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Project	Summary	PI Europe	PI China	Domain	Full text
CRYOSPHERE-HYDROSPHERE INTERACTIONS OF THE ASIAN WATER TOWERS: USING REMOTE SENSING TO DRIVE HYPER-RESOLUTION ECOHYDROLOGICAL MODELLING	This project seizes the opportunity offered by ESA and NRSCC to access high resolution satellite observations of Earth’s surface to provide novel understanding of the cryosphere and water cycle of key water towers of High Mountain Asia (HMA). [...]	Dr. Francesca Pellicciotti, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research,WSL, SWITZERLAND	Prof.. Massimo Menenti, Aerospace Information Research Institute - CAS, CHINA	Cryosphere and Hydrology	This project seizes the opportunity offered by ESA and NRSCC to access high resolution satellite observations of Earth’s surface to provide novel understanding of the cryosphere and water cycle of key water towers of High Mountain Asia (HMA). Using a hyper-resolution ecohydrological model, fed by Earth System Observations, we will bridge the modelling gap between snow and glaciers, which generate the runoff that ultimately feeds major rivers, and downstream water cycle components such as vegetation, which buffer, delay or amplify that runoff. We will focus on blue (runoff) and green (evapotranspiration) water interactions in HMA, which are often examined separately, and integrate water supply changes due to a vanishing cryosphere with the effect of vegetation to dampen or amplify those changes, especially in periods of droughts. This new perspective will enable us to assess the vulnerability of selected High Asian water towers. The new model will afford a thorough assessment of all water budget components in 10 benchmark catchments representative of the climatic differences of HMA. This unprecedented synthesis effort is possible through the combined expertise in remote sensing (Chinese PI) and modelling (European PI), with synergies due to existing projects and support from partners in the region. Our main aim is to understand how green water processes affect the availability of blue water from glaciers, snow and precipitation across High Mountain Asia High-resolution satellite data of land-cover, surface albedo, vegetation phenology, surface water, glacier velocities, surface lowering and mass balance will guide model developments and support model calibration and validation in a systematic manner to ensure comparability across case studies, providing a holistic assessment of how ecosystems and vegetation can enhance or reduce glacier response to climate change in HMA. The 10 glacierized sites span a variety of climates, glacier conditions and mass balance regimes. For each catchment, field measurements of glacier melt, mass balance, runoff and meteorological variables are available. These will be used in combination with the diverse remote sensing observations generated by the Chinese PI group to drive the model and validate results. This key synergy is further strengthened by a partnership with Dr Tobias Bolch and his team. Dr Bolch leads a companion proposal to develop records of glacier shrinkage, thinning and motion for some of the same sites that we propose to study, maximising synergies. Our multidisciplinary team of European and Chinese scientists will thus collaborate to: i) provide an advanced characterisation of the main glacier and hydrological processes from remote sensing observations in the high elevation catchments of HMA; ii) resolve the altitudinal surface mass balance for all study glaciers; iii) apply a novel hyper-resolution earth-surface model to simulate the complexity of the high mountain water budget and quantify changes in streamflow. The proposed work is supported by, for the European PI: (1) ERC Consolidator Grant “RAVEN: Rapid mass loss of debris covered glaciers in High Mountain Asia”; (2) Royal Society Grant “Understanding glaciers and hydrological changes in the Tibetan Plateau using high resolution monitoring and modelling”; (3) Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) project “High Elevation Precipitation in High Mountain Asia (HOPE)”; (4) SNSF project “Understanding snow, glacier and rivers response to climate in High Mountain Asia (ASCENT)”; and (5) NERC Grant “Peruvian Glacier Retreat and its Impact on Water Security (Peru GROWS)”. For the Chinese PI, work is supported by: (1) Natural Science Foundation of China, grant number 91737205; (2) Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), grant numbers XDA19030203 and XDA19070102; and (3) MOST High Level Foreign Expert program, grant number G20190161018.
DETAILED CONTEMPORARY GLACIER CHANGES IN HIGH MOUNTAIN ASIA USING MULTI-SOURCE SATELLITE DATA	Glaciers are sensitive indicators of climate change and affect regional and global water circulation. High Mountain Asia (HMA) has the largest volume of glacier ice in mid-latitude regions and is considered as the water tower of Asia. HMA [...]	Dr. Tobias Bolch, University of St Andrews, UK	Dr. Lei Huang, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, CHINA	Cryosphere and Hydrology	Glaciers are sensitive indicators of climate change and affect regional and global water circulation. High Mountain Asia (HMA) has the largest volume of glacier ice in mid-latitude regions and is considered as the water tower of Asia. HMA glaciers do not only provide drinking and irrigation water for millions of people in and beyond the mountain ranges especially in drought-affected regions, but also provide water to ecosystems. Therefore, continued monitoring of glacier changes and its influences is essential. In this project, we plan to monitor contemporary glacier changes and influences in HMA using recently available satellite data with the focus on Sentinel-1 and 2 and ICESat-2 data but also very high-resolution stereo data. We will develop new methods to monitor glacier with unprecedented detail focusing on changes in area, thickness, velocity and accumulation area ratio (AAR), and reveal the most their recent trends in HMA. Area change. We aim to develop a novel method using repeat Sentinel-2 images on a cloud-computation platform to automatically map clean ice using spectral reflectance information based on composite of cloud-free and seasonal snow-free pixels. For the debris-covered parts which cannot be identified using spectral information alone we aim to develop novel decision tree and random forest algorithms using multisource information including besides spectral reflectance SAR coherence and surface velocity measurements. Thickness change. We will develop and apply an automated method to measure glacier thickness changes for whole HMA by newly launched ICESat-2 laser altimetry data. Moreover we aim to test the suitability (1) to calculate glacier mass balance using the generated outlines from a similar time and density estimates and (2) to measure seasonal mass balance. The accuracy of thickness change from ICESat-2 will be validated in different mountainous areas. Velocity change. Glacier surface velocity provides important information about glacier mass fluxes and allows to calculate surface mass balance using the thickness change data. Monitoring of glacier velocity provides also insights into glacier surging behaviour. We will develop an automated pipeline to derive glacier velocity based on feature tracking using both Sentinel-1 and 2 images. Using both SAR and optical data allows cross-validate glacier velocities and the changes. Accumulation area ratio (AAR). The AAR is a sensitive indicator of glacier mass balance. In late summer, the AAR can be estimated by the wet snow zone ratio using synthetic aperture radar(SAR). The late summer snow line can be delineated from the boundary of the accumulation area. The Glacier mass balance estimates based on the snow-line/AAR observations will be cross-validated using the thickness change data. The methods will be developed, validated and calibrated in selected benchmark sites located in different climatic regions by multi-temporal very high-resolution stereo satellite data such as TerraSAR-X, Pleiades, ZY3, GF7 and glaciological field measurements. In the next step it will then be tested with which accuracy the methods can be applied to whole HMA using especially S1, S2 and ICESat-2 data. Overall, this project will provide comprehensive information about heterogenous glacier characteristics and changes. The results will be analyzed in order to reveal detailed insights into the spatial heterogeneity of glacier mass balance, surface mass balance and velocity and observed annual and seasonal trends. The data and results will be of high value calibrate and validate the glacier component of glacio-hydrological models. It is foreseen that a partner project (led by F. Pellicciotti and M. Menenti) will use these data to better understand the importance of glacier to overall runoff and project future changes using different climate scenarios.
IMPACTS OF FUTURE CLIMATE CHANGE ON WATER QUALITY AND ECOSYSTEM IN THE MIDDLE AND LOWER REACHES OF THE YANGTZE RIVER	The 2030 SDGs identify water and its management as crucial for providing the economic, social and environmental well-being of the present and future generations. Lakes in the basin of the Yangtze river, play a fundamental role in regional [...]	Dr. Herve Yesou, University of Strasbourg, FRANCE	Prof.. Xiaoling CHEN, LIESMARS, Wuhan University, CHINA	Cryosphere and Hydrology	The 2030 SDGs identify water and its management as crucial for providing the economic, social and environmental well-being of the present and future generations. Lakes in the basin of the Yangtze river, play a fundamental role in regional bio-geochemical cycles and provide major services to the communities, provisioning services (drinking water, fishing) and biodiversity keeping. However, the extreme temporal and spatial variability of these massive but extremely shallow ecosystems prevents a reliable quantification of their dynamics with respect to changes in climate and land use. To challenge this DRAGON5 project, successor of Dragon 4, EOWAQYWET, will provide: 1- water bodies extent and height monitoring, 2- water quality monitoring, 3- wetland ecosystem understanding, 4- regional interaction and global context. WP1: Water extent WEM and height WLM monitoring: � WP1.1: WEM. 1- continuity over Yangtze basin lakes. 2- assessment of new Full Pol SAR systems. � W1.2: WEL. 1- Insure the continuity of the monitoring; 2 -Integrate more virtual gauge stations, based on S3 and Jason-3, 3- integration of S6 and SWOT WP2: Water quality: 1- develop and validate processing protocols for multiple sensor systems, applied to algal blooms and black water events monitoring, macrophyte overproduction and lake stratification. 2- provide new insights, and decisional instructions for the analysis of water quality dynamics with respect to ambient water quality requirements and provisioning (SDG 6.1.1. and SDG 6.3.2). � WP21. advanced algorithms characterizing the optically complex waters. Experiment of fluorescence and LWST to quantify the timing and extension of surface algal blooms exploring in situ and new sensor systems (FLEX). � WP22: Multi scale – temporal retrieval of lake water surface temperature (LWST). From HR to LR sensors with TIR innovative approach to define high temporal resolution sequences � WP2.3: Novel methods to determine and model the dynamics of particulate and dissolved carbon and nutrients (N and P), with reference to primary productivity, incorporating information on wind, wave dynamics and LWST. WP2.4: biogeochemical modelling of shallow lake systems, integrating satellite estimated bio-optical, LWST, and WEL, in-situ measurements and controlled (micro and mesocosm), experiments to determine the links between catchment-related (LUCC), climatic (precipitation, evaporation) and hydrological (soil moisture.. ) conditions and lake carbon, nutrient and bio-optical dynamics WP3: Wetland mapping and biodiversity values analysis focus on the interaction between vegetation resources, water cycle analysis and human (dikes, tree planting, fishes� farms / traps), interactions and biodiversity. HR and superspectral imagery will be exploited for mapping the vegetation, floating and submerged, phenology and quality (as feeding resources for birds).. Final aim is to model, map and explain the distribution of biodiversity and their associated habitats, explaining spatio-temporal changes in biodiversity caused by biotic and abiotic factors. WP4: Regional and global interactions1- better understanding of the monsoon lakes behaviors in a regional and global change context, enhancing potential drought tendency , with also a more and more earlier draw off of the water thanks to time series analysis of rainfall, evaporation, river flows will be taking in account within component multi-scale analysis (wavelet�) and modeling , of course attention will be paid to the influence of management of the 3GD as well as sans dragging in the lakes. This works will exploitation of multi-mission data, Sentinel1, 2 &3 as core , TPM and Chinese missions (Beijing 1, HJ-1AB, GF 1, 3 &5) plus new sensors FLEX, SWOT, J-CS.
MONITORING AND INVERSION OF KEY ELEMENTS OF CRYOSPHERE DYNAMIC IN THE PAN THIRD POLE WITH INTEGRATED EARTH OBSERVATIONS AND SIMULATION	The objective of this project will be concentrated on two parts. First, this project will monitor glacier and frozen ground dynamics in the Pan Third Pole region (PTP) by the synergistic use of multi-platform earth remote sensing as well as [...]	Dr. Andrew Hooper, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, UK	Prof.. Hui Lin, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, CHINA	Cryosphere and Hydrology	The objective of this project will be concentrated on two parts. First, this project will monitor glacier and frozen ground dynamics in the Pan Third Pole region (PTP) by the synergistic use of multi-platform earth remote sensing as well as in-situ observations. Second is to establish multi physical-based distributed models to inverse other key elements of cryosphere dynamic in PTP region, which also aims to analyze the impacts of different cryospheric component changes including exorheic region and upper basin of great rivers basing on multi-mission observations on glaciers, frozen ground and surface runoffs. Cryosphere over PTP is the largest component outside the polar regions, it dynamic and impacts on global changes are essential. In the last few decades, glaciers over PTP generally suffered from quick and heterogeneous degradation at different sub-regions and contribute greatly to sea level risings. Evidence from satellite geodesy presented that glaciers mass loss rate were accelerating in the past few decades along Himalaya. PTP is also called as Asia Water Tower because several great rivers rise from this region, its water supply safety is essential to billions of people. Water volumes for endorheic plateau lakes and surface runoffs experienced quick changes in recent decades. All these indicate the importance of monitoring cryosphere status and dynamic over the PTP and analyzing its impacts to surface hydrology. In the cryosphere key elements monitoring part, status and dynamic of the glacier and frozen ground in each sub-region of PTP including Eastern Nyainqentanglha, Himalayan, Hindu Kush, Karakoram, Pamir, Tien Shan and Inner Tibetan Plateau will be monitored with integrated earth observations including optical and microwave remote sensing as well as in-situ observations. Several new algorithms will be designed for new satellite datasets for deriving cryosphere features. Glacier equilibrium line altitude (ELA), flow rates and mass balance, frozen ground active layer thickness and ice-rich layer lost rates will be derived quantitatively at different sub-regions over PTP with various methods. In the cryospheric key elements modelling and inversion parts, we seek to employ and/or modify several empirical and/or physical-based models for simulating the key elements that can hardly be monitored by either in-situ observation or remote sensing. Afterward, we will perform GCMs to different scenarios of emission (RCPs) to project the fates of the cryosphere over the PTP and evaluating its impacts to the hydrological process in the future. Water supply safety at important irritation systems such as Indus and Yarlung Zangbo River will be analyzed. The primary goals will be: (1) A synergistic analyzing and interpretation of multi-source of optical and SAR images for the purposes of monitoring glacier outlines, summer end snowline altitudes, flow velocities, and height changes over the PTP in multi-temporal scale. (2) Applying multi-mission SAR images to monitor seasonal and decadal frozen ground changing associate with in-situ observations. (3) Inversion of glacier ice thickness, precipitations on glaciers, glacier melting, the albedo of glaciers, frozen groundwater lost rates, and their hydrological effects. (4) Simulate cryosphere fate over PTP and analyze its impacts to surface runoffs with different scenarios of radiative forcings. (5) An integrated OVGE platform for multi-dimensional visualization, geospatial analysis, dynamical modeling and decision-making for geological and environmental processes. Under the funding support from the National Basic Research Program of China (973), National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Hong Kong General Research Funding, European ERC Consolidator Grant, and Horizon 2020, this project will be implemented based on the planned schedule. The potential deliverables will include new developed methodologies and an integrated OVGE analysis prototype.
MULTI-FREQUENCY MICROWAVE REMOTE SENSING OF GLOBAL WATER CYCLE AND ITS CONTINUITY FROM SPACE?	Multiple global water cycle related satellite data products (soil moisture, vegetation optical depth, landscape freeze/thaw, snow water equivalent, ocean salinity, precipitation etc.) are available and explored by a growing community. However, [...]	Prof.. Yann Kerr, CNES/Centre d'Etudes Spatiales de la Biosphère (CESBIO), FRANCE	Prof.. Jiancheng Shi, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, CHINA	Cryosphere and Hydrology	Multiple global water cycle related satellite data products (soil moisture, vegetation optical depth, landscape freeze/thaw, snow water equivalent, ocean salinity, precipitation etc.) are available and explored by a growing community. However, very significant discrepancies among these different satellite products have been reported. The space observation of the Cryosphere needs new instruments and tools, while the global mapping of soil moisture and ocean salinity needs to be continued. In addition, the temporal-spatial resolution and accuracy of different satellite data, including the ESA Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS, single L-band and multiple incidence angles) and the Chinese Fengyun series satellites (multi-frequency at a single incidence angle), needs to be refined for a wider global water cycle study.This project is dedicated to improving the accuracy and temporal-spatial resolution of current remote sensing products related to water cycle, including soil moisture, vegetation optical depth, landscape freeze/thaw, snow wetness and water equivalent etc., through the synergy use of multi-sources satellite observations from European and Chinese Earth observation data. It is aimed to enhance the retrieval performance through the development of radiative transfer modelling and new algorithms. Meanwhile, new satellite missions should be studied to combine the advantages of current satellite design, and continue the multi-frequency microwave observation from space.This work is under the funding grant of CNES TOSCA ÔÇ£SMOS-HRÔÇØ and CNSA ÔÇ£Terrestrial Water Resources MissionÔÇØ.
PROTOTYPE REAL-TIME REMOTE SENSING LAND DATA ASSIMILATION ALONG THE SILK ROAD ENDORHEIC RIVER BASINS AND EUROCORDEX-DOMAIN	Objectives:The main objective is to develop prototypes of real-time remote sensing (RS) land data assimilation systems (LDAS) for monitoring the water cycle in the silk road endorheic river basins and EUROCORDEX-domain. This will provide a [...]	Prof.. Harry Vereecken, Julich Research Centre, GERMANY	Prof.. Xin Li, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, CHINA	Cryosphere and Hydrology	Objectives:The main objective is to develop prototypes of real-time remote sensing (RS) land data assimilation systems (LDAS) for monitoring the water cycle in the silk road endorheic river basins and EUROCORDEX-domain. This will provide a synergic and innovative way to integrate RS data from NRSCC and ESA into terrestrial system models for better quantifying the water cycle at the watershed/regional scale.The objective will be achieved through the following sub-objectives:ÔÇó Retrieval of key water cycle variables from multi-source RS data (WP1);ÔÇó Development of real time RS LDAS to integrate RS data into terrestrial system models (WP2);ÔÇó Calibration/validation of terrestrial system models using RS retrievals of key water cycle variables (WP3);ÔÇó Parameter estimations for terrestrial system models based on the LDAS (WP3);ÔÇó Closing and quantifying the water cycle at the watershed/regional scale based on the LDAS (WP4).Methods:Two LDAS will be developed in the project, one for the silk road endorheic river basins (LDAS_Silk) and one for EUROCORDEX-domain (LDAS_EU). LDAS_Silk will be based on the recently developed watershed system model (Li et al., 2018a,b) and a common software for nonlinear and non-Gaussian land data assimilation (ComDA, Liu et al., 2020). The watershed system model is mainly composed of i) a distributed eco-hydrological model that integrates the glacier, snow, and frozen soil processes (GBEHM) (Yang et al., 2015), and ii) a Hydrological-Ecological Integrated watershed-scale FLOW model (HEIFLOW) (Tian et al., 2015). LDAS_EU will be based on the recently developed Terrestrial System Modeling Platform (TSMP) (Shrestha et al., 2014) and Parallel Data Assimilation Framework (PDAF) (Nerger and Hiller, 2013). The TSMP-PDAF is a modular high-performance data assimilation framework for an integrated subsurface-land surface-atmosphere model (Kurtz et al., 2016). TSMP comprises three component models: i) the Consortium for Small-scale Modeling (COSMO) atmospheric model (Baldauf et al., 2011), ii) the Community Land Model (CLM) (Oleson et al., 2008), and iii) the hydrological model ParFlow (Kollet and Maxwell, 2006). The TSMP can be run in three modes: fully coupled (COSMO + CLM + ParFlow), partly coupled (CLM + ParFlow/CLM + COSMO) or uncoupled. Comparison will be made between the performances of the LDAS_Silk and LDAS_EU.Multi-source RS data, from visible to thermal infrared and microwave, will be used to retrieve key ecohydrological variables, such as evapotranspiration (ET), snow coverage area (SCA), snow water equivalent (SWE), snow depth (SD), soil moisture (SM), lake and glacier extents, irrigation, and vegetation density and structure. These data will be used as forcing data, calibration and validation data, and for assimilation into the two LDAS. The developed LDAS will estimate the different components of the water cycle (ET, SM, streamflow, SWE and groundwater dynamic) at the watershed/regional scale on a daily basis and a spatial resolution of 10 km.Deliverables: ÔÇó Retrievals of key ecohydrological variables, including vegetation parameters, SM, SWE, irrigation, lake and glacier extents from RS data (WP1);ÔÇó Development of LDAS_Silk for the silk road endorheic river basins (WP2);ÔÇó Development of LDAS_EU for the EUROCORDEX-domain (WP2);ÔÇó Calibration/validation procedures for the LDAS_Silk and the LDAS_EU (WP3);ÔÇó Estimation of different components of the water cycle for the silk road endorheic river basins and EUROCORDEX-domain produced by the developed LDAS (WP4).Source of Funding:ÔÇó Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant numbers: XDA19070104 and XDA20100100);ÔÇó Research unit FOR2131 (Data Assimilation for Improved Characterization of Fluxes Across Compartmental Interfaces) of the German Science Foundation;ÔÇó European Union H2020 project EoCoE (Energy oriented center of excellence).
SYNERGISTIC MONITORING OF ARCTIC SEA ICE FROM MULTI-SATELLITE-SENSORS	Areal shrinkage of Arctic sea ice has been observed over the last 40 years, and its decline is proceeding faster than forecasted. These observed changes in the ice cover have impacts on the regional Arctic and sub-Arctic climate, environment, [...]	Dr. Wolfgang Dierking, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, GERMANY	Dr. Xi Zhang, The First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources of China, CHINA	Cryosphere and Hydrology	Areal shrinkage of Arctic sea ice has been observed over the last 40 years, and its decline is proceeding faster than forecasted. These observed changes in the ice cover have impacts on the regional Arctic and sub-Arctic climate, environment, and ecosystems, and directly affect natural resource exploitation, marine transport and offshore operations, commercial fisheries, and indigenous lifestyles. Satellite monitoring offers continuous, near-total coverage of the Arctic ice pack. To enhance the retrieval of parameters describing ice conditions and to alleviate ambiguities in the interpretation of single satellite instruments, the demand for getting comprehensive sea ice information from multi-source satellite data obtained over the Arctic is growing as a result of climate change and its impact on environment and human activities. In this project, the overall objectives of our Sino-European sea ice research group are to upgrade and develop methodologies to retrieve quantitative sea ice information including measurements of ice area, thickness, drift velocity, and concentration using multiple satellite data provided by the EC Copernicus Earth Observation Program, ESA, ESA TPM, and Chinese satellites. The main multi-source satellite data will be combinations of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), optical and infrared images, radar altimeter and passive microwave data. We also plan to assess the possibilities that new satellite missions offer for monitoring sea ice parameters, e.g. CFOSAT or future missions planned by ESA. In the project we will focus on five major research topics. 1. Sea ice type classification: The goal is to develop automated methods for operational ice charting and for achieving results with improved reliability and accuracy. 2. Sea ice thickness retrieval: We will port our algorithms developed for CryoSat-2/Sentinel-3 to HY-2A/B, and complement thickness estimation for thin ice using passive microwave data from SMOS, AMSR2, HY-2 and FY-3. 3. Sea ice drift and deformation retrieval: to this end we will use multi-frequency SAR image sequences and assess the usefulness of our results for regional studies of sea ice dynamics and its possible changes due to increasing temperatures in the Arctic. 4. Sea ice concentration estimation: We pursue to develop sea ice concentration retrieval algorithms for the Chinese passive microwave radiometers HY-2 and FY-3. 5. We will evaluate CFOSAT’s capability for sea ice detection. In our interest are also the Copernicus High Priority Candidate Missions (HPCMs) under discussion at ESA. The results expected from our proposed work will contribute to an improved understanding of impacts of climate change on sea ice dynamics, thus providing useful data for scientists, policy-makers and the general public. The project will demonstrate the benefits of combining Earth Observation data from European and Chinese satellites for operational mapping and interpretation of sea ice cover variations in the Arctic. As the only one sea ice remote sensing group under Dragon phases 2-4, our Sino-European team has cultivated an excellent and productive partnership and developed algorithms for sea ice types classification, retrieval of sea ice thickness, and drift in the Bohai Sea (China), supplemented by complementary studies for the Baltic Sea and the Arctic. This research is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China under grant 2016YFA0600102 and 2018YFC1407203, and the National Nature Science Foundation of China under grant 41976173 and 61971455. The European team members are on permanent positions and will support the Dragon Program by linking their national and international sea ice studies to the research topics listed above.
VALIDATION AND CALIBRATION OF REMOTE SENSING PRODUCTS OF CRYOSPHERE AND HYDROLOGY	Objectives: The main objective is to assess the remotely sensed products of key cryospheric and hydrological elements (snow, evapotranspiration, soil moisture and precipitation) in representative regions, which will be achieved through the [...]	Prof.. Jouni Pulliainen, Arctic Research Centre of the Finnish Meteorological Institute, FINLAND	Prof.. Tao Che, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, CHINA	Cryosphere and Hydrology	Objectives: The main objective is to assess the remotely sensed products of key cryospheric and hydrological elements (snow, evapotranspiration, soil moisture and precipitation) in representative regions, which will be achieved through the following sub-objectives: • Establishing an observation network for snow, evapotranspiration, soil moisture and precipitation in representative regions selected in Europe and China (WP1); • Validation of snow products (WP2); • Validation of evapotranspiration products (WP3); • Validation of soil moisture products (WP4); • Validation of precipitation products (WP5). Methods: Remotely sensed products will be evaluated by referencing ground-based observations. The ground-based measurements will be upscaled to match the remote sensing pixel for validating products within the observation network. The validated products will be inter-compared with other gridded products, and the spatiotemporal trends are diagnosed by statistical indexes, e.g., RMSE and correlation coefficient. Finally, the regional and temporal feasibility of each product will be further evaluated based on the datasets in different landscapes, topographic conditions in the representative regions selected in China and Europe. Deliverables: •Datasets collected from the observation network, mainly including the snow, evapotranspiration, soil moisture and precipitation (WP1); • Evaluation of remotely-sensed snow products, including GlobSnow SWE and snow cover extension, MODIS/AVHRR snow cover area/fraction, NASA AMSR-E SWE, IMS snow cover and FY SWE products (WP2); • Evaluation of remotely-sensed evapotranspiration products in typical ecosystems, such as GLEAM, ETMonitor and MODIS-ET products (WP3); • Evaluation of remotely-sensed soil moisture products, such as SMOS, ESA-CCI, ASCAT, FY-3C, SMAP, LPRM and AMSR-E/2 (WP4); • Evaluation of remotely-sensed precipitation products, mainly including GPM_IMERG, GSMaP, TRMM3B42, CMPA and PERSIANN-CCS (WP5). Source of Funding: • The Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant no: XDA19070101) • The Science and Technology Basic Resources Investigation Program of China (Grant no. 2017FY100501)