Studying Snowpack-Related Characteristics on Lebanon Mountains (original) (raw)

Snow observations in Mount Lebanon (2011–2016)

Earth System Science Data

We present a unique meteorological and snow observational dataset in Mount Lebanon, a mountainous region with a Mediterranean climate, where snowmelt is an essential water resource. The study region covers the recharge area of three karstic river basins (total area of 1092 km<sup>2</sup> and an elevation up to 3088 m). The dataset consists of (1) continuous meteorological and snow height observations, (2) snowpack field measurements, and (3) medium-resolution satellite snow cover data. The continuous meteorological measurements at three automatic weather stations (MZA, 2296 m; LAQ, 1840 m; and CED, 2834 m a.s.l.) include surface air temperature and humidity, precipitation, wind speed and direction, incoming and reflected shortwave irradiance, and snow height, at 30 min intervals for the snow seasons (November–June) between 2011 and 2016 for MZA and between 2014 and 2016 for CED and LAQ. Precipitation data were filtered and corrected for Geonor undercatch. Observations of...

TOWARD A SNOW MELT PREDICTION MAP OF MOUNT LEBANON

InterCarto, InterGIS, 2019

An important remote sensing task is to delineate snow cover. The global significance of snow patterns constitutes an important part of the climate and bio system of the Earth. Snow contributes to the hydrologic cycle through precipitation storage and melting. It is also important to monitor snow cover lands, and detect its boundaries from the Normalized Difference Snow Index (NSDI). In this work, based on remote sensing methods we delineate the snow cover on Mount Leb-anon from 2013 till 2018 basing on sequential Landsat OLI/TIRS data. Beside snow cover delineation we extracted terrain characteristics of these snow boundaries from the Digital Elevation Model AW3D30, elevation interval, slope, aspects, insolation calculated for a climatological snow melt analysis and understanding. The relation of snow covers with terrain morphology is an important climatological factor influencing on the snow position, duration and melting. In this study we are seeking a link between the available snow covers and the terrain parameters. As a final result of this study based on NDSI index of the Landsat Oli images, a snow duration map of mount Lebanon was built, and the analysis showed that the surface of the snow-cover decreases around spring and it depends directly on the orientation of the slopes especially them which are in full sun and those which are with the shelters. KEYWORDS: snow cover, Landsat, NSDI INTRODUCTION The situation of Lebanon on the Mediterranean Sea and its terrain specific nature with an interval of elevations varying from 0 to 3080 meter above the sea level and the influence of the climate on this terrain factors gave it a cold winter with a temporary snow cover [Doumit, 2017]. Temporary and seasonal snow covers do not survive the summer the case of Lebanon, typically, a seasonal snow cover will survive for several months, usually being replenished throughout the winter, while a temporary snow cover survives for a matter of days. Over the years, scientists used remote sensing to describe the geographic distribution of snow cover and simplify its mapping, field surveys have been used to generate snow maps [Brown, Braaten, 1998]. With the evolution of geomatics, we used remote sensing feature indexes of snow detection such as Normalized Difference Snow Index (NSDI). From here, begin the importance of snow cover monitoring and the way of its extraction. First remote sensing methods for snow cover detection and delineation were the unsupervised, supervised classifications using multispectral bands, the tasseled cap transformation (TCB) and may others [Doumit, 2017]. In our study, twenty satellite images of several dates from 2013 till 2018 translated to snow covers based on NSDI for understanding the snow melt process and analyzing the climatological relations with terrain parameters elevation interval, slope, aspect, insolation duration and solar insolation.