| Summary: | This Master thesis is about a new method of mapping the snow cover of the research areas Devon Ice Cap, Italian-French Alps and the South of Svalbard with data of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2. The snow cover can be mapped despite the cloud cover via the combination of radar and optical satellite data. However, it is necessary that there is wet snow because dry snow cannot be identified as snow with the radar system. That is why the extensive analysis of the snow cover of the three above given areas was carried out during the summer months of 2016 and 2017. In order to be able to get reliable information about the backscatter values of areas which were snow covered and those who were not, the research was mainly focused on data of Sentinel-1. The results of this analysis were used to develop a first approach of an operational working algorithm to map snow cover. What is also special about the method, which was applied in this thesis, is the usage of the still new TanDEM-X elevation model. It was possible to include items like effects of elevation, aspect and slope by using the data of the TanDEM-X DEM. The first snow masks, produced by this method, show fairly good results that is why the described method should be further developed and researched on.
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