EO·Atlas
Snow water equivalent
Snow water equivalent work estimates the liquid-water storage held in snowpack so basin operators can track seasonal accumulation, runoff risk, and water-supply timing.[1] Satellite and airborne methods for this topic include GNSS reflectometry, lidar, passive microwave radiometry, radar backscatter, and InSAR routes for snowpack monitoring and SWE retrieval.[1] Dry to moist snowpack can support SWE inference from phase changes in penetrating microwave or reflectometry measurements, while wet snow reduces penetration and changes the retrieval problem.[1] Airborne lidar snow-depth mapping and NASA SnowEx field campaigns provide calibration and validation context for satellite SWE methods.[2][3] Typical outputs include SWE estimates, change detection, basin storage estimates, and uncertainty for mountain-basin to regional cryosphere monitoring.[1][2][3]
What's available today
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- [1]NASA JPL Radar Science: Snow remote sensing and SWE retrieval approachesagency doc2026-05-27
- [2]NASA SnowEx campaign overviewagency doc2026-05-27
- [3]NASA/JPL Airborne Snow Observatoryagency doc2026-05-27
How to cite this page
Plain text
Snow water equivalent. EO-Atlas, SpectraWorks B.V., last reviewed 2026-05-27. https://eo-atlas.org/topics/snow-water-equivalent (CC BY 4.0)
BibTeX
@misc{eoatlas:topics:snow-water-equivalent,
title = {Snow water equivalent},
author = {{EO-Atlas}},
publisher = {SpectraWorks B.V.},
year = {2026},
note = {Last reviewed 2026-05-27. CC BY 4.0},
url = {https://eo-atlas.org/topics/snow-water-equivalent}
}