Comparison between the interannual variability of snow parameters derived from SSM/I and the Ob river discharge

Abstract This paper analyses the relationship between the interannual variations of snow depth and snowmelt date and river discharge measurements in the Ob river basin. The snow parameters are derived from passive microwave remote sensing measurements by SSM/I during the time period 1989–2001. We find a significant correlation between the snowmelt date and the runoff in May (correlation coefficient R = − 0.92) and between the winter snow depth and the runoff in June (R = 0.61) measured at the Ob estuary. These results validate the methods used to derive the interannual variability of the snow parameters, particularly the snow depth. In such vast and remote regions, this is fundamental for monitoring and predicting snow related flood events. Furthermore, the results obtained can be very useful to improve the description of the snow-runoff relationship in global hydrological models.

[1]  A. Rango.  The Response of Areal Snow Cover to Climate Change in a Snowmelt—Runoff Model , 1997 .

[2]  Alfred T. C. Chang,et al.  Development of a passive microwave global snow depth retrieval algorithm for Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer‐EOS (AMSR‐E) data , 2003 .

[3]  Dorothy K. Hall,et al.  Comparison of snow mass estimates from a prototype passive microwave snow algorithm, a revised algorithm and a snow depth climatology , 1997 .

[4]  Daqing Yang,et al.  Streamflow response to seasonal snow cover extent changes in large Siberian watersheds , 2003 .

[5]  Edward G. Josberger,et al.  Analysis of Ground-Measured and Passive-Microwave-Derived Snow Depth Variations in Midwinter across the Northern Great Plains , 2005 .

[6]  D. Mocko,et al.  Simulation of high-latitude hydrological processes in the Torne-Kalix basin: PILPS phase 2(e) - 1: Experiment description and summary intercomparisons , 2003 .

[7]  Douglas L. Kane,et al.  Siberian Lena River hydrologic regime and recent change , 2002 .

[8]  P. Xie,et al.  Global Precipitation: A 17-Year Monthly Analysis Based on Gauge Observations, Satellite Estimates, and Numerical Model Outputs , 1997 .

[9]  Dorothy K. Hall,et al.  Nimbus-7 SMMR derived global snow cover parameters , 1987 .

[10]  H. Zwally,et al.  Microwave Emission From Snow and Glacier Ice , 1976, Journal of Glaciology.

[11]  Edward G. Josberger,et al.  Northern Great Plains 1996/97 seasonal evolution of snowpack parameters from satellite passive-microwave measurements , 2002, Annals of Glaciology.

[12]  Richard K. Moore,et al.  Microwave Remote Sensing , 1999 .

[13]  Z. Cao,et al.  On the physical processes associated with the water budget and discharge of the Mackenzie basin during the 1994/95 water year , 2002 .

[14]  Matthew Sturm,et al.  Vapor transport, grain growth and depth-hoar development in the subarctic snow , 1997 .

[15]  Richard B. Lammers,et al.  Increasing River Discharge to the Arctic Ocean , 2002, Science.

[16]  Edward G. Josberger,et al.  Siberia snow depth climatology derived from SSM/I data using a combined dynamic and static algorithm , 2004 .

[17]  Gerhard Kristensson,et al.  Homogenization of the Maxwell equations in an anisotropic material , 2002 .

[18]  Anny Cazenave,et al.  Ob' river discharge from TOPEX/Poseidon satellite altimetry (1992–2002) , 2004 .

[19]  R. Reynolds,et al.  The NCEP/NCAR 40-Year Reanalysis Project , 1996, Renewable Energy.

[20]  Edward G. Josberger,et al.  A passive microwave snow depth algorithm with a proxy for snow metamorphism , 2002 .

[21]  E. Carmack,et al.  The role of sea ice and other fresh water in the Arctic circulation , 1989 .