The main objective of the project SnowPEx is the intercomparison and validation of hemispheric and global satellite snow products for estimation of temporal trends of the seasonal snow cover and assessing their accuracy. The main providers on satellite snow extent and water equivalent products are participating in this exercise. In the 1st International Satellite Snow Products Intercomparison Workshop, held at NOAA, Maryland, in July 2014, the community discussed and agreed on methods and protocols for intercomparison of products and their validation using reference data sets from various environments and surface types around the world. Overview and status on products and reference data sets are accessible at http://snowpex.enveo.at. The 2nd International Workshop on Satellite Snow Products Intercomparison aims to present and discuss the current status of the snow products validation and intercomparison, to check the trend analysis and to elaborate guidelines for quantifying uncertainty estimates. Scientists are encouraged to submit abstracts for presentations and posters at the workshop.

 

 

Objectives and Expected Outcomes

Objectives

• Review of reference data sets for snow product validation including in-situ data and reference snow products from high resolution optical satellite data
• Presentation and discussion of validation results for regional and global snow products (based on previous studies as well as first SnowPEx results) and elaboration of required refinements for the protocols and guidelines.
• Discuss potential synergistic use of snow products from optical (snow extent) and passive microwave (SWE) data
• Present initial regional to global temporal trends of seasonal snow cover
• Define quality assessment and uncertainty measures for global snow products

Expected outcomes

• Preliminary results of snow product validation and intercomparison activities
• Consolidated guidelines, protocols and procedures for further snow product validation
• Best practices for quality assessment and uncertainty estimates
• Status of trend analysis on snow extent and snow mass and coordinated plan for further assessment and evaluation

 

Schedule and Deadline

Workshop Announcement	10 April 2015
Abstract Submission by	10 June 2015
Notification of acceptance to authors	15 June 2015
Final programme	1 July 2015
Registration by	31 July 2015
Workshop's Dates	14-16 September 2015

 

 

Organisation

	European Space Agency (ESA)
	ENVEO IT GmbH, Innsbruck Austria (PI)
	Global Cryosphere Watch
	Climate and Cryosphere

 

Organisation committee

Thomas Nagler (ENVEO)

Gabriele Bippus (ENVEO)

Helmut Rott (ENVEO / CliC)

Chris Derksen (EC)

Sari Metsämäki (SYKE)

Kari Luojus (FMI)

Jouni Pulliainen (FMI)

Richard Fernandes (CCRS)

Rune Solberg (NR)

Bojan Bojkov (ESA)

Sean Helfrich (NOAA)

Dorothy Hall (NASA)

David Robinson (Rutgers Univ.)

Marco Tedesco (CCNY/CUNY)

 

Contact Information

Dr. Thomas Nagler (Thomas.Nagler@enveo.at) or Dr. Bojan Bojkov (Bojan.Bojkov@esa.int)