Field Measurements of Snow Cover Parameters for Scaling Studies, a component of the MSC 2003 AMSR-E Field Validation Campaign

One component of the field campaign was the collection of intensive snow survey data, acquired at 14 pre-established measurement sites, all of which fall within a single Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) grid cell. Seven of these sites correspond to meteorological measurement locations, while the remaining seven were chosen to fully characterize the dominant land cover types in the region. Four of the sites correspond to former BOREAS plot measurement locations, so detailed forest cover information is available at those sites. Measurement at each site focused on depth, SWE, and density. Depth measurements were made every metre along marked transect lines of between 100 and 300 metres, and included notation of measurement location (tree well, under canopy, clearing etc.) and a measurement of stem diameter when a tree was in the proximity. SWE measurements were made using ESC 30 samplers at fixed increments along the transect, while density profiles were also collected using 10 cm wedge samplers. All SWE and density samples were bagged for later weighing. The data provided at this time are depth, density, and SWE averages and standard deviation for the 14 sites.