Correlation of the ERS and SSM/I observations over Snowpack and Numerical Simulation

Observations by active ERS scatterometer and passive SSM/I radiometers on the same area and for the same time period are correlated using the data measured by ERS-1 and multichannel SSM/I over snowpack located in Greenland, Siberia, the Alps, etc. It is demonstrated that multichannel analysis by both active and passive sensors is very helpful for monitoring temporal variation of complex snow covers. Back-scattering from multilayer, strongly fluctuating random media is calculated for ERS data simulation. The radiative transfer of thermal emission from multilayer media of dense scatterers is solved for SSM/I data simulation. Simulations of both back-scattering and emission show good correlation and functional dependence on highly-variable snowcovers. Theoretical results also compare well with observation data.