Wet snow detection in Patagonian Andes with Sentinel-1 SAR temporal series analysis in GEE

Winter snow packs in the Argentinean Andes are the primary source of surface runoff and water supply in the adjacent lowlands. The socioeconomic, environmental, and recreational benefits provided by the mountain snow packs are enjoyed by over 10 million people. Monitoring the spatial and temporal changes of seasonal snow cover helps to predict and mitigate floodings, avalanches, frost damage, among other hazards. It can also help estimating the supply for human consumption fresh water, irrigation and hydropower stations, and may contribute to the improvement of weather forecasts and the understanding of the climate system. This study is a first approach for evaluating and detecting changes in Argentinean Andes snow packs through temporal series of Sentinel-1 SAR images using the data available in Google Earth Engine (GEE). Additionally, the products of applying a wet snow mapping algorithm with images obtained in GEE, and the same images but pre-processed in SNAP coregistrating the images, were compared in order to assess the commission and omission classification errors.