The active and passive microwave response to snow parameters: 1. Wetness

Diurnal observations of the variation of the radar backscattering coefficient σ° and microwave apparent radiometric temperature T ap with snow wetness m v are presented. The results show that σ° decreases and T ap increases with m v and that the magnitude of the sensitivity to m v increases with microwave frequency for both active and passive microwave parameters. Moreover, while the sensitivity of σ° to snow wetness variations increases with angle of incidence, the sensitivity of T ap to snow wetness is approximately angle of incidence independent.