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<article language="en">
	<journal>
		<journal_title>Hydrology and Earth System Sciences</journal_title>
		<journal_url>www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net</journal_url>
		<issn>1027-5606</issn>
		<eissn>1607-7938</eissn>
		<volume_number>13</volume_number>
		<issue_number>5</issue_number>
		<publication_year>2009</publication_year>
	</journal>
	<doi>10.5194/hess-13-639-2009</doi>
	<article_url>http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/13/639/2009/</article_url>
	<abstract_html>http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/13/639/2009/hess-13-639-2009.html</abstract_html>
	<fulltext_pdf>http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/13/639/2009/hess-13-639-2009.pdf</fulltext_pdf>
	<start_page>639</start_page>
	<end_page>649</end_page>
	<publication_date>2009-05-25</publication_date>
	<article_title content_type="html">Elevation based correction of snow coverage retrieved from satellite images to improve model calibration</article_title>
	<authors>
		<author numeration="1" affiliations="1">
			<name>C. Corbari</name>
			<email>chiara.corbari@mail.polimi.it</email>
		</author>
		<author numeration="2" affiliations="1">
			<name>G. Ravazzani</name>
		</author>
		<author numeration="3" affiliations="2">
			<name>J. Martinelli</name>
		</author>
		<author numeration="4" affiliations="1">
			<name>M. Mancini</name>
		</author>
	</authors>
	<affiliations>
		<affiliation numeration="1" content_type="html">Dept. of Hydraulic, Environmental and Surveying Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, &lt;br&gt;Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, 32, Milan, Italy</affiliation>
		<affiliation numeration="2" content_type="html">Pirelli Ambiente Site Remediation, Milan, Italy</affiliation>
	</affiliations>
	<abstract content_type="html">The most widely used method for snow dynamic simulation relies on
temperature index approach, that makes snow melt and accumulation processes
depend on air temperature related parameters. A recently used approach to
calibrate these parameters is to compare model results with snow coverage
retrieved from satellite images. In area with complex topography and
heterogeneous land cover, snow coverage may be affected by the presence of
shaded area or dense forest that make pixels to be falsely classified as
uncovered. These circumstances may have, in turn, an influence on
calibration of model parameters.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
In this paper we propose a simple procedure to correct snow coverage
retrieved from satellite images. We show that using raw snow coverage to
calibrate snow model may lead to parameter values out of the range accepted
by literature, so that the timing of snow dynamics measured at two ground
stations is not correctly simulated. Moreover, when the snow model is
implemented into a continuous distributed hydrological model, we show that
calibration against corrected snow coverage reduces the error in the
simulation of river flow in an Alpine catchment.</abstract>
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</article>
