Data record on the reflectance of snow and snow-free ground published

The measurement data collected by FMI-SPACE and the Finnish Environmental Institute (SYKE) on the reflectance of snow and snow-free ground in the northern coniferous forest zone is now available to the public in Zenodo-database.

The measurements represent a typical polar-orbiting satellite observation event in the spring season. The measurement data concerns factors that affect the reflectance of snow-covered land in the northern coniferous forest zone. These include dry, wet and shadowed snow, spruce and pine forest canopies and forest undergrowth, such as moss and lichen.

The measurement data has already been used in a versatile manner in research related to remote sensing of the annual snow cover. The collected data is also suitable for studying the timing of growing period start or as comparative data for drone observations. Accurate measurements are useful when developing algorithms for the interpretation of satellite observations on snow cover.

More information:

Research Scientist Henna-Reetta Hannula, henna-reetta.hannula@fmi.fi

The data is available in Zenodo-database.

Hannula, H.-R., Heinilä, K., Böttcher, K., Mattila, O.-P., Salminen, M., and Pulliainen, J. (2020). Laboratory, field, mast-borne and airborne spectral reflectance measurements of boreal landscape during spring. Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 719–740. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-719-2020