Monitoring of snow surface temperature in North West- Himalaya using passive microwave satellite data

Abstract

Snow surface temperature (SST) is an important snow parameter, which affects the energy balance of the region and thus acts as an indicator of climate change. In Himalaya due to ruggedness and inaccessibility of its terrain, it is very difficult to collect the SST data using conventional measurement techniques. Remote sensing based satellite data has the potential and used widely to estimate SST. In the present study passive microwave satellite data of Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) sensor has been used for monitoring of SST at different locations in North West (NW)-Himalaya. 85 GHz frequency channel is observed best for SST monitoring as this provides only the near surface information because of its less penetration power in comparison to other available frequencies of the sensor. The monthly and seasonal average SST values are estimated for the period 1988-2012. The temporal variation of SST values in Pir-Panjal, Great Himalaya and Karakoram Himalayan ranges for period 1988-2012 is analyzed and SST values in these ranges are further compared. To represent the monthly and seasonal trend of SST values spatially the geospatial maps of SST were made.