Non-Binary Snow Index for Multi-Component Surfaces
A Non-Binary Snow Index for Multi-Component Surfaces (NBSI-MS) is proposed to map snow/ice cover. The NBSI-MS is based on the spectral characteristics of different Land Cover Types (LCTs), such as snow, water, vegetation, bare land, impervious, and shadow surfaces. This index can increase the separa...
| Published in: | Remote Sensing |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13142777 https://doaj.org/article/041a6f4e89744bf09523c2dfe0eb45bd |
| Summary: | A Non-Binary Snow Index for Multi-Component Surfaces (NBSI-MS) is proposed to map snow/ice cover. The NBSI-MS is based on the spectral characteristics of different Land Cover Types (LCTs), such as snow, water, vegetation, bare land, impervious, and shadow surfaces. This index can increase the separability between NBSI-MS values corresponding to snow from other LCTs and accurately delineate the snow/ice cover in non-binary maps. To test the robustness of the NBSI-MS, regions in Greenland and France–Italy where snow interacts with highly diversified geographical ecosystems were examined. Data recorded by Landsat 5 TM, Landsat 8 OLI, and Sentinel-2A MSI satellites were used. The NBSI-MS performance was also compared against the well-known Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI), NDSII-1, S3, and Snow Water Index (SWI) methods and evaluated based on Ground Reference Test Pixels (GRTPs) over non-binarized results. The results show that the NBSI-MS achieved an overall accuracy (OA) ranging from 0.99 to 1 with kappa coefficient values in the same range as the OA. The precision assessment confirmed the performance superiority of the proposed NBSI-MS method for removing water and shadow surfaces over the compared relevant indices. |
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