Snow cover dynamics in the European Alps derived from medium resolution earth Observation imagery

Kurzfassung

Snow cover dynamics in the alpine region are of great importance for the regional climate, fresh water, hydropower generation, biodiversity, natural disasters, and tourism. The European Alps are a fragile ecosystem, in which snow cover is particularly sensitive to climate change. Thus, monitoring snow dynamics including snow cover distribution, extent and mass within the Alpine area may not only assist to determine local vulnerability, but also provide a regional assessment of the ongoing climate change. Within the presented study we analyzed the daily snow cover information provided by DLR’s (German Aerospace Center) Global SnowPack product to identify snow cover developments in European Alps between 2000 and 2016. The Global SnowPack is a medium resolution (500 m pixels) reprocessed time series based on the snow cover products MOD10A1/MYD10A1 derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), where all gaps caused by cloud cover or polar darkness have been interpolated to provide a gapless time series of daily data. In the European Alps, we have analyzed the time series of Snow Cover Persistence (SCP) and Altitudinal Snow Cover Fraction (ASCF). The results showed a tendency towards decreasing snow cover duration.