SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF MACHINE LEARNING IN BRIGHTNESS TEMPERATURE PREDICTIONS OVER SNOW-COVERD REGIONS USING THE ADVANCED MICROWAVE SCANNING RADIOMETER

Abstract

Snow is a critical component in the global energy and hydrologic cycle. Further, it is important to know the mass of snow because it serves as the dominant source of drinking water for more than one billion people worldwide. Since direct quantification of snow water equivalent (SWE) is complicated by spatial and temporal variability, space-borne passive microwave SWE retrieval products have been utilized over regional and continental-scales to better estimate SWE. Previous studies have explored the possibility of employing machine learning, namely an artificial neural network (ANN) or a support vector machine (SVM), to replace the traditional radiative transfer model (RTM) during brightness temperatures (Tb) assimilation. However, we still need to address the following question: What are the most significant parameters in the machine-learning model based on either ANN or SVM? The goal of this study is to compare and contrast sensitivity analysis of Tb with respect to each model input between the ANN- and SVM-based estimates. In general, the results suggest the SVM (relative to the ANN) may be more beneficial during Tb assimilation studies where enhanced SWE estimation is the main objective.