Gisat provides operational snow monitoring in the Czech Republic
The company has set up a national operational snow monitoring service since beginning of this year. The system supports the existing hydrological activities of the Czech Hydro-meteorological Institute.
The service is based on Earth Observation Terra MODIS system in spatial resolution of 250 m and temporal resolution of one day. Satellite images bring synoptic view on the snow cover dynamics in the Czech Republic with daily acquisitions. Cloud-free acquisitions, covering at least one third of the total country area, are processed into classification maps. The maps are presented as raster or vector product and can be viewed via the Google Earth & Google Maps applications.
Beside that, snow occurrence probability maps are calculated from 80 meto-stations measurements. In case of cloud coverage in the optical images the cloud information is substituted by the probabilities. This way uncertainty in the maps is reduced. So-called hybrid map is presented for further analysis. Additionally, catchments snow statistics is calculated. Graphs of snow statistics present percentage snow coverage in the catchments according to land cover types and altitude levels.
The service products are available daily via dedicated mapserver or weekly by means of flash reports in pdf sent to the user every Monday.
GRAAL turned up in GMES
| Can GMES downstream services help regional and local authorities in decision making? |
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| GRAAL (GMES for Regions: Awareness and Access Link) project is funded under 7th FWP (Seventh Framework Programme). The overall objective of GRAAL is to foster the development of GMES Downstream Services and develop the link of GMES with Regions (and other local authorities of comparable importance). |
The essence of GRAAL lies in the balance between these two sub-objectives. The members of the GRAAL consortium believe that there is as much a need to develop the awareness of the potential of GMES downstream services among Local and Regional Authorities (LRA) as it is necessary to ensure that there are Service Providers in a position to serve this market and to accomplish the Lisbon strategy-related objectives of GMES.
It is proposed to achieve this overall ambition through the following objectives:
- To characterise the offer in terms of GMES services for LRAs;
- To establish an observatory of the GMES Downstream Service sector;
- To develop a user oriented tool implemented on a Website where demand and offer will meet and where exchanges can take place by using the most advanced web-based technologies;
- To increase awareness of GMES among LRAs and potential Service Providers.
The GRAAL consortium is led by Syseco and the team consists of 10 partners from 8 countries covering 4 of the GMES priority areas (Land, Atmosphere, Ocean and Emergencies). Gisat brings to the project the views and experiences of the respected GMES service provider as well as the knowledge of the needs of new Member States.
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