Estimation of snow density with L-band polarimetric SAR data

The areas covered by snow are important factors in climatological and hydrological investigations, particularly in alpine regions. Snow density is an important index for indicating snow statutes and calculating snowmelt-runoff. Active microwave sensors can discriminate snow and glacier from other surfaces, are all weather use. The radar polarization signature of an object permits a more accurate description of the object of interest than single-polarization measurements. In this paper, the polarimetric backscattering characteristics of dry snow at L band are analyzed, and the algorithm for estimation of snow density by using L Band SAR measurements data are used in experiment field. The results showed that L-band polarimetric SAR data are fairly good use to snow density estimation in alpine areas, through comparing snow density in study site from L band polarimetric SAR data with in situ data.