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Snow Cover Estimation from Resourcesat-1 AWiFS – Image Processing with an Automated Approach
S SUBRAMANIAM, A V SURESH BABU, E SIVASANKAR, V VENKATESHWAR RAO, G BEHERA
Pages - 298 - 320     |    Revised - 01-07-2011     |    Published - 05-08-2011
Volume - 5   Issue - 3    |    Publication Date - July / August 2011  Table of Contents
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KEYWORDS
Remote Sensing, Development of Automated Algorithm, Snow Cover Estimation, Resourcesat -1 AWIFS
ABSTRACT
Snow and glaciers cover large areas of Himalayas. The resulting runoff from snow and glacier melt provides nearly 30-50% of the total annual water outlay of most of the rivers in north India. Hence, there is a need for regular monitoring of the Himalayan snow cover area. The Normalized Difference Snow index (NDSI) technique for automated detection of snow cover from remotely sensed data has limitations in the detection of snow under shadow and exclusion of water. A new automated snow cover estimation algorithm to overcome the these limitations has been developed using the spectral information from all the spectral bands of Resourcesat-1 AWiFS sensor. The automated algorithm has been implemented in hierarchical logical steps. Algorithm has been validated by comparing the results obtained with Hall’s and Kulkarni’s methods and observed that the new algorithm performs better than other methods in the elimination of noise, while detecting the snow covered pixels in deep mountain shadows. Satisfactory results have been obtained when used with several temporal images of large image mosaics which has been presented in this study. This algorithm has been evaluated with Landsat ETM and IRS LISS III which has similar spectral bands with different spatial and radiometric resolutions and the algorithm has been found to be working satisfactorily. The algorithm has been found to be useful for regular periodic monitoring of snow cover area..
CITED BY (1)  
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Mr. S SUBRAMANIAM
NRSC,ISRO - India
subramaniam_s@nrsc.gov.in
Dr. A V SURESH BABU
NRSC ISRO - India
Mr. E SIVASANKAR
NRSC ISRO - India
Dr. V VENKATESHWAR RAO
NRSC ISRO - India
Mr. G BEHERA
NRSC ISRO - India


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