Downscaling Sentinel-3 Snow Cover Data for Meteorological and Hydrological Applications.

Close time series of high-resolution snow products are needed for initialization and validation of spatially distributed snowpack models over mountain areas for various applications in water management, meteorology, and hydropower generation. Current high resolution satellite data cannot provide the required temporal observation frequency needed by these applications. In this project, methods and tools were developed and implemented to prepare for innovative snow-related services based on close time series of high-resolution satellite snow products, downscaled from medium resolution optical sensors such as Sentinel-3 with daily coverage.

The developed method for downscaling snow products from medium resolution Sentinel-3 satellite data is capable to provide daily high-resolution snow cover information in mountain areas. The benefit of the downscaled products for is demonstrated and evaluated within prototype modelling environment, addressing potential applications in hydrology, water management, meteorology, transportation management and civil protection. The technique was tested in various mountain regions in Austria, Albania, and Uzbekistan, but can be transferred also to other mountain areas.