Speaker
Description
Monitoring snow and ice in the Alps is of interest for a wide range of applications, for instance in hydrology, meteorology, geotechnical engineering, water management or hydropower generation. Thereby, the requirements of the different applications are varying in terms of spatial and temporal scale and resolution, and also of the latency time of the product delivery. Data of the Copernicus Sentinel satellites provide a very useful database for regular monitoring of snow and ice not only locally but even globally. The exploitation of these satellite data on a regional to global scale requires physically based algorithms. Additionally, auxiliary data such as a digital elevation model, land cover classifications, or glacier outlines are often required for the retrieval of snow and ice parameters from satellite data. Such auxiliary data sets are often available with a very high quality on a national level, but there are some differences along the national boundaries, limiting the usability of such data sets for an Alpine wide monitoring.
This presentation will focus on requirements for the monitoring of snow and ice parameters in the Alps, discussing current challenges linked to retrieval methods and to data sets available on a national, regional, and global scale.