Towards an enhanced method to map snow cover areas and derive snow-water equivalent in Lebanon

Mhawej, Mario; Faour, Ghaleb; Fayad, Abbas; Shaban, Amin

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.03.058

Cited by 40 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…(3) Through a combination with the passive microwave SD product, the long time series SD database of China was used to identify cloud pixels, completely reclassify the residual cloud pixels to land or snow pixels, and produce the MODIS daily cloudless binary snow cover images. Based on the downscaling algorithm for the AMSR-E snow water equivalent product by Mhawej et al (2014), we applied a downscaling algorithm to the passive microwave SD product and built the 500 m spatial resolution SD data of China for December 2000 to November 2014. The equation is as follows:…”

Section: Cloud Removal and Downscaling Algorithmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal dynamics of snow cover based on multi-source remote sensing data in China

et al. 2016

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Abstract. By combining optical remote sensing snow cover products with passive microwave remote sensing snow depth (SD) data, we produced a MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) cloudless binary snow cover product and a 500 m snow depth product. The temporal and spatial variations of snow cover from December 2000 to November 2014 in China were analyzed. The results indicate that, over the past 14 years, (1) the mean snow-covered area (SCA) in China was 11.3 % annually and 27 % in the winter season, with the mean SCA decreasing in summer and winter seasons, increasing in spring and fall seasons, and not much change annually; (2) the snow-covered days (SCDs) showed an increase in winter, spring, and fall, and annually, whereas they showed a decrease in summer; (3) the average SD decreased in winter, summer, and fall, while it increased in spring and annually; (4) the spatial distributions of SD and SCD were highly correlated seasonally and annually; and (5) the regional differences in the variation of snow cover in China were significant. Overall, the SCD and SD increased significantly in south and northeast China, and decreased significantly in the north of Xinjiang province. The SCD and SD increased on the southwest edge and in the southeast part of the Tibetan Plateau, whereas it decreased in the north and northwest regions.

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Section: Cloud Removal and Downscaling Algorithmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal dynamics of snow cover based on multi-source remote sensing data in China

et al. 2016

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“…The Hermon high elevation region receives the highest amount of precipitation in Israel (>1300 mm·year −1 ). Its snowpack dynamics and associated energy and mass fluxes were studied by [3], and estimates of snow cover extent and snow-water equivalent are in [57].…”

Section: Lake Kinneret Watershedmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Use of an Orographic Precipitation Model to Assess the Precipitation Spatial Distribution in Lake Kinneret Watershed

Shamir

Rimmer

Georgakakos

2016

Water

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Abstract:A high-resolution 3-D orographic precipitation model (OPM) forced by Climate Forecast System (CFS) reanalysis fields was developed for the Lake Kinneret watershed (Israel-Syria-Lebanon territories). The OPM was tuned to represent the interaction between the advected and stratiform rainfall, and the local orographic enhancement. The OPM evaluation was focused on the densely instrumented lower part of the watershed. To evaluate the ungauged upper-elevation, bias-adjusted precipitation estimates from the Global-Hydro-Estimator were used. The OPM simulates higher rainfall amounts in the upper-elevation watershed compared to currently used rainfall estimates from an elevation dependent regression. The larger differences are during rain events with southwesterly wind flow and high moisture flux. These conditions, according to the OPM, are conducive to enhanced orographic lifting in the Hermon Mountain. A sensitivity analysis indicated that the higher wind speeds for southwesterly-northwesterly trajectories generate significant orographic lifting and increase the precipitation differences between the lower and upper elevations.

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“…Due to the influence of the Mediterranean climate (wet winter, dry summer) most of the precipitation above 1200 m a.s.l. falls as snow on Mount Lebanon (Shaban et al, 2004;Aouad-Rizk et al, 2005;Mhawej et al, 2014;UNDP, 2014). The average contribution of snowmelt to spring and river discharge in Mount Lebanon was estimated at 30 % by Telesca et al (2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although snow is recognized as a major component of the hydrologic system in Mount Lebanon (Shaban et al, 2004;Aouad-Rizk et al, 2005;Bakalowicz et al, 2008;Mhawej et al, 2014;Königer and Margane, 2014), the link between snowmelt and the hydrological processes remains poorly characterized on the basin scale. This can be attributed to the (1) lack of an operational snow observation network in Lebanon and (2) limited number of published basin-scale hydrometeorological datasets.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, only a few datasets on precipitation, temperature, snow, groundwater recharge and streamflow are available for basin-scale studies (e.g., Königer and Margane, 2014). Existing datasets, available through published mate-rial, are usually limited to (1) national-scale studies with monthly or yearly means (Shaban et al, 2004;Corbane et al, 2005;Mhawej et al, 2014;Telesca et al, 2014), (2) multiyear daily spring discharge and precipitation time series (e.g., Hreiche et al, 2007), (3) seasonal observations collected for mesoscale catchment studies (Bernier et al, 2003;AouadRizk et al, 2005;Doummar et al, 2014), and (4) local-scale snowpack observations (e.g., Somma et al, 2006Somma et al, , 2014. In most cases the research datasets are not made publicly available.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Snow observations in Mount Lebanon (2011–2016)

Fayad

Gascoin

Faour

et al. 2017

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

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Abstract. We present a unique meteorological and snow observational dataset in Mount Lebanon, a mountainous region with a Mediterranean climate, where snowmelt is an essential water resource. The study region covers the recharge area of three karstic river basins (total area of 1092 km 2 and an elevation up to 3088 m). The dataset consists of (1) continuous meteorological and snow height observations, (2) snowpack field measurements, and (3) medium-resolution satellite snow cover data. The continuous meteorological measurements at three automatic weather stations (MZA, 2296 m; LAQ, 1840 m; and CED, 2834 m a.s.l.) include surface air temperature and humidity, precipitation, wind speed and direction, incoming and reflected shortwave irradiance, and snow height, at 30 min intervals for the snow seasons (November-June) between 2011 and 2016 for MZA and between 2014 and 2016 for CED and LAQ. Precipitation data were filtered and corrected for Geonor undercatch. Observations of snow height (HS), snow water equivalent, and snow density were collected at 30 snow courses located at elevations between 1300 and 2900 m a.s.l. during the two snow seasons of 2014-2016 with an average revisit time of 11 days. Daily gap-free snow cover extent (SCA) and snow cover duration (SCD) maps derived from MODIS snow products are provided for the same period (2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016). We used the dataset to characterize mean snow height, snow water equivalent (SWE), and density for the first time in Mount Lebanon. Snow seasonal variability was characterized with high HS and SWE variance and a relatively high snow density mean equal to 467 kg m −3 . We find that the relationship between snow depth and snow density is specific to the Mediterranean climate. The current model explained 34 % of the variability in the entire dataset (all regions between 1300 and 2900 m a.s.l.) and 62 % for high mountain regions (elevation 2200-2900 m a.s.l.). The dataset is suitable for the investigation of snow dynamics and for the forcing and validation of energy balance models. Therefore, this dataset bears the potential to greatly improve the quantification of snowmelt and mountain hydrometeorological processes in this data-scarce region of the eastern Mediterranean.

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Towards an enhanced method to map snow cover areas and derive snow-water equivalent in Lebanon

Cited by 40 publications

References 19 publications

Spatiotemporal dynamics of snow cover based on multi-source remote sensing data in China

Spatiotemporal dynamics of snow cover based on multi-source remote sensing data in China

The Use of an Orographic Precipitation Model to Assess the Precipitation Spatial Distribution in Lake Kinneret Watershed

Snow observations in Mount Lebanon (2011–2016)

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