using handset 8, remove snow and use less cloud Landsat image

Question

I want to take out snow and use a less cloud Landsat image. I am not sure the code from var image.... I think this is the right order (filterData, sort, median and map) but it does not work.

function maskL8sr(image) {
  // Bits 3 and 5 are cloud shadow and cloud, respectively.
  var cloudShadowBitMask = (1 << 3);
  var cloudsBitMask = (1 << 5);
  var snowBitMask = (1 << 4);
  var waterBitMask = (1 << 2);

  // Get the pixel QA band.
var qa = image.select('pixel_qa');
  // Both flags should be set to zero, indicating clear conditions.
var mask = qa.bitwiseAnd(snowBitMask).eq(0);
return image.updateMask(mask);
}


var image = ee.Image(ee.ImageCollection('LANDSAT/LC08/C01/T1_SR')
    .filterDate('2018-01-01', '2018-12-31')
    .map(maskL8sr) 
    .sort('CLOUD_COVER')
    .median());

Answer 1

As suggested it would help if you explain in more detail what you have in mind and what you tried. If you want ice you could for example use a index and thresholding as a start:

function maskL8sr(image) {
  // Bits 3 and 5 are cloud shadow and cloud, respectively.
  var cloudShadowBitMask = (1 << 3);
  var cloudsBitMask = (1 << 5);
  var snowBitMask = (1 << 4);
  var waterBitMask = (1 << 2);

  // Get the pixel QA band.
var qa = image.select('pixel_qa');
  // Both flags should be set to zero, indicating clear conditions.
var mask = qa.bitwiseAnd(snowBitMask).eq(0);
return image.updateMask(mask);
}


var image = ee.Image(ee.ImageCollection('LANDSAT/LC08/C01/T1_SR')
    .filterDate('2018-01-01', '2018-12-31')
    .filter(ee.Filter.lte('CLOUD_COVER',20)) // filter on Cloud Cover
    .map(maskL8sr) 
    .sort('CLOUD_COVER')
    .filterBounds(geometry)
    .median())

var ndsi      = image.normalizedDifference(['B5','B6']);                  // snow/ice index

print(image, 'image')

Map.addLayer(image, {min:150, max: 15000, bands:['B5', 'B3', 'B2']}, 'image')
Map.addLayer(ndsi, {min:-0.4, max: 0.8, palette: ['darkred','yellow','green','blue','darkblue']}, 'NDSI image')

// classifation
var ndsithresh   = 0.25;
var debris = ndsi.lt(ndsithresh)
var ice = debris.eq(0);