waterbodies and (2) quantify the lagged influence of
snowmelt on inland water dynamics, we select the study sites based on the following
criteria: (1) their spatial scales are wide enough to be detected by spaceborne SAR
and altimetry sensors, (2) they demonstrate considerable magnitude of variation in
both water level and surface area, and (3) their watersheds include snow-covered
regions.

Therefore, in our study, the Lake Urmia in Iran and the Brahmaputra River are
chosen.

5.2.1.1 Lake Urmia

Lake Urmia (or Orumiyeh Lake) is located in the northwest of Iran. It is the largest lake
in Iran and was the largest perennial hyper-saline lake worldwide (Zarghami, 2011).
This endorheic lake is situated 1273 meters above the mean sea level and is situated
in the semi-arid climate zone with average annual precipitation and evaporation of
around 341 and 1200 mm/yr, respectively (Djamali et al., 2008). The highest river
inflows can be observed in springtime due to snowmelt (Environment, 2010). Based
on its geological location and climatic characteristics, Lake Urmia and the basin
encompass high biodiversity and are one of the most critical ecological habitats in the
Middle East. For instance, Lake Urmia is the largest habitat of the brine shrimp
Artemia urmiana (Karbassi et al., 2010), which is the primary food source for the
migratory birds (Scott, 2001; Ahmadi et al., 2011). The islands in the lake are critical
destinations for these migratory birds and also the shelter for rare species of
mammals and reptiles (Kabiri et al., 2012; Sima and Tajrishy, 2013). The vibrant
ecosystem led to Lake Urmia being entitled as a Wetland of International Importance
by the Ramsar Convention in 1971 and a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1976
(Nouri et al., 2017).

However, recent studies show that Lake Urmia has been experiencing dramatic water
depletion in recent decades mainly due to intensive anthropogenic actives
(Hassanzadeh et al., 2012; Delju et al., 2013; Voss et al., 2013). The variation of its
surface area is also significant as shown in Figure 5.1(a). The construction of dams
and causeways, as well as the extraction of groundwater for agricultural irrigation, are
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responsible for a large part of water resource loss (Eimanifar and Mohebbi, 2007;
Hassanzadeh et al., 2012; Tourian et al., 2015). Together with the fact that Lake Urmia
is a terminal lake with a maximum depth of only 16 meters, it is even more vulnerable
to evaporation (Sorgeloos, 1986). Thus, the salinity has reached a dangerous level for
species (Eimanifar and Mohebbi, 2007), and the water equilibrium has fallen to a new
low standard (Tourian et al., 2015). According to Abbaspour et al. (2012), the lake
might eventually dry up within a decade. The lake desiccation endangers not only the
natural environment and habitat but also the nearby population of seven million
inhabitants in both economic as well as health aspects (Pengra, 2012). For instance,
the depleted lake bed would reveal dissolved salts crusts (Alipour, 2006), which would
be exposed to the wind and cause salt-storms to the surrounding residential areas;
the shrinking size of the lake would reduce its function as a mediator in the extreme
climate (Kabiri et al., 2012); the dehydrated bed would also lead to species migration
(Sima and Tajrishy, 2013). Moreover, the shortage of water resources might also
result in a political crisis (Madani, 2014).

5.2.1.2 Brahmaputra River

The Brahmaputra River originates in the Himalayan mountain range, which is mainly
fed by snowmelt water and is the third-largest river in the world by discharge (Dai et
al., 2009; Immerzeel et al., 2010; Archana et al., 2012). It is a trans-boundary river, by
order, it passes by China, India, Bangladesh, and eventually merges with the Ganges
river and flows into the Bay of Bengal. It is called with different names in each country,
including Yarlung Zangbo, Brahmaputra, and Jamuna, in China, India, and
Bangladesh, respectively. As the youngest major river among the world (Archana et
al., 2012), the Brahmaputra River has at least three characteristics: abundant
tributaries, highly dynamic fluvial activities, and a varying river width as shown in
Figure 5.1(b). Because the sediments of the Brahmaputra River bed is composed with
medium to fine sand and silt which is uniformly graded and has poor transport
resistance (Archana et al., 2012), the river bed and banks area are considerably
mobile which leads to frequent morphological change affected by fluvial processes
(Archana et al., 2012; Dubey et al., 2014; Samanta et al., 2019). Therefore, river
braiding, division, and shifting often happen (Richardson and Thorne, 2001). However,
although it is one of the most critical water resources in Asia, there is barely any
in-situ river measurement available publically. Because of the imminent danger of
flooding, such in-situ data is regarded as classified information, and even the Global
Runoff Data Center (GRDC) keeps no recent observations (Finsen et al., 2014;
Huang et al., 2018).

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Figure 5.1 The locations of the study areas with the Sentinel-3 altimetry satellite pass
ground tracks (dotted red lines) and the corresponding virtual stations (VSs) (green
points). The investigated water-covered extent (WCE) (black polygon) and the
average water-covered frequency of 2003 to 2018 derived from the Global WaterPack
(GWP) are illustrated.

5.2.2 Data
5.2.2.1 Sentinel-1 SAR

The Sentinel-1 mission consists of two-satellites, with Sentinel-1A/B launched in April

2014 and April 2016, respectively. Its advanced terrain observation with progressive
scans in azimuth (TOPS) image acquisition technique enables a high signal-to-noise
(SNR) ratio in long-track direction without scalloping effect while maintaining a wide
coverage like conventional ScanSAR mode (Tsai Ya-Lun S, Lin Shih-Yuan, et al.,
2019). As in the present study, we only utilize the intensity information, the Level-1
Ground Range Detected (GRD) product, for which all the sub-swath have already
been merged, and de-bursting is selected. To increase the efficiency of image
analysis, we process the images on Google Earth Engine (GEE). It provides the
archive of Sentinel-1 GRD scenes and stores them in the decibels (dB) unit. Further
calibration, such as orbit file application, noise removal, radiometric calibration, and
terrain corrections, are processed as well. Furthermore, this cloud-based geospatial
processing platform enables a user-defined processing, which largely accelerates the
time-series SAR data analysis in a wide spatial scale (Gorelick et al., 2017).

5.2.2.2 Sentinel-3 altimetry

Similar to Sentinel-1, Sentinel-3 is also composed of two satellites, with Sentinel-3A/B

being launched in February 2016 and April 2018, respectively. When it comes to

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inland water monitoring, compared to previous spaceborne altimetry sensors, the

biggest advantage provided by the dual-frequency SAR radar altimeter (SRAL)
instrument abroad on Sentinel-3 is the much finer along-track resolution. Inherited
from CryoSat, Sentinel-3 uses the high pulse repetition frequency (PRF) SAR mode
(or delay-Doppler) processing, which greatly improves the along-track resolution of
the commonly used low-resolution mode (LRM) altimeters. It significantly increases
the SNR ratio and thus enables the detection of much smaller target (EUMETSAT,
2017). Moreover, the echo reception window positioning method is also upgraded.
Thanks to these improvements, Sentinel-3 is capable of monitoring finer inland
waterbody. To process the altimetry data via ESA online service, Level-1 Non Time
Critical (NTC) products are selected.

5.2.2.3 Auxiliary data

To include hydrological factors including rainfall and evapotranspiration, the latest

European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA5-Land data
are used. This newly released reanalysis dataset provides global meteorological
variables in a much higher spatial resolution (nine kilometers) compared to previous
ERA-Interim (79 kilometers) and ERA5 (31 kilometers) datasets. Currently, it covers
data from 1981 to present, and eventually, it would cover the same period as ERA, i.e.,
1950 to near real-time.

For examination of our water level results, the data provided by DAHITI, G-REALM,
and Hydroweb are used. To compare our water-covered extent estimations, the
Global WaterPack (GWP) is selected. It utilizes daily MODIS reflectance data at 250m
spatial resolution and dynamically decides threshold values as well as temporal
interpolation techniques to achieve daily global cloud-free water/no water
classification (Klein et al., 2017).

5.3. Methodology
5.3.1 Water level calculation with Sentinel-3 altimetry

To derive the water level from Sentinel-3 altimetry data, we utilize the ESA’s SAR
Versatile Altimetric Toolkit for Ocean Research & Exploitation (SARvatore) service. It
is based on the G-POD (Grid Processing On Demand) distributed platform, which
guarantees high-speed processing and timely delivery. Another highlight of the
SARvatore service is that it provides the inland water-customized processing
configuration, which utilizes the higher posting rate (HPR) of 80 Hz data and
processes with the new SAMOSA+ analytical retracker algorithm (Dinardo et al., 2016;
Dinardo et al., 2018). By utilizing this advanced setting mode, we can reduce the

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separation between two observations in along-track from the original 300 meters to 80
meters, and thus provide more valid points over the targeted waterbody. The output
files include not only a L2 data in NetCDF format but a KML file containing the satellite
pass ground track location. The KML file facilitates the identification of the interested
regions as shown in Figure 5.1, i.e., virtual station (VS) (the intersection of altimetry’s
ground track and the waterbody), in the following analysis of the Multi-Mission Radar
Altimetry Toolbox (BRAT). It must be noted that because both of our study targets are
characterized by significant seasonal WCE change, we first utilize the GWP to identify
the sub-region of a waterbody having (near) permanent water, and then analyze the
altimetry data of that region to minimize the signal pollution. This step largely
enhances the accuracy by avoiding taking account of river/lake bed-caused signals in
the dry season. To derive the unbiased orthometric height over the inland waterbody
H𝑂𝑅𝑇𝐻𝑂, i.e. the water level refers to the geoid, the following correction equation is
used:

H𝑂𝑅𝑇𝐻𝑂 = H𝑆𝐴𝑇 − R𝑂𝐵𝑆 − (∆𝑅𝑊𝑇𝐶 + ∆𝑅𝐷𝑇𝐶 + ∆𝑅𝐼𝑂𝑁𝑂 + ∆𝑅𝐸𝑇 + ∆𝑅𝑃𝑇 ) − N𝐺𝐸𝑂𝐼𝐷 (5.1)
where H𝑆𝐴𝑇 is the satellite altitude above the reference geoid, R𝑂𝐵𝑆 is the observed
range, ∆𝑅𝐷𝑇𝐶/∆𝑅𝑊𝑇𝐶 is the dry/wet tropospheric correction, ∆𝑅𝐼𝑂𝑁𝑂 is the
ionospheric correction, ∆𝑅𝐸𝑇/∆𝑅𝑃𝑇 is the earth tide and pole tide, respectively, and
N𝐺𝐸𝑂𝐼𝐷 is the geoid height. For a full explanation of each correction refer to
(EUMETSAT, 2017). Based on this formula, both propagation and geophysical biases
can be compensated. Other geophysical terms, including lake tides, hydrostatic
variations, thermal expansion, and wind piling-up effect are neglected as suggested
by a previous study (Wang et al., 2019). For a detailed information of each correction
refer to (Dumont et al., 2016; EUMETSAT, 2017). Finally, based on the corrected
range, we calculate the average and standard deviation of the water level over the
VS.

5.3.2 Water-covered extent (WCE) calculation with Sentinel-1 SAR

To map the water-covered extent, i.e., the lake’s surface area or river’s channels and
flooded area, the sensitivity of SAR data to surface wetness is utilized. As the
backscatter coefficient would be much lower in wet and smooth surface comparing to
dry ground, it is viable to depict the water surfaces. Because our goal is to maximize
the differentiation of water/non-water regions, i.e., a binary classification, the task can
be separated into two parts: (1) selection of the targeted image (2) determination of
the threshold. For the first point, based on the previous studies (Henry et al., 2006;
Wangchuk et al., 2019) and our testing, the value difference between waterbody and
the land region is more significant in VV polarization (co-polarization) than VH

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(cross-polarization), so VV imagery is selected. Furthermore, we use Otsu’s algorithm

to decide the threshold (Otsu, 1979). It is favored for its simplicity and suitability for
SAR image-based binary classification (Greifeneder et al., 2014; Wangchuk et al.,
2019). Practically, the critical point is to ensure that the manually selected samples
include an equal number of water/non-water pixels, as Otsu’s algorithm can only
handle bimodal distribution. However, sometimes it is difficult to distinguish lake/river
boundary visually in some flood-caused vague scenes (as discussed in the
Discussions 5.1), we only use scenes having clear waterbody boundary for training
the Otsu’s algorithm.

To define the targeted WCE for investigation, for Lake Urmia we use the waterbody
boundary provided by the Global Lakes and Wetlands Database (GLWD)
(https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/global-lakes-and-wetlands-database) (Lehner
and Döll, 2004). For the Brahmaputra River we target the part of the watershed of the
VS where the terrain is a flat plain (elevation lower than 200 meters) and frequent
river braiding and shifting events happen as illustrated in Figure 5.1.

5.3.3 Lake water volume estimation by hypsometry calculation and detrended

volume retrieval

To estimate the water volume variation of a waterbody, it is common to use either the
simplest truncated pyramid model or the power-function model; however, they are
only suitable for waterbodies characterized by a regular morphology (such as
reservoirs) or a bowl-shaped morphology, respectively (Nilsson et al., 2010; Sima and
Tajrishy, 2013). We utilize a universally applicable approach by modeling the water
volume-water level relationship from the observed surface area-water level
relationship (Duan and Bastiaanssen, 2013). The processing steps include: (1)
calculation of the water level difference (or water depth) relative to the minimum water
level in the sensing period (∆L = L − Lmin ), (2) establishing a scatter plot of surface
area-water level difference and model it with a polynomial function (typically second,
third, or quadratic order is chosen) (A = f(∆𝐿)), (3) integration of the surface
area-water level difference function to derive the water volume-water level difference
∆𝐿
function (V = ∫∆𝐿 A 𝑑∆𝐿), (4) ingestion of water level observations to the resultant
0

function to derive the corresponding water volume. Details about these steps can be
found in (Duan and Bastiaanssen, 2013; Muala et al., 2014). In short, by using this
approach, we can estimate the “dynamic” water volume above the “static” water
volume, i.e., the water volume of the time when the water level is the lowest, for any
waterbody having a horizontal water surface (Hayashi and Van der Kamp, 2000).

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Nevertheless, it must be noted that compared to any single point of the river, the lake
is a “container,” which can store the water over time instead of merely letting the water
flow by. Namely, the results of each previous hydrological year’s water budget
balance (increase with snowmelt and rainfall; decrease with evapotranspiration)
would affect the current “stock” of the water volume. Hence, if we directly use the
original time-series water volume as the inter-annual variation, the intra-annual
“container effect” could lead to a miss-interpretation. Therefore, in the present study,
we employ the Seasonal-trend decomposition procedures based on Loess (STL)
(Cleveland et al., 1990) to remove the intra-annual trend. This approach is suggested
by previous studies (Sellinger et al., 2008; Fathian et al., 2014; Hassan and Jin, 2014).
STL is an iterative non-parametric filtering procedure that uses repeated Loess (Local
Regression) smoothing. The strength of STL is its robustness and computational
efficiency, as well as the capacity to depict a non-linear pattern in time-series data.
For details about STL refer to (Cleveland et al., 1990; Lu et al., 2003). Practically,
based on the inner and outer loops with Loess processing, STL can decompose a
time-series data to three components: a low-frequency long-term trend, a
high-frequency seasonal variation, and residuals (or remainder). After processing STL,
we subtract the decomposed long-term trend from the original time-series water
volume to derive the detrended water volume, which represents the real inter-annual
water volume variation.

5.3.4 WSCE mapping with Sentinel-1 SAR and hydrological factors areal
calculation

Based on the finding that the backscatter coefficient of the SAR signal decreases
significantly when the snowpack starts to melt and thus increases the containing liquid
water (Tsai Ya-Lun S. et al., 2019), Nagler and Rott (2000) proposed a
ratio-thresholding approach in 2000. It utilizes two SAR scenes (one is a wet
snow-covered period image, and the other is a referenced snow-free image) and
calculates their ratio image, which is then thresholded using a fixed value to derive the
binary WSCE. For a detailed description of the processing steps and value setting
refer to (Tsai Ya-Lun S. et al., 2019; Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz Andreas, et al., 2019b,
2019a).

Because the final regression analysis is watershed-based, all hydrological factors,

including WSCE, rainfall, and evapotranspiration, need to be converted. Firstly, we
delineate the watershed based on the SRTM DEM. For the Brahmaputra River, the
VS where the Sentinel-3 track passes is used as the pour point, and the watershed of
that point of that tributary is delineated. Based on the watershed, the WSCE is ratioed
to derive the WSCE%; the rainfall and evapotranspiration are summed up to derive
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the mean amount.

5.3.5 Hydrological econometrics regression analysis

To quantify the influence of the investigated hydrological factors (WSCE%, mean

rainfall, and mean evapotranspiration) on river/lake water amount, the utilization of a
regression analysis is an optimized approach. However, some factors, especially the
snowmelt, would pose a lagged effect on downstream water level/volume as the
snowmelt water would not only form the direct surface streamflow but also infiltrate
into the ground and soil (Seyfried et al., 2009; Butt and Bilal, 2011; Abudu et al., 2012).
Thus, a conventional simple regression is not viable. Consequently, we employed the
advanced distributed lag model (DLM) (or finite distributed model (FDL)) in the
present study for handling multiple variables’ dynamic influences with lags. DLM is
firstly developed in the econometrics discipline (Almon, 1965) and was recently widely
applied in biomedical or environmental exposure-caused mortality studies (Yang J. et
al., 2012; Allen and Sheridan, 2018). Yet, DLM is barely utilized in remote sensing and
cryo-hydrology domain. DLM is a dynamic model that assumes that the effect of each
independent factor on the dependent variable spreads over some time instead of a
single time point. To quantify it, it defines the temporal factor by assigning a lag
dimension, which is an equally-spaced and ordered time point series (Gasparrini,
2011) (in the present study, we define the minimum unit of lag dimension as ten days).
The lag dimension enables the effect of a single exposure event to be distributed over
a specific period of time; therefore, the holistic understanding of the cross-temporal
exposure-lag-response relationship can be revealed (Gasparrini et al., 2010;
Gasparrini, 2011, 2014). The multi-variable DLM can be written in the formula:

𝑞1 𝑞2 𝑞𝑁

𝑦𝑡 = 𝛼 + ∑ 𝛽1𝑠 𝑥1𝑡−𝑠 + ∑ 𝛽2𝑠 𝑥2𝑡−𝑠 + ⋯ + ∑ 𝛽𝑁𝑠 𝑥𝑁𝑡−𝑠 + 𝑢𝑡 (5.2)

𝑠=0 𝑠=0 𝑠=0

where 𝛼 is the intercept; 𝑞 and 𝛽 is the lag length and lag coefficient (or lag weight,
or short-run multiplier) of each independent variable, respectively; and 𝑢𝑡 is the error
term. The lag coefficient is solved by the ordinary least squares (OLS) technique and
represents the expected change in 𝑦𝑡 stems from the change of 𝑥𝑁𝑡−𝑠 by one unit,
holding constant other independent variables (Stock and Watson, 2015). The sum of
each independent variable’s lag coefficient, i.e. ∑𝑞𝑁
𝑠=0 𝛽𝑁𝑠 , is called the long-run
multiplier, or long-run propensity (LRP), which is the cumulative effect of 𝑥𝑁 on 𝑦
(Wooldridge, 2000). In the present study, we focus on the LRP value to quantify the
causal effect of each factor on the water resource variation.

Practically, the most critical issue when implementing DLM is selecting a suitable lag
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length for each independent variable. As in the present study, we include three
variables (WSCE%, mean rainfall, and mean evapotranspiration) and based on the
background knowledge it is assumed that their lag lengths should be different;
therefore, it is impractical to use the conventional length decision method, i.e.,
successively adding/reducing lags. Previous studies utilize the prior knowledge to
define the plausible lag lengths when multi-regressors are included (Teklehaimanot et
al., 2004; Zhao et al., 2014). However, in our study, the lagged effect of the same
hydrological factor on the water amount varies from place to place as it is affected by
the distance and the regional characteristic. Thus, there is no universal pre-defined
lag length estimation available. Instead, we apply the following processing steps to
decide the proper lag length of each hydrological factor: (1) building of the regression
of water amount (water level for the river; water volume for the lake) with each
hydrological factor individually with different lag lengths and record the resultant
2
adjusted 𝑅2 (𝑅 ̅ ) value and the direction of the coefficient (positive or negative) (2)
selection of the final lag length (starting and ending lags) of each hydrological factor
based on two criteria: (a) having the coefficient direction fitting the knowledge (the
coefficient of WSCE% and rainfall should be positive, while the coefficient of
evapotranspiration should be negative because more snowmelt and rainfall would
increase the downstream water amount, while more evapotranspiration would reduce
2
̅ (till the highest value). The
the water supply), (b) having the ascending value of 𝑅
2
theory behind our two-step approach is that the use of the 𝑅̅ value helps to identify
the appropriate set of regressors which can explain the variation of the dependent
̅ 2 values avoids selecting
variable well and only selecting the lags having ascending 𝑅
an unnecessarily long lag length.

Based on the above mention techniques, the overall workflow of our study is
illustrated in Figure 5.2.

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Figure 5.2 The overall workflow of the present study, including the processing of the
Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and Sentinel-3 altimetry data for deriving
wet snow-covered extent (WSCE), surface area, and water level. The water volume
estimated from polynomial fitting and integration is detrended by the Seasonal-trend
decomposition procedures based on Loess (STL). Together with the hydrological
factors derived from the ERA5-Land dataset, the distributed lag model (DLM) is
eventually conducted.

5.4. Results
5.4.1 Lake Urmia
5.4.1.1 Water level retrieval

Two passes of Sentinel-3 over Lake Urmia are processed via SARvatore to estimate
the time-series average water level of VSs. To examine the results, the water level
records provided by altimetry databases are plotted together in Figure 5.3, with the
error bar representing the standard deviation of the water level among the virtual
stations (VSs). As our goal is to compare their long-term trends and short-term noisy
levels, and because different altimeter sensors have different instrumental biases
(Calmant et al., 2013), in this figure we show the water level variation relative to each
record’s mean water level during our sensing period. Firstly, we can observe that
there is a high consistency between the two passes’ results (the locations of two
passes are illustrated in Figure 5.1). Most of the time, the differences of their values
are within one standard deviation. It is reasonable that two passes’ results still have
some differences owing to the reasons including (1) different wind-caused lake
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surface wave conditions as their sensing time is not identical, (2) varying water depth
on the altimetry signal penetration depth, and (3) and the different surrounding
topography-caused signal pollution condition. Nevertheless, the internal consistency
of each pass and their cross-consistency remain high when comparing to DAHITI and
G-REALM’s records. In Figure 5.3, it is evident that both of our two passes’ raw
results have a much smoother trend comparing to the smoothed DAHITI result (no
raw data is provided by DAHITI database thus no uncertainty is plotted) and the raw
G-REALM results, as these databases’ results show more short-term high-frequency
fluctuations. The reason is that the along-track resolution of the HPR Sentinel-3 (80
meters) we employed is much higher than the Jason-3 altimetry sensor (> 2000
meters), which is used for DAHITI and G-REALM. Hence, based on these
comparisons, it is confirmed that our Sentinel-3 results generally have a higher
reliability. To fuse two passes’ observations for the following analysis, we utilize the
weighted average calculation and then use the Gaussian smooth method to filter out
the noises.

Figure 5.3 The time-series water level variation of Lake Urmia estimated with
Sentinel-3. The internal cross-comparison with different Sentinel-3 passes and the
external comparison with altimetry databases, including DAHITI and Hydroweb
(based on Jason-3 altimetry), are illustrated. The error bars represent the standard
deviation of the water level among the VSs. Note each of the variations is relative to
each record’s average height in the studying period.

5.4.1.2 Surface area estimation

To define the optimized Otsu’s threshold value for mapping the surface area of Lake
Urmia, we manually select water/non-water samples on each VV polarization scene,
which shows a clear waterbody boundary. With the aim to densify the usable scenes,
both ascending and descending Sentinel-1 image sets are used and processed
individually. Their overall backscatter coefficient distributions and the resultant Otsu’s
threshold values are shown in Figure 5.4. Firstly, we can observe that both flight
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direction image sets’ samples intensity distributions are bimodal, which confirms the
suitability of the Otsu’s method. Secondly, it is found that both sets have nearly the
same threshold values; therefore, we average two values to select a fixed value, i.e.,
-20.8 dB, to be the waterbody classification threshold for Lake Urmia.

Flight
Ascending Descending
direction
Otsu’s
threshold -20.678 -20.962
value (dB)

Distribution
of
backscatter
coefficient

Figure 5.4 The distributions of the backscatter coefficient and the decided Otsu’s
threshold values of the ascending and descending of Sentinel-1 SAR imagery for
Lake Urmia waterbody classification.

Based on the defined threshold value, we can classify the water-covered area of Lake
Urmia, i.e., surface area, from both stacks of ascending and descending Sentinel-1
images. For cross- and external comparison, we plot the same date’s surface areas
estimated with ascending/descending Sentinel-1 image and the GWP product in
Figure 5.5. It is evident that both of our ascending and descending results match
perfectly with GWP with an R-squared value of around 0.98. These high values prove
that the surface area classified with our SAR-Otsu’s approach is highly reliable.
Additionally, it is also interesting to realize that there is a systematic offset between
our SAR-based estimation and the GWP product which is based on coarse optical
sensor. Based on further analysis, we can confirm that it is because of an
under-estimation of the GWP product due to high reflectance of lake soil when water
level is low (see the Discussion 5.1). Thus, the reliability of our SAR-Otsu’s approach
for accurately delineating the surface area of Lake Urmia is ensured. Furthermore, we
can map Lake Urmia’s time-series surface area dynamics, as illustrated in Figure 5.14
(for details refer to the Discussion 5.1). It is obvious that the change of the surface
area of Lake Urmia is dramatic. In the sensing period, the minimum and maximum
surface areas are around 1126.86 (2017/10/31) and 3569.77 (2019/7/11) km². The
areal difference is significant, as the maximum size is almost equal to 3.2 times the
minimum surface area.
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Figure 5.5 he internal cross-comparison of Lake Urmia’s surface area detected by

ascending and descending imagery of Sentinel-1, and the external comparison with
the GWP product.

5.4.1.3 Hypsometry estimation and detrended volume retrieval

To derive the time-series water volume, the hypsometry estimated from the water
level-surface area relationship is necessary. Hence, we first plot the time-series water
level and surface area (derived from both ascending and descending Sentinel-1 SAR
as well as the GWP) in Figure 5.6 third-order polynomial function is used for fitting as
it provides the best R-squared value. Moreover, previous in-situ surveying (Alipour,
2006) and study (Sima and Tajrishy, 2013) also suggest the utilization of a third-order
function for Lake Urmia’s hypsometry. It is found that both of our Sentinel-1 SAR
ascending (0.98) and descending (0.99) show a perfect R-squared value, while the
GWP (0.94) shows a slightly poorer matching. These values suggest that both our
Sentinel-3 altimetry-based water level and Sentinel-1 SAR-Otsu’ approach-based
surface area are reliable as they share a high consistency. The slightly lower
R-square value of GWP also agrees with the previous finding of the under-estimation
of GWP. Eventually, to densify the available observations, we integrate both
ascending and descending SAR stacks-derived surface area to build a surface
area-water level relationship, which can be written as:

A = 1164.4 × dL3 − 3459.1 × dL2 + 4267.1 × dL + 1102.5 (5.3)

where A and dL represents the surface area and water level difference, respectively. It
yields a high fitting R-squared value around 0.99.

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Figure 5.6 The hypsometry of Lake Urmia estimated by fitting the surface area
detected by ascending and descending Sentinel-1 SAR imagery and GWP product
with water level estimated by Sentinel-3 altimetry using third-order polynomial
functions.

Based on the fact that the dynamic water volume should be equal to zero when the
water depth (water level difference relative to the lowest water level during the
sensing period) is zero, we can derive the fourth-order water volume-water level
function by integrating the surface area-water level formula. Thus, Lake Urmia’s water
volume-water level function can be written as:

V = 291.10 × dL4 − 1153.03 × dL3 + 2133.55 × dL2 + 1102.50 × dL (5.4)

where V represents the dynamic water volume. Based on this equation, the
time-series water volume of Lake Urmia can be derived. Nevertheless, to mitigate the
bias of the container effect of the lake for the following analysis as described in the
Section 3.3, the STL is then applied to estimate the detrended water volume as
plotted in Figure 5.7. It is clear to observe that the trend of water volume is almost
stable in the first two years, while a peak can be identified in 2019. By subtracting the
trend from the estimated water volume, we can obtain the detrended water volume,
which represents the real inter-annual water volume variation.

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Figure 5.7 The detrended processing for Lake Urmia’s time-series water volume
estimation using the Seasonal-trend decomposition procedures based on Loess
(STL). The estimated trend value and the original/detrended water volume are
illustrated with the black, blue, and red line, respectively.

5.4.1.4 WSCE mapping and hydrological factors calculation

Both ascending and descending stacks of images of Sentinel-1 SAR are used to map
the WSCE. The summertime imagery of 2018 is selected as the referenced snow-free
image for calculating the ratio image. By applying the threshold value proposed by
Nagler and Rott (Nagler and Rott, 2000; Tsai Ya-Lun S. et al., 2019), the time-series
WSCE of each flight direction image stacks can be estimated. To examine their
consistency, we plot their time-series WSCE% relative to Lake Urmia’s watershed in
Figure 5.8. It is found that both flight directions’ results show a high agreement, which
proves the internal robustness of our approach. As there is no solid way to externally
validate WSCE in a comparable high-resolution (Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz Andreas, et al.,
2019b; Tsai Ya-Lun S. et al., 2019), this cross-track comparison is used for the
examination.

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Figure 5.8 The estimation of wet snow-covered extent (WSCE) percentage of Lake
Urmia watershed using ascending and descending Sentinel-1 SAR imagery.

Based on the previous data preparation, before processing the DLM analysis, we
need to convert all hydrological factors to the watershed-based unit, i.e., to derive the
mean evapotranspiration/rainfall and WSCE%. Together with the estimated detrended
water volume, we illustrate all time-series data in Figure 5.9 to observe their
relationships. Firstly, it is found that excluding rainfall shows two peaks each year;
other data, including WSCE%, evapotranspiration, and detrended water volume, have
only one peak annually. Also, the pattern of the evapotranspiration is nearly identical
each year. Thus, we can assume that the variation of water resources of Lake Urmia
cannot be perfectly explained by rainfall and evapotranspiration data only. Secondly,
by comparing the time of the peak of each data, it is found that in the temporal aspect,
the water volume always reaches each year’s maximum value later than WSCE%. To
quantify these factors’ lagged and overlapping influences on the water volume
variation, a hydrological analysis based on DLM is required.

Figure 5.9 The time-series detrended water volume of Lake Urmia and the WSCE%
as well as hydrological factors, including liquid rainfall and evapotranspiration.

5.4.1.5 DLM hydrological analysis

To process the DLM for quantifying the causal effects of hydrological factors on the
detrended water volume variation, it is necessary to decide the proper lag length for
each factor. Based on the steps and criteria mention in the Section 3.5, we summarize
the determined lag length in Table 5.1. Firstly, it is found that WSCE% has the longest
lag length of 80 days, rainfall has 30 days delay, and evapotranspiration shows no
delay longer than ten days. As the directions of the coefficient of WSCE%, rainfall,

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and evapotranspiration are always positive, positive, and negative in different lag
lengths testing, respectively, we select the lag starting from zero-day for all factors.
̅ 2 of 0.85, followed by 0.23 and
Also, we can observe that WSCE% has the highest 𝑅
2
̅ values of
0.61 for rainfall and evapotranspiration, respectively. The high/low 𝑅
WSCE%/rainfall indicate that their influential magnitudes on water volume differ
considerably.

Based on the decided lag lengths, the DLM can thus be processed. The results are
summarized in Table 5.1. A significant regression equation is found (F(14, 81) =
2 2
70.78, p < 2.2e−16) with a 𝑅
̅ of 0.91. The high 𝑅 ̅ indicate that our model contains a
clear explanation of the variation of the water volume. The overall F-test value of
70.78 proves that our hydrological factors with different lag lengths can reliably predict
the water volume. Eventually, based on the LRP of WSCE% estimated from DLM, we
can conclude the causal effect of snowmelt on water resource as: when increasing
one percent of WSCE% during the period of zero to 80 days before, the detrended
water volume of Lake Urmia would increase 108.5 cubic meters while holding
constant other independent variables.

Table 5.1 The summaries of distributed lag model (DLM) analysis of Lake Urmia and
the Brahmaputra River.

Study area Lake Urmia Brahmaputra River

Dependent Water volume Water volume Water level
variable (original) (detrended)
PRE-ANALYSIS (LAG LENGTH DECISION)
Highest adjusted
𝑹𝟐 (individual)
WSCE% 0.64 0.85 0.91
Mean rainfall 0.25 0.23 0.94
Mean 0.22 0.61 0.90
evapotranspiration
Lag length (days)
WSCE% 0 ~ 60 0 ~ 80 70 ~ 150
Mean rainfall 0 ~ 20 0 ~ 30 0 ~ 20
Mean 0 0 0 ~ 10
evapotranspiration
DISTRIBUTED LAG MODEL (DLM) REGRESSION ANALYSIS
Model adjusted 𝑹𝟐 0.67 0.91 0.97
(overall)
Long-run
propensity (LRP)
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WSCE% 135.68 108.49 0.10

Mean rainfall 60695.88 -88737.6 149.186
Mean -76581.40 -120327.76 -446.02
evapotranspiration

5.4.2 Brahmaputra River

5.4.2.1 Water level retrieval

The same Sentinel-3 altimetry data processing approach is employed to estimate the
time-series water level of the Brahmaputra River. Because the Brahmaputra River is a
long river spreading across various geomorphologies, and the satellite pass ground
track location of each spaceborne altimetry differs, there is no direct way to validate
our result as the water level differs in different river sections. Nevertheless, we
consider the water level of each location of the same river should share a similar
pattern, with a higher correlation in shorter distance difference. Thus, in total, three
VSs are utilized for comparison, including another Sentinel-3 pass (pass 161,
processed by the same approach) and two Jason-3 passes (data provided by DAHITI
and Hydroweb individually). Their locations and the time-series water level results are
illustrated in Figure 5.1 and 5.10, respectively. Firstly, it is clear that four time-series
data have highly similar trends and seasonality. Nevertheless, the magnitude of the
water level variation of each location shows an ascending order from the upstream to
downstream, i.e., around 3 (DAHITI), 4 (Sentinel-3 pass 161’s results), 7 (Sentinel-3
pass 324’s result), and 8 (Hydroweb) meters, respectively. The reason for the more
significant water level change in the downstream may be due to the flatter terrain
when compared to the upstream. In addition, as we observed in the Lake Urmia case,
the DAHITI and Hydroweb databases contain more noises than our HPR Sentinel-3
results while the comparable patterns remain.

Figure 5.10 The time-series water level of the Brahmaputra River estimated with
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Sentinel-3. The internal cross-comparison with different Sentinel-3 passes and the
external comparison with altimetry databases are illustrated. Note the VS of each
record is different, so the magnitude of water level variation differ, while the similar
trends are still identifiable.

5.4.2.2 WSCE mapping and hydrological factors calculation

Both Sentinel-1 ascending and descending image stacks are used to calculate the
WSCE of the Brahmaputra River. The summertime image of 2018 is selected as the
referenced snow-free image.

To investigate the internal consistency, the WSCE% derived from each stack is plotted
in Figure 5.11. Similar to Lake Urmia’s case, a high agreement between both flight
directions is observed. It suggests that the quality of our WSCE results should be
trustable.

Figure 5.11 The estimation of wet snow-covered extent (WSCE) percentage of the
Brahmaputra River watershed using ascending and descending Sentinel-1 SAR
imagery.

We also analyze the relationship between hydrological factors and water level before
the DLM processing. Their patterns during the sensing period are illustrated in Figure
5.12. Compared with the Lake Urmia case, the Brahmaputra River shows some
remarkable differences. Firstly, it is observed that all four parameters have only one
peak per year. Secondly, the temporal delay between the peak of water level and
WSCE% is longer than the time delay of water level and rainfall. Based on these two
findings, we can assume the importance of rainfall to water amount variation is higher
in the Brahmaputra River than Lake Urmia. Nevertheless, since all hydrological
factors and water levels show comparable seasonal patterns, the employment of DLM
is indispensable to analyze their lagged causal effects on the water level.
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Figure 5.12 The time-series water level of the Brahmaputra River and the WSCE% as
well as hydrological factors, including liquid rainfall and evapotranspiration.

5.4.2.3 DLM hydrological analysis

To decide the suitable lag length for each hydrological factor, we build regressions
with each factor individually, and the resultant lag length is summarized in Table 1.
Firstly, like Lake Urmia, WSCE% has the longest lag length, and evapotranspiration
has the shortest lag length. However, it is found that the lag length of WSCE% is
nearly two times longer than for Lake Urmia. Another critical difference is the starting
lag length of WSCE% is not zero days. It is because in the periods of lag length
between zero to 60 days, the direction of the WSCE%’s coefficient is negative, which
violates the background knowledge. Thus, we only select the lag length from 70 to
150 days (based on the criteria described in the Methodology 3.5). Therefore, using
the prior knowledge to aid the decision of lag length is critical. Secondly, when
comparing the 𝑅̅ 2 values, all three hydrological factors show comparable results, i.e.,
higher than 0.90.

The DLM can then be processed based on the decided lag lengths of each factor; the
results are summarized in Table 1. A significant regression equation is found
(F(14, 73) = 198.7, p < 2.2e−16 ) with a 𝑅̅ 2 of 0.97. The high 𝑅̅ 2 indicates the
variation of the water level can be perfectly explained by our model, and the F-test
value of 198.7 suggests hydrological factors with different lag lengths can reliably
predict the water level. Based on these examinations, we can conclude our DLM is
robust. Hence, on the basis of the estimated LRP of WSCE%, the causal effect of
snowmelt to water resource can be concluded as: when increasing one percent of
WSCE% during the period of 70 to 150 days before, the water level of our VS of the
Brahmaputra River would increase 0.1 meter while holding constant other
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independent variables.

5.4.2.4 Flooded area estimation

The SAR-Otsu’s approach is also utilized in the Brahmaputra River to delineate the
flooding area (or the change of river channels). Both ascending and descending
image stacks of Sentinel-1 are processed individually, with their backscatter
coefficient distributions and the resultant Otsu’s threshold values shown in Figure 5.13.
Like in Lake Urmia’s case, we can find comparable Otsu’s threshold values. Hence,
we average two values to select -16.5 dB as the fixed threshold for the waterbody
classification.

Flight
Ascending Descending
direction
Otsu’s
threshold -16.375 -16.389
value (dB)
Distribution
of
backscatter
coefficient

Figure 5.13 The distributions of the backscatter coefficient and the decided Otsu’s
threshold values of the ascending and descending of Sentinel-1 SAR imagery for
mapping the flooded area of the Brahmaputra River.

For Lake Urmia we combined surface area with the water level to derive the
hypsometry; on the contrary, for the Brahmaputra River, we can use the water level as
the external data to examine our mapped flooded area. It is based on the fact that
when the flooded area is enlarging, the water level will rise simultaneously. Thus, we
plotted the time-series flooded area, water level, and WSCE% in Figure 5.14. Firstly, it
is found that generally, the trends of flooded area derived from both ascending and
descending Sentinel-1 SAR imagery stacks are agreeable, although internal noises
and the difference between them are also clear. Moreover, their noisy levels are
higher when comparing to the same descending/ascending stack-based WSCE% as
illustrated in Figure 5.11. We consider it is because (1) the short-term variation of the
flooded area is more abrupt and dynamic compared to the long-term gradient
snowmelt process (2) the WSCE% mapping is by thresholding the ratio image relative
to a referenced image (as described in the Methodology 3.4); while the flooded area is

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mapped by direct applying the Otsu’s threshold to each imagery, so the influence of
the local incidence angle variation of each image is severer. Hence, to reduce the
fluctuations, we average ascending and descending stack’s results to derive a
smoother trend. Secondly, by comparing the average flooded area with the water level,
we can observe a temporally highly correlated pattern. It agrees with our prior
knowledge and also indirectly proves the credibility of our Sentinel-1 SAR-based
flooded area estimations as well as Sentinel-3 altimetry-based water level records.
Finally, the synchronized flooded area and water level trend is temporally lagged
when compared to the WSCE% trend. Around 110 days of the temporal gap between
the peak of WSCE% and water level/flooded area are noted, which falls within the
estimated lag length of WSCE% (70 to 150 days) for DLM analysis (Table 1). This
agreement also strongly proves the reliability of our DLM lag length decision.

Figure 5.14 The internal cross-comparison of the Brahmaputra River’s flooded area
detected by ascending and descending imagery of Sentinel-1 and the comparisons
with the time-series water level estimated by Sentinel-3 altimetry and the Sentinel-1
SAR-based WSCE%.

Based on the externally examined flooded area, the time-series flooding dynamics of
the Brahmaputra River can be depicted. For instance, we illustrate the maximum
(2019/8/9) and minimum (2018/12/12) flooded area of the middle and lower section of
our study area in Figure 5.15. It is obvious that their flooded areas (river channels)
significantly differ as in the dry season, the river shrinks back to the center of the wide
channels mapped during the wet season. This example suggests that by using
SAR-Otsu’s approach, it is viable to monitor the dynamics of river channel migrations
and seasonality.

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Figure 5.15 The maximum (2019/8/9) and minimum (2018/12/12) flooded area of the
Brahmaputra River during the sensing period detected by the Sentinel-1 SAR imagery
using the decided Otsu’s threshold value.

5.5. Discussions
5.5.1 The cause of the different lake surface areas detected by Sentinel-1 SAR
and GWP product

To compare the surface area mapped by SAR (Sentinel-1) and the GWP, we plot their
estimations for the same dates in Figure 5.5 and 5.16. It can be observed that GWP
systematically underestimates the surface area compared to SAR derived estimations.
To examine that this effect is not caused by the overestimation of our SAR-based
results, we plot the same date’s high-resolution Sentinel-2 imagery in Figure 5.16 for
comparison. It must be noted that due to the reasons that (1), there is no absolute
definition of the lake boundary as stated in (Crétaux et al., 2016), (2) the calibration
procedures of optical-imagery would also affect the waterbody delineation, and (3) our
intention is to not include another threshold-based classification approach (such as
NDWI) as it would cause another uncertainty, we compare them visually. It is clear
that our SAR-based surface area agrees well with the blueish waterbody boundary
observed in the Sentinel-2 scene. On the contrary, the GWP underestimates the
surface area. Especially on 2017/10/31, the upper and lower parts of the lake
obviously remain connected in the Sentinel-2 image, which is also delineated
correctly in our Sentinel-1-based results. Nevertheless, GWP suggests the lake is
separated into two parts. This underestimation-caused separation frequently happens
in the dry season (as marked in Figure 5.16(b)). The reason for this underestimation is
due to high reflectance signal in MODIS NIR and red bands when water is very
shallow. During low water level period Lake Urmia’s bright lake soil with high salt
content dominates the spectral reflectance sensed by optical MODIS sensor.
Therefore these shallow waters remain undetected which results in systematic bias

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during low water levels because the GWP is based on a universal approach operating
on global scale and cannot fit all waterbodies perfectly. On the contrary, as mentioned
in the Methodology, we manually select water/non-water samples to decide the
customized Otsu’s threshold value for Lake Urmia.

Another finding is that the SAR-based approach can only be implemented during the
lake water depletion period, i.e., dry season. As shown in Figure 5.16(b), we found
that all valid SAR-based surface area estimations occur between May and October.
To investigate the reasons, firstly we plot the rainfall records provided by the
ERA5-Land dataset. It is found that the water depletion period is highly correlated but
slightly delayed to the rainfall decreasing period. Hence, we assume the reason why
the SAR imagery cannot map the lake boundary properly in the lake water
accumulation period, i.e. rainfall-dominated wet season, is that series of rainfall
events would cause the surrounding regions of the lake to have a wet surface due to
(1) sudden flooding events of the lake and/or (2) direct ground dampening caused by
the rainfall. As we classify the waterbody based on the backscatter coefficient of the
SAR signal, which is mainly influenced by the surface roughness and wetness, we
can hardly distinguish whether the water is in the lake or on the surface of the
surrounding damped/flooded areas. Thus, in the lake water accumulation period, i.e.
wet season, the SAR-based observations would dramatically over-estimate the
surface area. For instance, given the example of 2019/4/7 shown in Figure 5.16(a), in
the Sentinel-2 scene it is found that the surrounding area of the lake is much wetter
(more blueish) and shows more small flood-caused tributaries and braids comparing
to other three dates of dry season. On the contrary, the GWP estimations during wet
season reveal the increasing surface water area more accurate and do not
overestimate due to wet soil.

Based on the above mentioned discussions, we summarized the pros and cons of
using SAR and multispectral sensors for waterbody mapping in Table 5.2.

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Figure 5.16 (a) The comparison of the surface area of Lake Urmia detected by
Sentinel-1 SAR imagery and the GWP product, and the same date high-resolution
Sentinel-2 imagery. The mean rainfall volume is plotted in (b) to identify the dry
season, with the lake water depletion periods marked in blue boxes. The date which
shows lake disconnection in GWP is marked with black points in (b).
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The date which shows lake disconnection in GWP is marked with black points in (b).

Table 5.2 The comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of using SAR and
the multi-spectral sensor for waterbody detection.

Sensor SAR Multi-spectral

Classification Backscatter coefficient Illumination reflectance
basis
Primary sensing Surface roughness Bands’ reflectance differences
factor Surface dielectric property Imagery calibration
Possible noise Winds, flooding, soil moisture, Cloud, mist, floating
source vegetation, ice and snow cover vegetation, turbidity, highly
eutrophicated waters, high
sediment load, ice and snow
cover
Advantage All-weather and Straightforward to interpret
illumination-independent The abundance of openly
sensing ability accessible sensors and
Cloud penetration images, less sensitive to soil
moisture and usable during
wet season
Disadvantage Affected by wind, flooding, soil Affected by cloud and
moisture illumination conditions

5.5.2 The necessity of detrending process for lake water volume before
hydrological analysis

In the present study, we employed the STL seasonal decomposition technique for
detrending, i.e., removing the annual aggregation effect. The necessity of detrending
can be proven by the much higher 𝑅̅ 2 value of detrended water volume (0.91) when
compared to the original data (0.67), as summarized in Table 5.1. The significant
enhancement of the water volume variation explanation agrees with our hypothesis:
the “container effect” of lake, i.e., the intra-annual trend of water volume, would hinder
the accuracy of DLM analysis between water volume and hydrological factors.

5.5.3 The lag length difference between each hydrological variable and study
area
2
As mentioned in the Methodology section 3.5, based on the 𝑅 ̅ value, we can decide
the suitable lag length of each hydrological factor for lake and river DLM analysis. The
final lag lengths of each case are summarized in Table 5.1. It is found that for both
cases, the lag length of WSCE% is always the longest among three factors, and
evapotranspiration has the shortest (nearly instant). This finding agrees with the prior
knowledge that the snowmelt water takes a much longer time to aggregate and
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eventually influence the downstream waterbody because snow-covered regions are

usually locate at much higher elevation zones, which have longer distances to the
downstream waterbody. Moreover, snowmelt water would not only form a direct
surface streamflow but also infiltrate into the ground and soil (Seyfried et al., 2009;
Butt and Bilal, 2011; Abudu et al., 2012). In contrast, although rainfall would also
infiltrate to the ground, its distribution is usually broader but not limited in the high
elevation zone. It might also spread over the whole watershed of the waterbody,
including the waterbody itself. Hence, the lag length of rainfall is much shorter than
the snowmelt. For evapotranspiration, it is straightforward that its influence is rapid, as
it would immediately reduce the amount of water of the waterbody.

Additionally, it is also found that the lag length of WSCE% of the Brahmaputra River is
nearly two-fold of Lake Urmia. We assume this is due to the Brahmaputra River being
characterized by a much narrower and longer watershed along the tributary when
compared to Lake Urmia. Consequently, the distance between the snow-covered area
and the waterbody/VS is much more distant, and thus the lagged effect of the
snowmelt is more significant.

5.5.4 The cause of the long lag length of the SAR sensor-based WSCE%

Another reason for the long lag length of SAR sensor-based WSCE% is because of
the unique way that SAR detects snowmelt processing shows temporal offset to the
real condition. Based on the in-situ measurement and modeling simulation (Marin et
al., 2019), it is known that the whole snow melting process can be divided into three
phases, i.e., moistening, ripening, and runoff. In each phase, the content of snow
water equivalent (SWE) (the total mass of water, including both liquid and solid water,
stored in the form of snow) and the liquid water content (LWC) (the mass of liquid
water inside the snowpack) differ, and the backscatter coefficient of SAR also
changes accordingly and results in a U-shape curve (Figure 5.17). In detail, firstly in
the moistening stage, the diurnal melting-freezing cycles gradually increases the LWC
and leads to the gentle decreasing of the backscatter coefficient; in the ripening stage,
the LWC significantly increases (while SWE still remains the same) and the
backscatter coefficient rapidly decreases and reaches the minimum value at the end
of ripening stage when the snowpack is saturated; and finally during the runoff stage,
as the snowmelt water releases both LWC and SWE decrease and the backscatter
coefficient increases accordingly (Marin et al., 2019).

It must be noted that as the backscatter coefficient of SAR would already slightly drop
in the mid of the first moistening stage, the snow would already be detected and
regarded as wet snow by the backscattering ratio-threshold method (Nagler and Rott,
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2000; Marin et al., 2019; Tsai Ya-Lun S. et al., 2019). However, the snowmelt water is
actually released only until the final runoff stage starts. Namely, the SAR-detected wet
snow-covered period would (1) happen much earlier and (2) last much longer than the
real snowmelt water-releasing period, as illustrated in Figure 5.17. As a result, the lag
length of WSCE% would be longer than expected as it acts more like a leading
indicator of the real snowmelt water generation time.

Figure 5.17 The relationship of SAR-based wet snow detection and the snowmelt
processing (modified from (Marin et al., 2019)). The amount of liquid water content
(LWC), snow water equivalent (SWE), and the released snowmelt runoff together with
the SAR signal backscatter coefficient in different snowmelt phases are illustrated.

5.5.5 The reason of the negative LRP of rainfall in DLM of the detrended lake
water volume

In sections 4.1.5 and 4.2.3, we only analyze the LRP of the WSCE%, due to the fact
that we focus on depicting the casual effect of increasing WSCE on the water
resource. On the contrary, the other two hydrological factors (mean rainfall and
evapotranspiration) are the control variables that are not the investigated targets but
help mitigating the omitted variable bias (Stock and Watson, 2015) to ensure the
robustness of the DLM analysis. Including control variables is indispensable as there
might have correlations between independent variables, which would mislead the
estimated lag coefficient and the interested LRP.

Nevertheless, we can still analyze the coefficient of the other two hydrological factors,
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as shown in Table 5.1. For evapotranspiration, in both river and lake cases the
coefficients are negative, which are reasonable as more evapotranspiration would
reduce the water amount. On the contrary, the coefficient of rainfall should be positive,
as more rainfall would cause more water volume. However, only the case of the
Brahmaputra River shows a positive value. We conclude the main reason causing the
negative coefficient value of rainfall for Lake Urmia case is the detrending processing.
It reduces the importance of rainfall, which is already low comparing to the river’s
case. In detail, by comparing the rainfall’s coefficient in the Lake Urmia case
estimated with the original and detrended water volume, we can be observed that the
value is positive in the former scenario but becomes negative in the latter one.
However, it must be noted that in both scenarios, the coefficient of WSCE% and
evapotranspiration remain positive and negative, respectively, which agrees with the
prior knowledge. It is because the relationship (or importance) between rainfall and
water volume is much weaker than WSCE% and evapotranspiration to water volume
in the lake’s case (as described in the Section 4.1.4). It can also be proven by the
2
much lower maximum 𝑅 ̅ value of rainfall (0.23) compared to the wet SCE% (0.85)
and evapotranspiration (0.61) as shown in Table 5.1. Furthermore, by comparing with
the Brahmaputra River case (0.94), the lake’s rainfall-water volume relationship also
shows a much weaker linkage.

5.5.6 Current limitations and future goals

In the present study, we propose a cloud-free and illumination-independent

comprehensive inland water monitoring approach based on freely accessible and
sustainable data/tool, which provides a new way to track the dynamics of continental
water resources. The econometrics’ DLM also enables the accurate analysis of the
lagged causal effect of snowmelt condition on the water amount. Nevertheless, there
are still some limitations in our present study. Hence, future improvements are
required.

Firstly, as mentioned above, it is found that the high spatial resolution, cloud-free SAR
backscatter-Otsu-based surface area detection method can only be implemented in
the lake water depletion period, i.e., dry season, due to the sensitivity of SAR signal to
surface wetness. On the contrary, the GWP provides continuous and daily
observations in all seasons, as shown in Figure 5.16(b), although it has some
disadvantages such as systematic under-estimation due to high spectral reflectance
of lake’s bottom when water is shallow (as shown in Figure 5.5 and 5.16) and coarse
spatial resolution. Yet, in a future study we would integrate both multi-spectral and
SAR-sensor-based surface area to achieve a robust, high temporal and spatial

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resolution continuous surface area mapping strategy.

Secondly, in our study, we use the WSCE% for representing the snowmelt condition.
Although it is efficient and straightforward to depict the whole snowmelt dynamics
(Marin et al., 2019; Tsai Ya-Lun S. et al., 2019; Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz Andreas, et al.,
2019b, 2019a), it cannot provide the information of how much snowmelt water is
actually generated during the snowmelt period. Instead, the measurement of either
SWE or LWC should be used. Unfortunately, although there are many studies aiming
at quantifying the SWE or LWC with SAR data, yet so far, there is no reliable
conclusion provided (Tsai Ya-Lun S. et al., 2019). In addition to the wetness of the
snowpack, other factors such as soil moisture, surface roughness, snow grain size,
snow density, and temperature would also affect the SAR signal. Consequently, the
utilization of either inversion technique or empirical model is usually required (Tsai
Ya-Lun S. et al., 2019). The employments of multispectral and passive sensors are
the alternative; however, they would be affected by either cloud cover and polar
darkness or poor spatial resolution, as mentioned in the Introduction. Hence, in the
future study, we would explore the SAR-SWE relationship using the inversion
technique and compare the result with the passive sensor-based SWE products
provided by Copernicus Global Land Service (Takala et al., 2011) and GlobSnow
(Takala et al., 2011).

In addition, in the current study, we assume the water balance of Lake Urmia can be
explained by WSCE, rainfall, and evapotranspiration. Because the surface water
inflow can be estimated by the lagged effects of the snowmelt and rainfall water; and
as the Lake Urmia is an endorheic lake so there is no stream outflow. Nevertheless,
the influence of groundwater seepage and leakage are not measured in the present
study due to (1) the lack of piezometric records around the lake and (2) their
influences on water balance are normally trivial (Lei et al., 2013). Thus, groundwater
is commonly ignored in the lake water balance studies (G Kumambala and Ervine,
2010; Kummu et al., 2014). However, to enhance the completeness of monitoring
water resource variation of Lake Urmia, the hydrological models such as MODular
three-dimensional finite-difference ground-water flow model (MODFLOW) (Anderson
et al., 2015) or a simple groundwater input-output model (Dinka et al., 2014) could be
included in the future.

Another improvement that could be considered is using the modified DLM for
hydrological regression analysis. In the present DLM applied in this study, the weight
of each lag is set equally. On the contrary, the advanced constrained DLM uses a
lag-based smooth function, such as linear declining lag weights or polynomial/spline
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Data and by Analyzing Causal Effects of Snowmelt

distributed lag models (Gasparrini et al., 2010). These constrains would allow a more
accurate estimation of each lag weight of each independent variable, as the potential
multi-collinearity between different lags of each independent variable might hinder the
estimation of each lag coefficient in unconstrained DLM (although the LRP, the main
investigated target in the current study, would remain reliable) (Wooldridge, 2000).
Moreover, the autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) (Pesaran et al., 2001)
should also be explored as the past value of the water amount might also influence
the current water amount.

Finally, rain-on-snow (ROS) hydro-meteorological phenomena should be investigated

for its influence on the snowmelt-led water resource variation. It is found that ROS
events would weaken the snowpack structure and accelerate the melting of snowpack
due to heat transfer, which leads to an earlier and shorter melting period and even
causes floods (Merz and Blöschl, 2003; McCabe et al., 2007; Pradhanang et al.,
2013). Moreover, in the long-run, it can also result in a thinner springtime snowpack
with less LWC and SWE, and eventually reduces the water supply in the dry season
(Cohen et al., 2015; Jeong et al., 2017). Practically, when ROS events take place,
they might form an icy crust on the snowpack as the relatively warm precipitation
would melt the surface of snowpack and seeps through the snow, which refreezes
during the nighttime (Groisman et al., 2005). This icy crust would change the surface
roughness and the dielectric property and may mislead the SAR-based WSCE
mapping results. Hence, the relationship between WSCE, precipitation, and SAR
backscatter coefficient should be examined.

5.6. Conclusions

The significance of inland water resources has been gradually emphasized; especially
in times of global warming. Within all waterbody types, lake and river systems are
critical not only for the human society but also for natural ecosystems. In addition to
temperature and rainfall variability, climate change alters the snowmelt phenology and
snow distribution, while runoff originating from snowmelt is the primary water supply
source for many river and lake systems. Therefore, monitoring the dynamics and
variations of water resources as well as the snowmelt conditions is necessary to
understand cryo-hydrosphere interactions under the influence of climate change. So
far, only few studies addressing this question relying on remote sensing techniques
exist. Most previous studies utilize either in-situ measurements or multi-spectral
sensors, which are limited to small-scale regions or affected by cloud cover,
respectively. In the present study, we employ the latest spaceborne Sentinel-1 SAR
and Sentinel-3 altimetry data to achieve a high resolution, cloud-free and

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Data and by Analyzing Causal Effects of Snowmelt

illumination-independent comprehensive inland waterbody dynamics (time-series

surface area and water level) sensing strategy. Moreover, in contrast to previous
studies utilizing in-house SAR and altimetry data processing algorithms, we employ
freely available cloud-based services to ensure the broad applicability and
transferability.

Based on altimetry and SAR data, the water level and the water-covered extent
(surface area of lakes and the flooded area of rivers) can be successfully estimated.
For the surface area mapping, the SAR backscatter coefficient-based Otsu’s
threshold has proven to be capable of accurately classifying the waterbody boundary
by comparing it with the Global WaterPack (GWP) and high-resolution Sentinel-2
imagery. Nevertheless, we found that this approach can only be implemented in the
lake water depletion period, i.e., dry season, due to the fact that the rainfall-caused
surface wetness over non-waterbody regions would mislead the backscatter-based
classification. For water level estimation, our results show high consistency between
different passes and even out-perform the well-known altimetry databases owing to
the finer along-track resolution of Sentinel-3. Moreover, by fusing both, surface area
and water level information, we can achieve a comprehensive inland water dynamics
monitoring. For our selected study sites, such as Lake Urmia, we could estimate the
hypsometry and derive the water volume change. Via utilizing the STL decomposition
technique, we can mitigate the “container effect” of the lake and extract the
inter-annual water variation. For the Brahmaputra River, both time-series of the water
level and the flooded area can be identified and be used for cross-comparison. The
synchronized trend observed between them also suggests the high reliability of our
derived Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-3 results.

Last but not least, together with the WSCE mapped with SAR imagery, we can
analyze the influence of snowmelt on water resource variation. With the aim to handle
the lagged causal effect of snowmelt and mitigate the omitted errors in the regression,
the DLM initially developed for econometric applications is employed in the present
study. In the lag lengths pre-analysis, we found that WSCE% has the longest lag
length compared to rainfall and evapotranspiration. It is due to the infiltration process
of snowmelt water and the fact that the snow-covered area is usually located in the
high elevation region, which is more distant to downstream water level investigated
VS. The lag length of WSCE% is also observed to be nearly twice as long in the
Brahmaputra River compared to Lake Urmia owing to the shape difference of their
watersheds. Furthermore, the temporal offset between the snowmelt water generation
and the SAR-based WSCE detection is also discussed, which is one reason for the
long lag length. Eventually, the casual effect of snowmelt conditions on inland water
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Data and by Analyzing Causal Effects of Snowmelt

resources is unbiasedly quantified with the DLM: for Lake Urmia, when increasing one
percent of WSCE% during the period of zero to 80 days before, the detrended water
volume would increase by 108 cubic meters while hold still other factors; for the
Brahmaputra River, when increasing one percent of WSCE% during the period of 70
to 150 days before, the water level of the investigated VS would increase 0.1 meters
while other independent variables remain constant.

Acknowledgments

Support by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) fellowship to Ya-Lun S.

Tsai is gratefully acknowledged. Special thanks to Dr. Marco Restano (ESA-ESRIN)
for supporting the SARvatore service and Mr. Yao-Chun Huang (LSE) for guiding the
DLM analysis.

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6 Synthesis and Outlook

6.1. Summary of achievements and contributions to research gaps

Overall, the aims of this thesis are satisfied and each objective is fulfilled. Firstly,
based on the comprehensive review of existing SAR-based SCE detection studies,
the limitations of previous approaches are identified, which are overcome in the
proposed novel total and wet SCE detection method based on the freely accessible
SAR dataset with topographical factors and land cover information. Additionally, by
adding ground temperature as well as vegetation indexes, the SCE mapping accuracy
is further enhanced. Eventually, based on the SAR-detected snowmelt conditions
together with the waterbody dynamics tracked with publically accessible SAR and
altimetry data, the causal effect of snow cover dynamics on the inland water
resources are unbiasedly quantified. To elaborate the achievements done in each
research objective, the summaries are provided as follows:

Objective 1: Reviewing the characteristics of SAR as well as its

interactions with snow, and exploring the trends, difficulties, and
opportunities of existing SAR-based SCE mapping studies

Chapter two (Tsai Ya-Lun S. et al., 2019) provides comprehensive introductions of

SAR-snow interaction theories and reviews previous SAR-based SCE mapping
studies. Further discussions including the development of SAR and mapping
strategies, limitations as well as opportunities of future studies are also described.

Firstly, the unique interactions between SAR signal and wet/dry snowpack are
discussed. The water content of the snowpack largely affects the penetration depth of
the SAR signal and alters the scattering mechanisms correspondingly. This
background knowledge provides the basis for the SAR-based SCE mapping strategy.

Second, the previously published studies since the launch of the first revisiting
spaceborne SAR sensor are reviewed thoroughly in different aspects. For instance,
for SAR sensor comparison, C-band SAR-based algorithms dominate the studies, but
the recent prosperity of X-band SAR provides a promising alternative. Their significant
differences in employed frequencies are due to the penetration characteristics and
histories of different wavelength sensors. Geologically and spatially, an imbalanced
distribution of local-scale study sites is found, where most studies focus on
mountainous regions, especially the European Alps and the Asian Himalaya.
Regarding the land cover aspect, many studies simply mask out the forested and
agricultural regions. With respect to the temporal aspect, the majority of studies
investigate snow cover for only one year with an average of two observations within

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this year to account for the dynamics of the snowpack. Last but not least, for the
employed SCE detection algorithms, more than 55% of the reviewed studies only
detect wet snow, with 82% of those studies applying a backscatter-based approach.
These findings indicate that there still exists a gap for SAR-based SCE mapping
approaches being maturely usable.

Nevertheless, it is also found that recent technical advancements provide promising

opportunities for future studies, such as wider sensing swaths, shorter revisit times
and quad-polarizations of SAR sensors, which largely highlights the potentials of
using InSAR and PolSAR techniques for SCE detection. The need for synergy of SAR
with other sensors to improve the quality of SCE mapping is also suggested.
Eventually, the future potential of complementing or even replacing the conventional
multi-spectral sensor-based SCE detection approaches with the SAR-based method
is foreseen.

Objective 2: Proposing a novel total and wet SCE mapping strategy

based on freely accessible SAR imagery with all land cover classes
applicability and global transferability

To overcome the limitations of previous studies which usually only detect wet SCE in
non-forested regions, the novel total and wet SCE mapping strategy is proposed in
chapter three (Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz Andreas, et al., 2019b). Various new dataset as
well as processing approaches are employed.

Firstly, to guarantee the global transferability, the freely accessible spaceborne

Sentinel-1 SAR imagery is selected. Secondly, the land cover information is included
which is used to build the SCE classifier for each land cover class. Thirdly, in addition
to the commonly used backscatter coefficient, interferometric SAR coherence as well
as polarimetric parameters are included to fully capture the snow-caused surface
features. Fourthly, since in the review paper, it is realized that the elevation
information is commonly used for dry SCE detection, the global DEM dataset is
utilized as well. Furthermore, with the aim of comprehensively depicting topographical
characteristics, other factors including slope, aspect, and curvature are also employed.
Last but not least, an easy tuning machine learning classification algorithm is used to
ensure the broad applicability and high flexibility.

Five different study areas located in different mountain ranges, continents, and
hemispheres are selected to test the universal applicability of the proposed approach.
Moreover, on the contrary to most previous studies having no validation for the
mapped SCE, in the thesis, various datasets at different scales are used for

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comprehensive validations, including internal cross-validation, external multi-spectral

sensor-based SCE products/maps as well as in-situ snow depth records.

Results show that the overall accuracy, F-measure and AUC score of total SCE
mapping accuracy for different land cover types (including densely vegetated forest
and agricultural regions) can reach around 80%, 80%, and 70% respectively for the
majority of regions. The accuracy can even be higher by around 5% if vegetation land
cover classes are excluded. Additionally, when merging all input data for all test sites
to build a universally applicable model set, the accuracy remains satisfying. These
values confirm the robustness of the proposed land cover-dependent total SCE
mapping approach. By extending the mapped total SCE with a backscatter-based
thresholding approach, information about wet SCE is additionally provided. It is also
found that the quality of land cover information affects SCE mapping accuracy.
Eventually, the suggestions for employing other auxiliary data such as quantitative
vegetation measurements are given.

Objective 3: Enhancing total SCE mapping accuracy by fusing SAR- and

multi-spectral sensor-based information, and providing total SCE
mapping reliability information

With the aim of improving the total SCE mapping accuracy, the employment of ground
temperature information as well as vegetation indexes derived from multi-spectral
sensors are included in chapter four (Tsai Ya-Lun S, Dietz Andreas, et al., 2019a).
Moreover, the newly generated classification reliability map provided along with the
estimated SCE enables further analysis possibilities.

Compared to the previously proposed total SCE mapping strategy (chapter three),
which only uses SAR-based observations, topographical factors, and land cover
information, further auxiliary data should be considered to enhance SCE mapping
accuracy. Based on the review paper (chapter two), it is realized that ground
temperature information is commonly employed as snow-covered regions naturally
show a lower temperature. Thus, in chapter four, the ground temperature product
derived from the emissivity bands of a multi-spectral sensor is used. On the other
hand, as found in the results of the previously proposed mapping strategy, the
existence of dense vegetation decreases classification accuracy. Previous studies
also reveal that vegetation affects SAR backscatter, coherence, and PolSAR
parameters; therefore, two different but related vegetation indexes (leaf area index
(LAI) and fractional vegetation cover (FVC)) are also employed in the refined SCE
mapping strategy.

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Although including more data would inevitably increase the collinearity and complexity
of the analyzed dataset, thanks to the strength of machine learning of handling
non-linear high dimensionality, it would not result in biased results. Moreover, since
the goal of this thesis is to provide a universally applicable mapping strategy that
yields the highest SCE classification accuracy, mild redundancy between input
variables is acceptable for ensuring flexibility.

Based on comprehensive validation trials, results show that the overall accuracy,
F-measure, and AUC score can be enhanced from previously 80%, 80%, and 70% to
around 90%, 90%, and 80% for all five study areas. Thus, the robustness and the
universal transferability of the proposed strategy can be ensured; therefore, the SCE
dynamics of the melting season of 2018 for the whole Alps are depicted. Moreover,
with the newly generated SCE detection reliability map, the evaluation of uncertainty
can be conducted and enables further analysis. For instance, it is found that densely
vegetated regions have lower reliability, which matches the expectation.

More importantly, together with the proposed SAR observations and static
topographical factors-based SCE mapping approach (objective 3), these two different
input datasets provide users a comprehensive package to achieve satisfactory total
SCE mapping accuracies based on data availability. It largely compensates the
limitation of the traditional multi-spectral sensor-only SCE detection method and
further yields wet SCE information, which cannot be depicted by multi-spectral
sensors.

Objective 4: Proposing a cloud-free and illumination-independent inland

waterbody dynamics tracking strategy using freely accessible datasets
and services

To assess the influence of SCE variation on inland water resources, tracking inland
waterbody dynamics is necessary. In chapter five, the new generation spaceborne
Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-3 are used to detect water surface area and level respectively,
in a cloud-free and illumination-independent manner. Moreover, the freely available
online cloud-based processing services enable broad applicability and high efficiency.
Eventually, the hypsometry and water volume variation of lakes as well as the flooded
area and the water level variation of rivers can be estimated.

For surface area (water-covered area) detection, compared to most previous studies
utilizing multi-spectral sensor-based band ratio water indexes, which suffer from cloud
cover and noise caused by variations of atmospheric/illumination conditions, in
chapter five, the cloud-penetrating and illumination-independent Sentinel-1 SAR

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imagery is used. Since the SAR signal is sensitive to surface wetness and roughness,
the water-covered/non-water areas can clearly be distinguished based on the
backscatter coefficient with Otsu’s algorithm.

On the contrary, for water level monitoring, rather than using in-situ gauging
measurements or combining bathymetry surveying with surface area detection, which
is not always publically accessible or universally available, the utilization of
spaceborne Sentinel-3 active altimetry sensor is explored in chapter five. It has global
data availability and free accessibility similar to Sentinel-1, and has a much finer
footprint size compared to previous spaceborne altimetry sensors, which is much
suitable for inland water level tracking.

To analyze both Sentinel-1 SAR and Sentinel-3 altimetry data, the Google Earth
Engine as well as the ESA SARvatore cloud-based, publically available processing
services are utilized. These platforms guarantee high speed data processing and a
broad applicability. Moreover, SARvatore enables an advanced inland waterbody
analysis and avoids the use of non-transferable in-house algorithms commonly
adopted in previous studies.

Via comparison with multi-spectral sensor-based waterbody area products, it is found

that the proposed Sentinel-1-based surface area usually can reliably classify the
water-covered area. For water level estimation, the Sentinel-3-based results even
outperform the well-known water level databases.

Finally, by fusing results of both water level and water-covered extent (surface area of
lakes and the flooded area of rivers), the comprehensive inland waterbody dynamics
can be tracked: for Lake Urmia in Iran, the hypsometry and derived water volume
change can be estimated; for the Brahmaputra River, the variation of both water level
and the flooded area can be tracked.

Objective 5: Assessing the influence of snowmelt conditions on inland

water resources

Based on the fulfillment of all previous objectives, not only the SCE dynamics and
snowmelt conditions can be mapped by SAR imagery, but also the inland waterbody
dynamics can be tracked. Therefore, via the employment of the sophisticated
regression method developed in the econometrics discipline and inclusion of
hydrological factors, the causal effect of snowmelt conditions on water resources can
be eventually quantified in chapter five.

Firstly, to unbiasedly quantify the influence of snowmelt conditions on water resources,

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the inclusion of other factors sharing impact on water amount variation is critical.
Hence, both rainfall and evapotranspiration data derived from the high-resolution
global weather forecast model are employed as the control variables for mitigating the
omitted error. By including these two hydrological factors, the correlations between
them and snowmelt phenology would not undermine the credibility of regression
analysis.

Secondly, since snowmelt water would not only form the direct surface streamflow but
also infiltrate into the ground and soil, it has a temporally lagged effect on the
downstream water amount variation. Thus, to tackle the lagged and overlapped
influences of snowmelt as well as hydrological factors on water resources, traditional
regression algorithms are not suitable owing to their poor collinearity handling abilities.
On the contrary, the advanced DLM firstly developed in the econometrics discipline,
which excels in dealing with multi-variables’ dynamics influences with lags is
employed in chapter five. To process the DLM, deciding the suitable lag length for
each variable is vital, yet there is no universal rule for decision. Therefore, the
background knowledge- and adjusted 𝑅2 -based lag length decision approach is
proposed. Furthermore, by analyzing the lag length, it is found that compared to
rainfall and evapotranspiration, the snowmelt conditions have the longest lag length. It
is due to the distant location of snow-covered regions to waterbodies and the unique
characteristics of the SAR-based snowmelt detection approach.

Finally, the causal effect of snowmelt conditions on inland water resources is

unbiasedly quantified: for the Lake Urmia, when increasing one percent of WSCE%
during the period of zero to 80 days before, the detrended water volume would
increase by 108 cubic meters while hold still other factors; for the Brahmaputra River,
when increasing one percent of WSCE% during the period of 70 to 150 days before,
the water level of the investigated virtual station would increase by 0.1 meters while
other independent variables remain constant. Namely, cryo-hydrosphere interactions
can be identified.

6.2. Overall conclusions

Snow cover extent (SCE) is one of the most critical cryospheric components owing to
its ample coverage as well as its unique physical characteristics. It not only affects the
balance of numerous natural systems but also influences various socio-economic
activities of human beings. Nevertheless, due to the rapidly rising global temperature
caused by the deterioration of climate change, SCE has been decreasing globally,
which largely endangers the sustainability and availability of inland water resources
as millions of people rely on snowmelt water for daily consumption and agricultural
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irrigation. Therefore, in order to understand the cryo-hydrosphere interactions under a

warming climate, (1) monitoring SCE dynamics and snowmelt conditions, (2) tracking
the dynamics of snowmelt-influenced waterbodies, and (3) assessing the causal
effect of snowmelt conditions on inland water resources are indispensable.

To continuously monitor SCE, employing spaceborne remote sensing techniques is

necessary. Since the conventional multi-spectral sensor-based approach would be
inevitably affected by cloud cover and polar darkness, the utilization of
cloud-penetrating and illumination-independent SAR offers a promising alternative.
Thanks to its valuable polarization information as well as phase data, more detailed
features of the snowpack can be identified. Moreover, based on the sensitivity of the
SAR signal to water content, the snowmelt conditions can be well depicted.
Nevertheless, based on the comprehensive review of previous SAR-based SCE
detection studies as described in chapter two, it is found that there still exists a gap for
being maturely usable. For instance, the majority of studies only detect wet SCE of
small scale regions with a backscatter-based approach, mask out the forested and
even agricultural regions, and rarely validate their results. Consequently, the need to
propose a new SCE mapping strategy is desired.

Therefore, in chapter three, the novel total and wet SCE mapping strategy is
proposed. By using the freely accessible spaceborne Sentinel-1 SAR imagery, data
availability and sustainability are ensured. Also, based on the rich SAR-derived
information, including the backscatter coefficient, interferometric coherence, and
polarimetric parameters, together with the land cover information as well as
topographical factors including elevation, slope, aspect, and curvature, the total SCE
can be well depicted in all land cover classes (including densely vegetated forest and
agricultural regions). Moreover, to facilitate the analysis of non-linear and complex
SAR-based observations, the flexible but robust machine learning RF classification
algorithm is used. Via comprehensive validations with multi-spectral sensor-based
SCE products and in-situ snow depth records, results show that the overall accuracy,
F-measure and AUC score of total SCE mapping accuracy can reach around 80%,
80%, and 70% for the majority of study areas located in different mountain ranges. By
excluding the vegetation land cover classes, the accuracy can even increase by
around 5%. Furthermore, when merging all input data for all test sites to build a
universally applicable model set, the accuracy remains satisfying. These high values
attest the reliability of the proposed land cover-dependent total SCE mapping
approach. In addition, by extending the mapped total SCE with wet SCE estimated
with a backscatter-based approach, holistic SCE dynamics for different months can
be revealed.
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To further explore the potential of enhancing total SCE mapping accuracy, the value of
employing vegetation indexes (LAI and FVC) as well as land surface temperature
(LST) derived from the PROBA-V satellite and MODIS sensors respectively, are
examined in chapter four. Results show that the overall accuracy, F-measure, and
AUC score can be enhanced to around 90%, 90%, and 80% for all five study areas
located in different mountain ranges, continents, and hemispheres. Additionally,
based on the newly generated reliability maps, a relationship between densely
vegetated land cover classes and lower classification reliability is found. Eventually,
the proposed approach is applied to depict the SCE dynamics of the whole Alps
during the melting season of 2018.

With the aim of assessing the influences of SCE dynamics on inland water resources,
in chapter five, the utilization of new generation publically accessible spaceborne
Sentinel-3 altimetry as well as Sentinel-1 SAR are used to detect the water level and
surface area of the Urmia Lake and the Brahmaputra River, respectively. The
employment of spaceborne altimetry and SAR provide a high-resolution, cloud-free,
and illumination-independent continuous water dynamics monitoring, instead of few
sites available-only in-situ gauging stations and cloud-contaminated multi-spectral
sensor band-based water indexes which was commonly used in previous studies. Via
validations with well-known water level databases and multi-spectral sensor-based
water boundary products, it is confirmed that the altimetry data-derived water level
and SAR backscatter-Otsu-based surface area are accurate. Furthermore, by
integrating both observations, the comprehensive inland waterbody dynamics can be
achieved, such as the hypsometry-based water volume change of the Lake Urmia as
well as the flooded area and water level of the Brahmaputra River.

Finally, together with the wet SCE mapped with SAR imagery, the causal effect of
snowmelt conditions on water resource variations can be identified. To unbiasedly
quantify the influence of snowmelt, rainfall, and evapotranspiration measurements
provided by the global weather model are also included to mitigate the omitted error.
The advanced DLM regression was firstly developed in the econometrics discipline
and is employed as it can handle multi-variables’ dynamics influences with temporal
lags. In the lag length pre-analysis, snowmelt conditions show the longest lag length
due to the distant location of snow-covered region to downstream waterbodies and
the unique characteristics of the SAR-based snowmelt detection approach. At last, the
casual effect of snowmelt conditions on inland water resources is unbiasedly
quantified and cryo-hydrosphere interactions can be identified. For the Lake Urmia,
when increasing one percent of WSCE% during the period of zero to 80 days before,
the detrended water volume would increase by 108 cubic meters; for the Brahmaputra
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River, when increasing one percent of WSCE% during the period of 70 to 150 days
before, the water level of the investigated virtual station would increase 0.1 meters.

6.3. Future opportunities and challenges

In this thesis, many significant improvements and breakthroughs are achieved, such
as (1) proposing novel SAR-based total and wet SCE mapping strategies which are
applicable for all land cover classes with universal applicability, (2) proposing an
advanced inland waterbody dynamics tracking approach by fusing Sentinel-1 SAR
and Sentinel-3 altimetry data, and (3) quantifying the unbiased causal effect of
snowmelt conditions on inland water resources using a sophisticated model. However,
there remain many open questions and challenges, which should be explored in
future studies. Thankfully, based on the practical experiences gained in this thesis,
many suggestions and insights can be given as follows:

For SCE detection, the current thesis utilizes the C-band Sentinel-1 SAR imagery due
to its global coverage, public accessibility, and highly sustainable mission design
which guarantees the widest applicability among all currently existing spaceborne
SAR sensors. Moreover, it is promising to foresee the launch of Sentinel-1C&D, which
would provide even denser observations. Therefore, the temporal decorrelation of
InSAR can be reduced and the strength of using interferometric coherence for SCE
classification can be significantly enhanced. Nevertheless, in addition to Sentinel-1
constellation, since previous studies found the X-band SAR has higher sensitivity to
the snowpack due to its shorter wavelength (see chapter two), the utilization of
X-band SAR sensors such as COSMO-SkyMed and TerraSAR- X should be further
considered. Also, as summarized in the review chapter and demonstrated in the
method chapters, polarimetric information is highly helpful for SCE detection. Yet
Sentinel-1 satellites only provide dual polarizations which limit the potential of
conducting other polarimetric decomposition techniques such as Freeman–Durden
decomposition (Freeman and Durden, 1998), Touzi decomposition (Touzi, 2006), and
Yamaguchi decomposition (Yamaguchi et al., 2005). These advanced techniques
provide much more surface feature characteristics but require quad-polarization SAR
imagery. Therefore, the value of Radarsat-2 and PALSAR-2 should be further
examined.

Methodologically, for SCE mapping, other auxiliary datasets such as soil moisture
should be employed to remove the soil moisture-caused SAR signal change. However,
the interaction between soil moisture and SAR signal together with the SWE/LWC of
the snowpack is a highly complex topic due to their non-linearity and
multi-factor-driven characteristics, as reviewed in (Ali et al., 2015; Karthikeyan et al.,
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2017; LIU et al., 2019). Therefore, this issue requires extensive future studies to
investigate. Another methodological improvement that can be conducted is the
utilization of deep learning techniques, i.e., an advanced neural network-based
classification/segmentation. As summarized in chapter two, although currently there
are only a few studies that exploited DL techniques, it is foreseeable that the
utilization of DL in this topic would prevail in the near future. Nevertheless, it must be
noted that although DL might help to tackle the complex vegetation-SAR signal
interaction and even the soil moisture-snow-SAR signal relationship mentioned above,
generally during the training step of DL, it requires a much longer training period with
a much higher computational power compared to the easy tuning/training RF used in
the thesis. More importantly, to avoid overfitting which commonly happens in DL,
corresponding procedures are not only time-consuming but also largely relying on
experiences. For SAR-based DL classification, this drawback is expected to be even
more severe due to the typical randomly distributed salt-and-pepper noises on SAR
imagery. Because of these potential drawbacks and considering the currently
proposed simple tuning RF-based SCE detection method can already guarantee a
mapping accuracy of around 80%, the utilization of DL is not urgently required.

In the validation aspect, as thoroughly discussed in chapters two and three, currently
there is no simple method to validate the mapped wet SCE. Most previous studies
simply assume that there only exists wet snow in late spring and directly validate
estimated wet SCE with multi-spectral sensor-based total SCE results. Nevertheless,
the possibility of the existence of dry snow remains considerable. The difficulty of wet
SCE validation results from both, the ambiguous definition of “wet snow” for SAR
imagery and the highly dynamic variation of LWC. For instance, the LWC in the
snowpack might largely differ in the morning and at night due to temperature-caused
melting and refreezing. Also, since the SAR-based wet SCE detection approach is
based on the backscatter coefficient value, which is affected by not only the targeted
LWC but also other factors such as soil moisture and random noise, it is difficult to
establish a consistent snow LWC-SAR backscatter coefficient relationship. Another
similarly difficult snowmelt sensing alternative is to use SAR to directly invert the LWC
instead of wet SCE mapping. However, this topic is still developing owing to both the
natural complexity of the interaction between SAR signal and LWC of snowpack and
the wide range of other possible signal-contaminating factors such as soil moisture
and surface vegetation. Therefore, future studies examining both, field survey and
SAR signal are still demanded.

Regarding the inland waterbody dynamics tracking approach, both, the surface area
and water level retrieving methods can be further refined. For instance, to distinguish
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the surface area of waterbodies, in addition to the backscatter coefficient used in the
current thesis, the interferometric coherence as well as polarimetric parameters
should be explored. It is due to the fact that the InSAR coherence would show a much
lower value over the water surface owing to the strong phase decorrelation. For the
polarimetric technique, based on suitable decomposition methods, the surface
roughness and scattering mechanism of the SAR signal can be identified, which can
largely facilitate water area delineation. Moreover, to overcome the limitation of the
current SAR-based surface area detection method (i.e., can only be implemented
during dry seasons), the fusion of both, multi-spectral and SAR imagery should be
considered. For water level retrieval, the comparison of Sentinel-3 with other altimetry
sensors such as Jason-3 is worth investigating. Via cross-comparison between
different spaceborne altimetry missions, the systematic error of each sensor can be
identified and mitigated.

Finally, for quantifying the influence of snowmelt conditions on water resources,

various potentials can be investigated in the future, as discussed in chapter five.
Firstly, in contrast to the WSCE% utilized in the thesis, the measurement of LWC
should be chosen as it can more clearly reveal the snowmelt phenology. Nevertheless,
as discussed above, inverting the LWC from SAR is still immature and requires plenty
of studies. Secondly, the influence of groundwater seepage and leakage can be
examined. Although previous studies suggest that their effects are generally ignorable,
yet to enhance the completeness of assessing water resource variation, employing
corresponding ground hydrological models should be considered. Thirdly, a modified
DLM which uses a lag-based smooth function for weight assignment can be explored.
In contrast to currently used universally weighted DLM, these constraints would
provide a more accurate estimation of each lag weight of each variable. Finally, based
on the fact that rain-on-snow (ROS) events would not only accelerate the snowmelt
process but also affect the backscatter coefficient of the SAR signal on the snowpack,
ROS events should be identified and their influence on water amount variation should
be measured.

192
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217
 Statement of authorship

Statement of authorship
I hereby certify that I have authored this Dissertation entitled “Monitoring Snow Cover
and Snowmelt Dynamics and Assessing their Influences on Inland Water Resources”
independently and without undue assistance from third parties. No other than the
resources and references indicated in this thesis have been used. I am aware that
violations of this declaration may lead to subsequent withdrawal of the degree. The
work has not previously been presented in the same or a similar format to another
examination body in Germany or abroad.

I confirm that I acknowledge the doctoral regulations of the Faculty of Mathematics

and Natural Sciences of Kiel University.

München, 2021
Ya-Lun S. Tsai

218
 Eidesstattliche Erklärung

Eidesstattliche Erklärung
I hereby certify that apart from the supervisor's guidance, the content and design of
this thesis entitled “Monitoring Snow Cover and Snowmelt Dynamics and Assessing
their Influences on Inland Water Resources” is all my own work and without undue
assistance from third parties. No other than the resources and references indicated in
this thesis have been used. This thesis has not been submitted either partially or
wholly as part of a doctoral degree to another examining body. This thesis has not
been published or submitted for publication. No academic degree has ever been
withdrawn. I confirm that this thesis has been prepared subject to the Rules of Good
Scientific Practice of the German Research Foundation and doctoral regulations of
the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of Kiel University.

München, 2021
Ya-Lun S. Tsai

219