Evaluation of ERTS imagery for mapping and detection of changes of snowcover land and on glaciers

The percentage of snowcover area on specific drainage basins was measured from ERTS imagery by video density slicing with a repeatability of 4 percent of the snowcovered area. Data from ERTS images of the melt season snowcover in the Thunder Creek drainage basin in the North Cascades were combined with existing hydrologic and meteorologic observations to enable calculation of the time distribution of the water stored in this mountain snowpack. Similar data could be used for frequent updating of expected inflow to reservoirs. Equivalent snowline altitudes were determined from area measurements. Snowline altitudes were also determined by combining enlarged ERTS images with maps with an accuracy of about 60 m under favorable conditions. Ability to map snowcover or to determine snowline altitude depends primarily on cloud cover and vegetation and secondarily on slope, terrain roughness, sun angle, radiometric fidelity, and amount of spectral information available.