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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">ISPRS-Archives</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">ISPRS-Archives</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci.</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub">2194-9034</issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/isprs-archives-XLVIII-4-W18-2025-235-2026</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Next-Generation Snow Cover Monitoring in Near Real Time: Evaluating the EUMETSAT H SAF H43 Product from MTG-FCI across the European Alps</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Kuter</surname>
<given-names>Semih</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4760-3816</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Karaman</surname>
<given-names>Çağrı Hasan</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Akpınar</surname>
<given-names>Mustafa Berkay</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4815-8793</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Akyürek</surname>
<given-names>Zuhal</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Çankırı Karatekin University, Faculty of Forestry, Dept. of Forest Engineering, Türkiye</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>HidroSAF Ltd., Middle East Technical University (METU) Technopolis, Türkiye</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Middle East Technical University (METU), Faculty of Engineering, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Türkiye</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>Middle East Technical University (METU), Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Dept. of Geodetic and Geographic Information Technologies, Türkiye</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>27</day>
<month>01</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>XLVIII-4/W18-2025</volume>
<fpage>235</fpage>
<lpage>240</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Semih Kuter et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://isprs-archives.copernicus.org/articles/XLVIII-4-W18-2025/235/2026/isprs-archives-XLVIII-4-W18-2025-235-2026.html">This article is available from https://isprs-archives.copernicus.org/articles/XLVIII-4-W18-2025/235/2026/isprs-archives-XLVIII-4-W18-2025-235-2026.html</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://isprs-archives.copernicus.org/articles/XLVIII-4-W18-2025/235/2026/isprs-archives-XLVIII-4-W18-2025-235-2026.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://isprs-archives.copernicus.org/articles/XLVIII-4-W18-2025/235/2026/isprs-archives-XLVIII-4-W18-2025-235-2026.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Reliable snow cover mapping in mountainous regions is critical for hydrology, climate monitoring, and hazard risk management. This study presents the initial evaluation of the EUMETSAT H SAF H43 snow cover extent product&amp;mdash;the first derived from the Flexible Combined Imager (FCI) aboard Meteosat Third Generation (MTG)&amp;mdash;over the European Alps. The assessment was performed by comparing H43 with its predecessor H34, using daily MODIS MOD10A1 NDSI-based binary snow maps as the reference for the 2024&amp;ndash;2025 winter season. Evaluation metrics, including Probability of Detection (POD), False Alarm Ratio (FAR), and Overall Accuracy (ACC), were calculated based on pixel-level agreement across December to February. To investigate terrain-dependent classification performance, the spatial distribution of false alarms (B) and missed detections (C) was analyzed across elevation zones and terrain aspect classes derived from the MODIS 1 km MODDEM product. Wind rose visualizations revealed that both products exhibit classification uncertainty in mid-elevation ranges (1000&amp;ndash;2000 m), with H34 showing higher miss rates and H43 slightly more false alarms. In higher elevation bands (&amp;ge;2000 m), H43 demonstrated improved stability across slope orientations and generally lower error rates. These findings highlight the enhanced snow retrieval capability of the H43 product in complex alpine environments and support its application in near-real-time snow monitoring.</p>
</abstract>
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