EUMETSAT SEDOS - Snow Cover / Extent Demonstrator from Optical Sensors (July 2019 - July 2021)

The area extent of the seasonal snow cover is a key parameter for a wide range of applications in meteorology, climate monitoring, global change research, hydrology, water management and ecology. This study develops and implements a prototype processing system for generation of snow extent products from EPS METIMAGE. The prototype system is demonstrated and evaluated using data of the optical sensors of Sentinel-3 featuring similar spectral imaging bands as METimage.

The primary objectives of this study are

• Develop, implement and validate an algorithm and prototype system to prepare for the generation of snow extent products from METimage which will be flown on EPS-SG, and FCI onboard of MTG.
• Demonstrate and evaluate the developed methods and prototype system using data of the optical sensors SLSTR and OLCI onboard of Sentinel-3 featuring similar spectral imaging bands as METimage. This task will include the generation and validation of a 1-year time series of daily snow cover products over Europe.
• Demonstrate the operational capabilities of the prototype system by generating a time series of Pan-European snow products from Sentinel-3 data in Near Real time.

Project Team: ENVEO IT GmbH (PI), Finnish Environment Institute

Project Contract Number: EUM/CO/19/4600002234/BBo Order Nr. 4500017847