NASA Terrestrial Hydrology Program Snow Roadmap

Abstract:

NASA’s Terrestrial Hydrology Program (THP) aims to promote the use and development of remote sensing to further understanding of the Earth’s hydrologic cycle. Currently, terrestrial snow is a major missing gap in our ability to monitor all aspects of the land surface water cycle from space. To advance snow remote sensing, the THP Snow program is developing a roadmap to lay out a systematic approach towards an overall advancement of global snow observation capabilities. The purpose of the roadmap is to outline a near- to medium-term plan, which aligns field campaigns, instrument testing and modeling efforts to improve snow characterization and prepare the community to support future satellite missions and opportunities. The roadmap includes plans for future SnowEx, which is a multi-year field experiment to assess the ability of different snow remote sensing techniques across the full range of snow climates and topographic and vegetation gradients. Additionally, the development of an earth observing system that combines remote sensing observations with snow modeling capabilities is critical to filling gaps in global snow assessment. The roadmap addresses efforts to advance snow simulation in land surface models (LSMs) and conduct observing system simulation experiments (OSSE) to evaluate the value of satellite observations to global snow estimation. This presentation describes the development of the roadmap, including criteria that informed it, and summarizes the key activities and objectives that the THP Snow program aims to accomplish over the next decade.