Impact Studies and Snow-Hydro validation Part II
Francesco Avanzi talks about the evaluation of daily snow cover area (SCA) and snow water equivalent (SWE) data sets derived from SE-E-SEVIRI(H10) and SWE E(H13) respectively.
Increasing satellite technology offers new products for hydrological applications. The validation process is crucial for these products before they are used in operational applications. The validation of satellite data sets can be done through the direct comparison with ground truth data or a reference satellite data. Another, indirect approach consists in using these datasets in models with different complexities and assess the realism of modelled outputs (so called “Hydro Validation”). EUMETSAT H SAF project provides daily snow products on snow recognition, fractionalsnow cover, snow status and snow water equivalent over complex topographies changing from flat land to mountainous areas.
In this second part, daily snow cover area (SCA) and snow water equivalent (SWE) data sets derived from SE-E-SEVIRI(H10) and SWE E(H13), respectively, are evaluated over the mountainous terrain of the Upper Euphrates Basin. First the impact of the snow cover area product is analysed and then hydro validation of both data sets are assessed through conceptual models SRM and HBV. Moreover, since the assimilation of snow products improves snow states of the models, lead time runoff and snow state forecast performance will be presented.