Use of satellite based information in Snowmelt run-off studies
This paper aims at evolving a conceptual technique for the computation of water yield from the basin snow cover. It may serve as a useful information to compute the snowmelt driven run-off particularly in the lean summer season. For this purpose, the measurement of snow cover area in catchment of Satluj river using very high resolution imagery received from the meteorological satellite NOAA-9 was undertaken on selected dates during the periods, (i) October 1985 to May 1986, and (ii) January to June 1987. The computed snowmelt water yield have been compared with the available actual run-off data. The study shows that the satellite derived snow cover data are potentially useful in predicting the snowmelt run-off. The importance of this technique is further enhanced for the large watersheds over Himalayas where ground based measurements are too scanty.