Microwave snow emission modeling uncertainties in boreal and subarctic environments

Abstract

Abstract. This study aims to better understand and quantify the uncertainties in microwave snow emission models using the Dense Media Radiative Theory-Multilayer model (DMRT-ML) with in situ measurements of snow properties. We use surface-based radiometric measurements at 10.67, 19 and 37 GHz in boreal forest and subarctic environments and a new in situ dataset of measurements of snow properties (profiles of density, snow grain size and temperature, soil characterization and ice lens detection) acquired in the James Bay and Umijuaq regions of Northern Québec, Canada. A snow excavation experiment – where snow was removed from the ground to measure the microwave emission of bare frozen ground – shows that small-scale spatial variability in the emission of frozen soil is small. Hence, variability in the emission of frozen soil has a small effect on snow-covered brightness temperature (TB). Grain size and density measurement errors can explain the errors at 37 GHz, while the sensitivity of TB at 19 GHz to snow increases during the winter because of the snow grain growth that leads to scattering. Furthermore, the inclusion of observed ice lenses in DMRT-ML leads to significant improvements in the simulations at horizontal polarization (H-pol) for the three frequencies (up to 20 K of root mean square error). However, the representation of the spatial variability of TB remains poor at 10.67 and 19 GHz at H-pol given the spatial variability of ice lens characteristics and the difficulty in simulating snowpack stratigraphy related to the snow crust. The results also show that for ground-based radiometric measurements, forest emission reflected by the surface leads to TB underestimation of up to 40 K if neglected. We perform a comprehensive analysis of the components that contribute to the snow-covered microwave signal, which will help to develop DMRT-ML and to improve the required field measurements. The analysis shows that a better consideration of ice lenses and snow crusts is essential to improve TB simulations in boreal forest and subarctic environments.