Study of Snow Geophysical Parameters using Advanced Geospatial Techniques: Inferences from Parts of Northeastern Indian Himalayas

Abstract

The glacial hazards in high mountain areas are frequent over the globe; recent disasters (Chamoli landslides, floods, forest fires, earthquakes, and landslides) in the Himalayas are evident that caused loss of human lives, infrastructural damages and affecting day-to-day activities. The geophysical properties of snow/glaciers (SGP) are important indicators of the status of the snow/glaciers and related hazards. Important SGPs, such as dielectric constant, density, and liquid water content, play a vital role in avalanche studies, hydrological modeling, and flood monitoring. Since in-situ measurements are challenging and expensive in such difficult terrains, satellite images have proved to be an important source of information for retrieving geophysical parameters. However, the high-altitude regions mostly have cloud cover, which motivates us to explore the potential of microwave remote sensing data in geophysical parameters studies. The study uses multispectral, synthetic aperture radar (SAR), and hyperspectral datasets in conjunction with in-situ measured parameters to develop models/estimate important SGPs, such as dielectric, density, wetness, grain size, snow depth, and snow impurities. Several field investigations were performed using field instruments (Snow Fork and Spectroradiometer) to measure the in-situ parameters and further integrated with the satellite-derived results to evaluate and improve the model performance.