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Automated Retrieval of Snow/Ice Surface Broadband Albedo in Beas River Basin, India Using Landsat-8 Satellite Images and Validation with Wireless Sensor Network Data

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Abstract

This paper proposed an algorithm for automated retrieval of snow/ice surface albedo using Landsat-8 satellite images and validation with wireless senor network data in Beas River basin, India. Cloud-free Landsat-8 images of winter season 2016–2017 have been used to estimate snow/ice broadband albedo. Albedo maps generated using satellite images have been compared and validated with in situ recorded albedo values at wireless sensor network stations. Root-mean-square error of 0.053, R-square (R2) of 0.96, bias of − 0.034 and mean absolute percentage error of ~ 3.5% have been observed. Existing global albedo model for Landsat ETM+ was also used to estimate albedo in the study area using Landsat-8 images. Algorithm proposed in this paper for Landsat-8 has shown comparatively better results. Simultaneously, albedo values for snow/ice class have also been estimated using MODIS images. High correlation has been observed between the albedo values estimated from Landsat-8 and MODIS images. Proposed algorithm appears to be the first to estimate broadband albedo of snow/ice class from narrowband reflectances using Landsat-8 images for Indian Himalaya.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Shri. Naresh Kumar, Director, Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE), Chandigarh, for providing facilities to carry out this work. The authors would like to acknowledge SASE staff for collecting ground data. We are thankful to Shri R. K. Das for providing WSN data for validation. Authors are also thankful to http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov and http://ladsweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov for providing Landsat-8, Landsat-7 and MODIS data, respectively.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment- RDC (DRDO), Chandigarh, 160037, India

    Dhiraj Kumar Singh, Hemendra Singh Gusain & Varunendra Dutta Mishra

  2. Punjab Engineering College (Deemed to Be University) (Formally Known as PEC University of Technology), Chandigarh, 160012, India

    Dhiraj Kumar Singh & Neena Gupta

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  1. Dhiraj Kumar Singh
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Singh, D.K., Gusain, H.S., Mishra, V.D. et al. Automated Retrieval of Snow/Ice Surface Broadband Albedo in Beas River Basin, India Using Landsat-8 Satellite Images and Validation with Wireless Sensor Network Data. J Indian Soc Remote Sens 47, 33–44 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12524-018-0863-2

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