Snowmelt can be a significant contributor to major floods, and hence updated snow information is very important to flood forecasting services. This study assesses whether operational runoff simulations could be improved by applying satellite-derived snow covered area (SCA) from both optical and radar sensors. Currently the HBV model is used for runoff forecasting in Norway, and satellite-observed SCA is used qualitatively but not directly in the model. Three catchments in southern Norway are studied using data from 1995 to 2002. The results show that satellite-observed SCA can be used to detect when the models do not simulate the snow reservoir correctly. Detecting errors early in the snowmelt season will help the forecasting services to update and correct the models before possible damaging floods. The method requires model calibration against SCA as well as runoff. Time-series from the satellite sensors NOAA AVHRR and ERS SAR are used. Of these, AVHRR shows good correlation with the simulated SCA, and SAR less so. Comparison of simultaneous data from AVHRR, SAR and Landsat ETM+ for May 2000 shows good inter-correlation. Of a total satellite-observed area of 1,088 km2, AVHRR observed a SCA of 823 km2 and SAR 720 km2, as compared to 889 km2 using ETM+.

A simulation exercise has been performed to study the temporal development of snow covered area and the spatial distribution of snow-water equivalent (SWE). Special consideration has been paid to how the properties of the spatial statistical distribution of SWE change as a response to accumulation and ablation events. A distributed rainfall-runoff model at resolution 1 × 1 km 2 has been run with time series of precipitation and temperature fields of the same spatial resolution derived from the atmospheric model HIRLAM. The precipitation fields are disaggregated and the temperature fields are interpolated. Time series of the spatial distribution of snow-water equivalent and snow-covered area for three seasons for a catchment in Norway is generated. The catchment is of size 3085 km 2 and two rectangular sub-areas of 484 km 2 are located within the larger catchment. The results show that the shape of the spatial distribution of SWE for all three areas changes during winter. The distribution is very skewed at the start of the accumulation season but then the skew decreases and, as the ablation season sets in, the spatial distribution again becomes more skewed with a maximum near the end of the ablation season. For one of the sub-areas, a consistently more skewed distribution of SWE is found, related to higher variability in precipitation. This indicates that observed differences in the spatial distribution of snow between alpine and forested areas can result from differences in the spatial variability of precipitation. The results obtained from the simulation exercise are consistent with modelling the spatial distribution of SWE as summations of a gamma distributed variable.