The SnowLab website provides access to prototype earth observation products under development by the Norwegian Computing Center (NR). The products are from early prototypes to rather mature products based on many years of research and development (more on this here). NR provides further development and adaptation to clients’ specific needs.
The idea with the SnowLab portal is to make available snow products to the user community at an early stage in the development process as to 1) inform potential users what is under development, and 2) encourage potential users to test and evaluate products and give us feedback. Early-stage feedback is valuable to ensure high-quality algorithms and products.
The product portfolio represents a wide range of snow properties describing the current conditions of the snow surface. Most products are based on single observations with optical sensors, but there are also products combining two or more sensor types, like optical and SAR (multi-sensor products). There are also algorithms utilising time series of observations to better predict current conditions (multi-temporal products). For some of the products, in particular on snow cover, there are similar products based on different algorithms, allowing scientists as well as users to test performance under different conditions.
NR started with algorithm development for remote sensing of snow in the late 1980s. Our more that 35 years of experience within the field has resulted in the broad spectrum of algorithms and corresponding products being used within, e.g., hydrology, water management, flood warning, snow avalanche warning, meteorology and climate monitoring.
Most products we provide here cover Norway or the Scandinavian Peninsula. However, algorithms and products can be adapted to any part of the world. We also provide a global product for climate monitoring (CryoClim) covering most of the earth observation era (from 1982).
