Detection of Snow Cover from Historical and Recent AVHHR Data—A Thematic TIMELINE Processor

Global snow cover forms the largest and most transient part of cryosphere in terms area. On local regional scale, small changes can have drastic effects such as floods droughts, on global scale is planetary albedo. Daily imagery basis long-term observation analysis, only optical sensors offer necessary spatial temporal resolution to address decadal developments impact climate change availability. The MODIS been providing this daily information since 2000; before that, Advanced Very High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) from National Oceanographic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was suitable. In TIMELINE project German Aerospace Center, historic AVHRR archive HRPT (High Resolution Picture Transmission) format processed for European area and, among other processors, one output thematic product ‘snow cover’ that will be made available 1 km 1981. detection based Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI), which enables a direct comparison with product. addition NDSI, ERA5 re-analysis data skin temperature level 2 products are included generation binary mask. orbit segments projected swath projection into LAEA Europe, aggregated coverages, this, 10-day monthly covers finally calculated. publication, algorithm presented, well results first validations possible applications final