{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,12]],"date-time":"2026-08-12T18:33:49Z","timestamp":1786559629126,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":50,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,12,8]],"date-time":"2018-12-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1544227200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"the National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["91547210, 41771389, and 41671351"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["91547210, 41771389, and 41671351"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"the National Foundational Scientific and Technological Work Programs of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China","award":["2017FY100502"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2017FY100502"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Snow cover over the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) plays an important role in climate, hydrological, and ecological systems. Currently, passive microwave remote sensing is the most efficient way to monitor snow depth on global and regional scales; however, it presents a serious overestimation of snow cover over the QTP and has difficulty describing patchy snow cover over the QTP because of its coarse spatial resolution. In this study, a new spatial dynamic method is developed by introducing ground emissivity and assimilating the snow cover fraction (SCF) and land surface temperature (LST) of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) to derive snow depth at an enhanced spatial resolution. In this method, the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) brightness temperature and MODIS LST are used to calculate ground emissivity. Additionally, the microwave emission model of layered snowpacks (MEMLS) is applied to simulate brightness temperature with varying ground emissivities to determine the key coefficients in the snow depth retrieval algorithm. The results show that the frozen ground emissivity presents large spatial heterogeneity over the QTP, which leads to the variation of coefficients in the snow depth retrieval algorithm. The overestimation of snow depth is rectified by introducing the ground emissivity factor at 18 and 36 GHz. Compared with in situ observations, the snow cover accuracy of the new method is 93.9%, which is better than the 60.2% accuracy of the existing method (old method) which does not consider ground emissivity. The bias and root-mean-square error (RMSE) of snow depth are 1.03 cm and 7.05 cm, respectively, for the new method; these values are much lower than the values of 6.02 cm and 9.75 cm, respectively, for the old method. However, the snow cover accuracy with depths between 1 and 3 cm is below 60%, and snow depths greater than 25 cm are underestimated in Himalayan mountainous areas. In the future, the snow cover identification algorithm should be improved to identify shallow snow cover over the QTP, and topography should be considered in the snow depth retrieval algorithm to improve snow depth accuracy in mountainous areas.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs10121989","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,12,10]],"date-time":"2018-12-10T03:36:41Z","timestamp":1544413001000},"page":"1989","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":71,"title":["Estimation of Snow Depth over the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Based on AMSR-E and MODIS Data"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"given":"Liyun","family":"Dai","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing of Gansu Province, Heihe Remote Sensing Experimental Research Station, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China"},{"name":"Laboratory for Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA"},{"name":"Jiangsu Center of Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application, Nanjing 21003, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tao","family":"Che","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing of Gansu Province, Heihe Remote Sensing Experimental Research Station, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China"},{"name":"Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3516-1210","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hongjie","family":"Xie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory for Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8559-1599","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xuejiao","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,12,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1382","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1183188","article-title":"Climate change will affect the Asian water towers","volume":"328","author":"Immerzeel","year":"2010","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1273","DOI":"10.1175\/JCLI-D-16-0033.1","article-title":"Relation of Eurasian Snow Cover and Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall: Importance of the Delayed Hydrological Effect","volume":"30","author":"Halder","year":"2017","journal-title":"J. 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