December 7, 2002 distribution of snow depth in the Northern Hemisphere derived from NASDA's Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) on Aqua. The data shown were collected during the north-to-south ("descending") portions of the Aqua orbit. The snow storage over land in winter will provide soil moisture in spring when the snow melts. Low frequency channels (6.9 and 10.7 GHz) of the AMSR-E may improve the snow depth estimations for heavy snow storage regions. Novel geophysical parameters, including soil moisture, will also be retrieved using these low frequency channels.
Image courtesy of Al Chang of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the AMSR-E Science Team. (NASDA = National Space Development Agency of Japan.)