V. D. Mishra

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Senior Researcher at Defence Research and Development Organisation

In the present paper, spatio-temporal variability in surface radiative energy fluxes has been estimated for snow/ice-covered Beas River basin, lower Western Himalaya, India using remote sensing technology and evaluated with wireless sensor network (WSN) collected data at various elevation levels. Surface energy fluxes are derived using Landsat-8 sa...

In Western Himalaya, an average 49 person die every year due to snow avalanche activities and this death rate is very high as compared to other Asian countries. A snow avalanche accident was observed on 5 January 2018 on Chowkibal–Tangdhar (CT) road axis at avalanche site number CT-8 located near Chowkibal village in Kupwara district, union territo...

Release of snow avalanche from a mountain slope depends on various parameters such as snow cover, terrain and meteorological conditions of the region. The precise information of avalanche occurrence in terms of its location and extent is essentially important for hazard mapping and for avalanche occurrence feedback. In the present study, various te...

Snow avalanches pose severe threat to lives and property in snowbound regions of the Western Himalaya. The Karakoram Range in Western Himalaya has the highest mean elevation and is the most glaciated region compared to other ranges. Snowfall in this range is frequent even during summer season. Snow accumulation on mountain slopes results into frequ...

Spatio-temporal variability of snow surface temperature (SST) over a large area is an important parameter for the study of ecology, environment, climatology, glaciology, hydrology, physical processes, surface characteristics, melt estimation, flood forecasting, hazard assessment etc. on the earth surface. Of the modern technologies in cryospheric...

Himalayan snow cover has an important contribution in the socioeconomic development of the northern Indian states. Snow cover area and extent in the inaccessible Himalayan region can be estimated using geospatial techniques. In the present study, snow cover area (SCA) has been estimated for western Himalayan climate zones i.e. Lower Himalayan Zone...

SASE has developed an automated method for retrieval of snow/ice surface temperature (SST) using Landsat-8 thermal data and the method was validated using wireless sensor network data in Beas River Basin, India.

Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) technology has number of applications in snow and avalanche research. In the rugged and inhospitable conditions of Himalaya, it’s not possible to collect snow cover and terrain related data using ground observations at high temporal and spatial resolution. In such scenario, remote sensing and G...

Study of cryosphere-atmosphere interaction is important for understanding of various physical processes over ice sheet and glacier surfaces. These physical processes are important for quantitative estimation of melt and sublimation of ice sheet and glaciers. In the present study, incoming shortwave radiation flux, net shortwave radiation flux,...

The aim of this study is to generate a reliable dynamic snow avalanche hazard map using analytical hierarchy process method based on multisource geo-spatial data for the Chowkibal–Tangdhar (C–T) road axis in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), India. Avalanche-prone areas of C–T axis have been demarcated using three causative parameters, i.e., terrain, ground...

In the present paper, incoming shortwave radiation flux, net shortwave radiation flux, net longwave radiation flux, and net radiation flux have been estimated at 1-km spatial scale for the ice sheet in East Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. Terra-MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) products (i.e., land and atmospheric data products)...

This paper proposed an algorithm for automated retrieval of snow/ice surface albedo using Landsat-8 satellite images and validation with wireless senor network data in Beas River basin, India. Cloud-free Landsat-8 images of winter season 2016–2017 have been used to estimate snow/ice broadband albedo. Albedo maps generated using satellite images hav...

Snow is an essential component of the cryosphere and spatio-temporal variability of snow cover over large Himalayan region is important for climate change studies, regional and global energy budget, aquatic cycles and managing water resources, etc. In the present paper, analysis of snow cover area (SCA) variation for more than a decade period from...

An avalanche accident was occurred on 5 January 2018 on Chowkibal–Tangdhar road in Kupwara district, Jammu and Kashmir about 6 km from Chowkibal village. One light passenger vehicle was swept away in the avalanche and 10 persons lost their lives. In this communication, we study the cause of avalanche accident and simulate the snow avalanche flow us...

An avalanche accident was occurred on 5 January 2018 on Chowkibal–Tangdhar road in Kupwara district, Jammu and Kashmir about 6 km from Chowkibal village. One light passenger vehicle was swept away in the avalanche and 10 persons lost their lives

Scientists from the Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment, Chandigarh, resolve the accident of a car parked on the Chowkibal–Tangdhar road in the Tangdhar region of Jammu and Kashmir. The car was awaiting snow clearance ahead, when around 2:30 pm on 5 January, an avalanche hit the car, sweeping it in a cloud of snow. Of the 12 people cau...

In this paper, an automated method for retrieval of snow surface temperature (SST) in Beas River Basin, India, using Landsat-8 thermal data is proposed. Digital number (DN) values of thermal data were converted into Top of Atmospheric (TOA) radiance. Surface radiance has been estimated from TOA radiance using a single channel method. The estimated...

An avalanche accident was occurred on 5 January 2018 on Chowkibal–Tangdhar road in Kupwara district, Jammu and Kashmir about 6 km from Chowkibal village. One light passenger vehicle was swept away in the avalanche and 10 persons lost their lives. In this communication, we study the cause of avalanche accident and simulate the snow avalanche flow u...

This article describes an attempt to map snow cover accurately from other land covers using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) data of 500 m spatial resolution. The workflow includes reflectance modelling, computing snow-cover fraction (SCF) and establishing an empirical relationship between the SCF and normalized difference snow inde...

In this paper, an algorithm is proposed for generation of snow depth maps. The efficacy of the algorithm has been established through a case study in lower and middle Himalayas, India. The algorithm is a modified version of the spatial interpolation method proposed earlier in Swiss Alps. The method uses discrete point data supplemented with remotel...

Snow surface temperature (SST) is an important snow parameter, which affects the energy balance of the region and thus, acts as an indicator of climate change. In Himalaya, due to ruggedness and inaccessibility of its terrain, it is very difficult to collect the SST data using conventional measurement techniques. Remote sensing based satellite data...

In this paper analysis of the snow-meteorological parameters recorded in the Gangotri glacier region have been presented. Parameters maximum temperature, minimum temperature, snowfall, snow cover thickness, incoming shortwave radiation flux, reflected shortwave radiation flux, albedo have been recorded at observation station ‘Bhojbasa’. Meteorologi...

In this paper analysis of the snow-meteorological parameters recorded in the Gangotri glacier region have been presented. Parameters maximum temperature, minimum temperature, snowfall, snow cover thickness, incoming shortwave radiation flux, reflected shortwave radiation flux, albedo have been recorded at observation station ‘Bhojbasa’. Meteorologi...

Varied inputs in the form of snow and weather parameters are required in scientific models pertaining to avalanche and weather forecasting. These are usually collected from various field observatories at different locations in the snowbound regions; however, the vast snow-covered areas generally occur at high altitudes, which are remote and inacces...

Albedo is a critical snow physical parameter that affects the earth’s climate system directly by altering the energy balance at the ground surface and indirectly by controlling the ecosystem processes. Thus spatial variability of snow albedo has immense importance in the study of geomorphology, climate dynamics, seasonal snow melt and hydrology. Th...

Irregular shape of terrain causes variable illumination angles and diverse reflectance values within same land cover type in optical remote sensing image. It causes problems in image segmentation and misclassification (snow with other land cover). This perception leads to develop an empirical-statistical based topographic correction (ESbTC) algorit...

In this paper, a model has been developed to estimate surface temperature of Antarctic ice sheet using thermal bands of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor images and in situ surface temperature measurements. The brightness temperature of snow/ice surface of Antarctica has been estimated for MODIS bands 31 and 32 using Plan...

The aim of the present study is to investigate the temperature and snowfall trends in the cryosphere region of north-west Himalaya during winter season. 37 observation stations of North-West Himalaya have been considered for the study and these stations receive snowfall during winter season. The snow meteorological data period of the parameters ma...

An accurate representation of surface parameters and biophysical attributes (soils, elevation, topography-slope and aspect, etc.) of the landscape within Himalaya has great concern for Hydrological cycle and ecological system. This makes land surface parameters as an important tool to study earth's climate system especially when satellite data prov...

An accurate representation of surface parameters and biophysical attributes (soils, elevation, topography-slope and aspect, etc.) of the landscape within Himalaya has great concern for Hydrological cycle and ecological system. This makes land surface parameters as an important tool to study earth’s climate system especially when satellite data...

The aim of this letter is to estimate incoming and net shortwave radiation fluxes of large snow covered area of western Himalaya and to evaluate the results with in situ observations. Radiation fluxes are estimated at spatial level using remote sensing data from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor and Shuttle Radar Topograp...

The present study aims to estimate the long term changes in sea ice areal extent (SIAE) around Antarctica using Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) satellite data (1988–2011). Daily, weekly and monthly brightness temperature (TB) maps of Antarctica have been generated. Temporal variation in monthly averaged TB values of sea ice have been analyz...

Identification and mapping of crevasses in glaciated regions is important for safe movement. However, the remote and rugged glacial terrain in the Himalaya poses greater challenges for field data collection. In the present study crevasse signatures were collected from Siachen and Samudra Tapu glaciers in the Indian Himalaya using ground-penetrating...

Air temperature and snow cover variability are sensitive indicators of climate change. This study was undertaken to forecast and quantify the potential streamflow response to climate change in the Jhelum River basin. The implications of air temperature trends (+0.11°C/decade) reported for the entire north-west Himalaya for past century and the regi...

The present paper discusses the impact of topography on accuracy for land cover classification and “from-to class change using improved spectral change vector analysis suggested by Chen et al. (2003). Two AWiFS sensor images of different dates are used. Double Window Flexible Pace Search (DFPS) is used to estimate threshold of change magnitude for...

In this paper Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) data has been used to estimate snow surface temperature (SST) of different ranges of North West (NW) Himalaya. The average values of emissivity of snow have been estimated for Karakoram, Great Himalaya and Pir-Panjal ranges. The emissivity values are further used to estimate SST values. It is ob...

Snowmelt is an important component of any snow-fed river system. The Jhelum River is one such transnational mountain river flowing through India and Pakistan. The basin is minimally glacierized and its discharge is largely governed by seasonal snow cover and snowmelt. Therefore, accurate estimation of seasonal snow cover dynamics and snowmelt-induc...

In this paper, algorithms to estimate narrowband to broadband albedo (NBBA) of snow using Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MODIS) sensor images have been developed for Indian western Himalayan region. The in-situ measurements of spectral reflectance and transmitted spectral solar irradiance on s...

Seasonal snows cover in NW-Himalaya plays an important role in hydrological and avalanche studies and also act as an indicator of climate change. However, due to ruggedness and inaccessibility of Himalayan terrain, it is very difficult to monitor the snow cover using conventional measurement techniques. Remote sensing based satellite data provide s...

Change detection is one of the most important applications in the remote sensing society. In change detection, pan sharpening fusion plays an important role to create a high-resolution dataset. A pan-sharpening method for enhancing satellite imagery is used as building a relatively high accuracy and low cost approach for image-based analyses. In th...

Present study compares the estimated radiative and turbulent energy fluxes at the edge of the Antarctic ice sheet during summer and winter in Dronning Maud land, East Antarctica. Hourly snow meteorological parameters were recorded and analysed during winter months (May, June, July and August) of the year 2007 and summer months (November, December,...

In general, the topographic effect is particularly evident for steep sloped Himalaya terrain because irregular shape of Himalaya causes variable illumination angles and thus diverse reflection values within one land cover type as low reflectance value in shadow areas and high reflectance value in sun illuminated areas. Therefore, effective removal...

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) of antenna frequency 1000 MHz was used for snow depth estimation and snow stratigraphic studies in the Pir Panjal and Greater Himalayan range of NW Himalayas. GPR profiles were acquired at a selected site near Solang observatory (Himachal Pradesh (HP), India) for snow depth estimation. It was observed that the estimat...

Large area of Himalayas covered with seasonal snow during winter are rapidly changing during summer, significantly affects the stream flow of many rivers originating from Himalayas. This necessitates the efficient time series monitoring of seasonal snow cover in the rugged mountainous region throughout the winter and summer periods for weekly/month...

The topographic effects of differential terrain illumination in optical satellite imagery of rugged mountainous regions have serious consequences for qualitative and quantitative analysis for various snow applications. Therefore, effective removal or minimization of topographic effects is necessary in satellite image data of mountainous regions. Di...

Himalayan region has one of the largest concentrations of mountain glaciers whose areal extent is changing due to global warming. In order to assess future changes in glacier extent due to global warming, information about glacier depth and debris cover is important. In this paper, application of ground penetrating radar (GPR) is discussed to asses...

Numerous constrained and unconstrained algorithms have been used to retrieve sub-pixel snow-cover information quantitatively using medium and coarse spatial resolution multispectral images from the Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) sensors over the Himalayan region. Both the methods give slow co...

This study estimates energy and mass balance at the edge of the Antarctic ice sheet close to a non-glaciated area. An automatic weather station was installed on the ice sheet, near an ice free area of Schirmacher Oasis in Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica. Hourly snow-meteorological parameters were recorded and observed during the summer of the y...

The influence of topographic effects in optical satellite imagery is not investigated very extensively in the Himalayan terrain. The topographic variability causes a problem of differential illumination due to steep and varying slopes in rugged Himalayan terrain. Therefore, topographic corrections are essential for qualitative and quantitative anal...

In the Himalayas, a large area is covered by glaciers and seasonal snow and changes in its extent can influence availability of water in the Himalayan Rivers. In this paper, changes in glacial extent, glacial mass balance and seasonal snow cover have been discussed. Glacial retreat was estimated for 466 glaciers in Chenab, Parbati and Baspa basins...

Snow avalanche studies require different snow-meteorological parameters for avalanche forecasting. Snow surface temperature is one of the major parameters, which is responsible for the evolution of snow pack characteristics. In the present paper, the snow surface temperature was estimated using TERRA satellite based — Moderate resolution imaging s...

The study of snow characteristics using conventional techniques for vast, rugged and remote snow covered areas of Himalayas is very difficult. In the present study, the satellite data of SSM/I sensor has been used. Changes in snow accumulation result in related variations in passive microwave brightness temperature. This study attempts to develop n...

Passive microwave AMSR-E (Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer) remote sensing data has been used to monitor the seasonal snow cover variations and for the snow cover characteristics studies. In the present study the spectral and temporal variation of brightness temperature using AMSR-E has been drawn and further scattering index is calculated wh...

Seasonal snow cover is one of the important natural resources of the Himalayas. This is an important parameter in assessing the availability of water in the Himalayan Rivers, forecasting and assessing avalanches and numerous other applications. In the present paper, the normalized difference snow index (NDSI) technique is discussed to monitor snow...

Satellite data obtained from different sensors AWiFS and MODIS in multi-spectral Visible NIR and SWIR and Hyper-spectral Visible NIR SWIR and Thermal bands are used to retrieve various snow physical parameters reflectance albedo surface temperature air temperature and energy fluxes Quantitative estimation of these parameters are compared with the g...

Snow cover is an important variable for climatic and hydrologic models due to its effect on surface albedo, energy, and mass balance. Satellite observations successfully provide a global and comprehensive hemispheric-scale record of the short-term, as well as inter-seasonal variations in snow cover. Passive microwave sensors provide an excellent me...

The present study is aimed at investigating the radiation budget in different snow-ice media (shelf ice,continental ice and natural snow) at three different elevated sites in the general area of Prince Astrid Coast of EastAntarctica. Measurements of the dependence of albedo in different snow and ice media on solar elevation angle,cloud cover, liqui...

Change detection is a technique used to determine the change between two or more time periods of a particular area of study. Change detection is an important process of monitoring and managing environment resources. There are many methods available for change detection. In this paper, we are dealing with improved change-vector analysis on western H...