Title of Submission
Comparison of Snow-Covered Area Derived from MODIS Datasets for the East River, Colorado
Degree Program
Hydrologic Science, MS
Major Advisor Name
Alejandro Flores
Type of Submission
Scholarly Poster
Abstract
Many populations in the western US depend on alpine snowpack as a primary water source. Therefore, monitoring snowmelt is critical for predicting water availability and is often accomplished through spaceborne remote sensing. Many such methods exist, however, a direct comparison of their data for a single location is not often available. This study monitors snowmelt in the East River watershed, Colorado using two MODIS datasets. The fractional snow-cover dataset MODSCAG and the spectral dataset MCD43A4 are evaluated for their representation of snow-cover for spring 2014. Moderate correlations exist between the two, with MODSCAG consistently classifying higher snow-covered area than MCD43A4.