High-resolution CubeSat imagery and machine learning for detailed snow-covered area

Abstract Snow cover affects a diverse array of physical, ecological, and societal systems. As such, the development of optical remote sensing techniques to measure snow-covered area (SCA) has enabled progress in a wide variety of research domains. However, in many cases, the spatial and temporal resolutions of currently available remotely sensed SCA products are insufficient to capture SCA evolution at spatial and temporal resolutions relevant to the study of fine-scale spatially heterogeneous phenomena. We developed a convolutional neural network-based method to identify snow covered area using the ~3 m, 4-band PlanetScope optical satellite image dataset with ~daily, near-global coverage. By comparing our model performance to snow extent derived from high-resolution airborne lidar differential depth measurements and satellite platforms in two North American sites (Sierra Nevada, CA, USA and Rocky Mountains, CO, USA), we show that these emerging image archives have great potential to accurately observe snow-covered area at high spatial and temporal resolutions despite limited radiometric bandwidth and band placement. We achieve average snow classification F-Scores of 0.73 in our training basin and 0.67 in a climatically-distinct out-of-sample basin, suggesting opportunities for model transferability. We also evaluate the performance of these data in forested regions, suggesting avenues for further research. The unparalleled spatial and temporal coverage of CubeSat imagery offers an excellent opportunity for satellite remote sensing of snow, with real implications for ecological and water resource applications.