The main goal of this research project is to complete the collection of snow/ice field data and to improve the organization of snow/ice spectral signatures, and structural data, along with ancillary information in the existing archive.
Field data were acquired at four different times, at the beginning of he arctic spring: in 1998, 2000, 2001 and 2003 (april-may). In the field survey the following data were recorded: • snow data particularly referred to grain shape and size in the first 10 cm of the snowpack; • reflectance curves in the 350-2500 nm wavelength range; • surface roughness of snow surfaces; • climatic data such as air T, cloud cover, wind speed; • other ancillary data such as GPS coordinates and description of the investigated sites. The recognition of different snow types was carried out based on the “International Classification of seasonal snow on the ground (Colbeck et al., 1993). Measurements of the ground reflectance were carried out by a portable spectroradiometer (FieldSpec, Analytical Spectral Devices, Boulder, CO, USA), that allow the acquisition of reflectance data in the 350-2500 nm spectral range by three separate spectrometers, that operates in the ranges 350-1050 nm, 900-1850 nm and 1700-2500 nm, respectively.