EARSeL eProceedings 5, 1/2006 111 MULTI-POLARISATION MEASUREMENTS OF SNOW SIGNATURES WITH AIR- AND SATELLITEBORNE SAR

n 2003 an extensive campaign was carried out in the mountainous parts of southern Norway to measure snow signatures with multi-polarisation SAR using ESAR. Field campaigns were carried out to support the measurements. Airborne orthophotos and Radarsat imagery was also acquired in the period. Unfortunately, Envisat ASAR was not available at the time due to malfunction. In this paper we will present some of the results from the campaign, specifically multi-polarisation signatures for snow and bare soil will be derived. The results from using the multi-polarisation data to derive snow covered area maps will also be presented, using standard classification schemes. The classified results are compared with the orthophoto to assess the overall agreement. Snow cover will also be derived from Radarsat imagery, and compared with orthophoto. Near simultaneous imagery from single polarisation Radarsat imagery (HH-polarisation) will be compared to ESAR data to evaluate the potential of satelliteborne polarimetry to study snow parameters. Issues related to multi-scale observations of fractional snow covers will be discussed.