Title: Scenarios for the operational implementation of remote sensing of snow by satellites : interim report (207/3/N)
Author: M.J. Beaumont
Author: E.C. Barrett
Author: R.W. Herschy
Document Type: Monograph
Abstract:
Snow hydrology has been a relatively neglected part of the hydrological cycle. Although the climate of the British Isles is relatively mild for its latitudinal zone, the climatic average number of days with snow lying on the ground at 0900 GMT ranges from about 1.5 at sea level in the South-west Peninsula through about 6.0 in the London area and 25 in the central Pennines to about 55 in the Grampian Region of Scotland. In all areas of the British Isles snow poses a special threat through its potentially hazardous influence on river levels when melting, and has been responsible (wholly or in part), for many of the worst floods in the UK. Until now snow monitoring in the UK has relied mainly on a voluntary network of snow observers whose reports are published annually in the Meteorological Office's "Snow Survey of Great Britain. Involving only about 160 stations, this system has proved inadequate to provide either a suitably complete view of this spatially often very discontinuous phenomenon, qt all the types of information water authorities would most like, or information quickly enough to be of use in water management, including hazard monitoring and flood prediction and control. In 1988 the Department of the Environment (Water Directorate) contracted the Remote Sensing Unit, Department of Geography, University of Bristol to begin an investigation of the potential of satellite remote sensing for snow mapping and monitoring in the UK, a project adopted by the National Rivers Authority in 1990. This work programme is focussing on several objectives.
Publisher: National Rivers Authority
Publication Date: 1992
Publication Place: Bristol
Subject Keywords: Hydrology; Snow; Meteorological factors; Flood forecasting
Geographic Keywords: United Kingdom
Extent: 23
Permalink: http://www.environmentdata.org/archive/ealit:2279
Total file downloads: 78
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