The scatterometer SeaWinds on QuikSCAT provided regular measurements at Ku-band from 1999 to 2009. Although it was designed for ocean applications, it has been frequently used for the assessment of seasonal snowmelt patterns aside from other terrestrial applications such as ice cap monitoring, phenology and urban mapping. This paper discusses general data characteristics of SeaWinds and reviews relevant change detection algorithms. Depending on the complexity of the method, parameters such as long-term noise and multiple event analyses were incorporated. Temporal averaging is a commonly accepted preprocessing step with consideration of diurnal, multi-day or seasonal averages.

Data north of 60°N have been analysed for snowmelt patterns. Spring snowmelt timing (start and end) has been extracted based on diurnal thaw and refreeze detection (Bartsch et al. 2007). Mid winter thaw and refreeze which can be caused by rain on snow (ROS, Bartsch et al. 2010, Wilson et al. 2013) or fog (Semmens et al. 2013) has been extracted for November to February. Number of events with strong backscatter increase have been summed up for single years and all available winter periods. Data are provided as dbf or csv files with point measurements (id, coordinates + number of events (VALUE)). Spacing is 10 km. A shape file based on a filtered (close) image is provided as summary/preview of the mid winter data. Overview maps are also included in Bartsch (2010).

Supplement to: Bartsch, Annett (2010): Ten Years of SeaWinds on QuikSCAT for Snow Applications. Remote Sensing, 2(4), 1142-1156