Snow from Space: Building a Vision Jeff Deems, Chris Derksen, Michael Durand, Jared En?n, Ed Kim, Dennis LeBenmaier, Glen Liston, Noah Molotch, Anne Nolin, Tom Painter, MaBhew Sturm, Simon Yueh and YOU! Snow from Space: Building a Vision Mee?ng Purpose: To engage the community in building a vision for future snow remote sensing efforts in the U.S., including but not limited to, future NASA missions, to promote interna3onal collabora3on, and for capacity-­‐
building within our community. Our goal today is to inform and engage more partners (you) in crea?ng this vision, and to begin to develop a roadmap for achieving success. Some Background •  Visible mapping of snow covered area (SCA) star?ng w/
TIROS satellites in the 1960s •  Microwave remote sensing of snow depth, snow water equivalent (SWE) in 1970s-­‐80s; simplis?c algorithms, opera?onal products but limited in accuracy •  Today: ground & airborne LiDAR, gamma sensors, and microwave radar & sounders have also been used to measure snow depth and snow water equivalent, Vis/NIR hyperspectral sensors provide grain size, albedo, light absorbing impuri?es Evolu?on of the process Snow and Cold Land Processes (SCLP) mission concept was a radar + passive microwave mission selected in the 2007 NRC Decadal Survey for Earth Applica?ons from Space. Assigned to Tier 3 category, currently unfunded. Cold Regions Hydrology (CoReH2O) mission proposed to ESA with a down-­‐select date of March 2013. Radar-­‐only. Snow Remote Sensing Working Group developed out of the 2012 Chapman Conference on Remote Sensing of the Terrestrial Water Cycle snow breakout sessions. An?cipated next Decadal Survey process star?ng in ~2014 with Mission Concepts due in 2015. We seek to develop a community vision and prepare a mission concept that will result in a highly ranked snow mission Cold Regions Hydrology High-­‐resolu?on Observatory to observe snow and ice for a beBer understanding of the water cycle Earth Explorer 7:
•  Call for Ideas issue in Spring 2005
•  Phase 0 (pre-feasibility) from 2006 – early 2009
•  Phase A (feasibility) from 2009 –
•  March 2013 (selection of one of the three mission concepts)
•  Launch expected in 2019
BIOMASS
P-band synthetic aperture
radar mission
CoReH2O
X- & Ku-band synthetic
aperture radar mission
for snow on land,
glacier and lake/sea ice
PREMIER
Sub-mm-wave and IR
limb sounding mission
Science campaign support ac?vi?es Snow parameters from CoReH2O data X/Ku-band SnowSAR
SnowScat during NoSREX
campaign
Data assimila?on study Ac?ve-­‐Passive Synergy study for snow Observa?on campaigns •  SnowScat (Finland) •  NoSREX 1 (2010) •  NoSREX 2 (2011) •  NoSREX 3 (2012) •  CASIX (2011) •  Airborne SnowSAR 2011 (NL and Finland) 2012-­‐2013 (Austria) 2012-­‐2013 (Canada) ESA UNCLASSIFIED – For Official Use
SWE derived from SnowSAR data, Sodankylä, 03/2011 SWE from SnowSAR data vs. in situ point measurements (-­‐4.7 mm bias and 12.7 mm std) Major Field Campaigns Soil Moisture (pre-­‐SMAP) Snow SGP 1997 CLPX 2002-­‐03 SGP 1999 SMEX 2002 SMEX 2003 Goal: Community-­‐wide campaigns SMEX 2004 that are aimed at answering key SMEX 2005 science ques?ons, algorithm tes?ng NAFE 2005 NAFE 2006 AACES 1&2 2010 SMAPvex 2008 SMAPvex 2012 SMAPvex 2015 (planned) EK 12/7/12 Opportuni?es for Conversa?on, Collabora?on, Research Mee?ngs and Workshops: •  Eastern Snow Conference Special Session on Remote Sensing, June 4-­‐6, 2013 @ Muskoka (Huntsville), Canada •  Possibly a Chapman Conference in 2014 Field Campaigns and Snow Field Camps • 
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Alaska-­‐Canada, April 2013 California-­‐Colorado (JPL/Airborne Snow Observatory) Your field campaigns?? Near-­‐Term Funding Opportuni?es •  NASA Roses, February 2013 •  Earth Venture Missions, When??? •  AboVe (mainly ecological but s?ll has a lot of snow) Other?? What is important to measure? How will we measure these proper?es? Snow covered area Snow albedo Snow grain size Snow melt status Snow depth Snow under forest canopy •  Snow water equivalent •  Light absorbing impuri?es • 
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Demonstrated success with Vis & NIR, passive microwave but there are limita?ons. Radar, LiDAR & hyperspectral hold promise. Scale issues: ?me & space Single or mul?ple sensors? Single or mul?ple plarorms (like GPM)? Mission Timeline Community Engagement Field Campaigns Publica?ons Develop Earth Venture Airborne (EVA2) Mission Concept EVA2 Proposal Submission Develop Space Mission Concept Decadal Survey Mission Concept Submission Decadal Survey Selec?on EVA2 Launch Earliest Nominal Space Mission Launch now—2014 now—2014 now—2014 now—2015 2015 now—2015 2015 2017 2020 2022 now Community Engagement Field Campaigns Airborne Campaigns Earth Venture Missions 2015 2017 2020