1D-Var multilayer assimilation of X-band SAR data into a detailed snowpack model
International audience The structure and physical properties of a snow-pack and their temporal evolution may be simulated using meteorological data and a snow metamorphism model. Such an approach may meet limitations related to potential diver-gences and accumulated errors, to a limited spatial reso...
Published in: | The Cryosphere |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
Other Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
HAL CCSD
2014
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://hal.science/hal-01118432 https://hal.science/hal-01118432/document https://hal.science/hal-01118432/file/Phan2014_Cryosphere.pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1975-2014 |
Summary: | International audience The structure and physical properties of a snow-pack and their temporal evolution may be simulated using meteorological data and a snow metamorphism model. Such an approach may meet limitations related to potential diver-gences and accumulated errors, to a limited spatial resolu-tion, to wind or topography-induced local modulations of the physical properties of a snow cover, etc. Exogenous data are then required in order to constrain the simulator and im-prove its performance over time. Synthetic-aperture radars (SARs) and, in particular, recent sensors provide reflectivity maps of snow-covered environments with high temporal and spatial resolutions. The radiometric properties of a snowpack measured at sufficiently high carrier frequencies are known to be tightly related to some of its main physical parame-ters, like its depth, snow grain size and density. SAR acqui-sitions may then be used, together with an electromagnetic backscattering model (EBM) able to simulate the reflectiv-ity of a snowpack from a set of physical descriptors, in or-der to constrain a physical snowpack model. In this study, we introduce a variational data assimilation scheme coupling TerraSAR-X radiometric data into the snowpack evolution model Crocus. The physical properties of a snowpack, such as snow density and optical diameter of each layer, are simu-lated by Crocus, fed by the local reanalysis of meteorological data (SAFRAN) at a French Alpine location. These snow-pack properties are used as inputs of an EBM based on dense media radiative transfer (DMRT) theory, which simulates the total backscattering coefficient of a dry snow medium at X and higher frequency bands. After evaluating the sensi-tivity of the EBM to snowpack parameters, a 1D-Var data assimilation scheme is implemented in order to minimize the discrepancies between EBM simulations and observa-tions obtained from TerraSAR-X acquisitions by modifying the physical parameters of the Crocus-simulated snowpack. The algorithm then re-initializes ... |
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