Seasonal and interannual ice velocity changes of Polar Record Glacier, East Antarctica

We present a study of seasonal and interannual ice velocity changes at Polar Record Glacier, East Antarctica, using ERS-1/2, Envisat and PALSAR data with D-InSAR and intensity tracking. Ice flow showed seasonal variations at the front of the glacier tongue. Velocities in winter were 19% less than velocities during summer. No significant interannual changes were detected. Ice velocities in the grounding zone and grounded glacier did not show clear seasonal or interannual changes. The distributio of the seasonal variations suggests that the cause for the changes should be localized. Possible causes are seasonal sea-ice changes and iceberg blocking. Satellite images show that the sea ice surrounding Polar Record Glacier undergoes seasonal changes. Frozen sea ice in winter slowed the huge iceberg, and provided increased resistance to the glacier flow. The interaction between the glacier tongue, ice berg and sea ice significantly influences their flow pattern

Remote Sensing of Mountain Glaciers and Related Hazards

Mountain glaciers are highly sensitive to temperature and precipitation fluctuations and active geomorphic agents in shaping the landforms of glaciated regions which are direct imprints of past glaciations, providing reliable evidence of the evolution of the past Cryosphere and contain important information on climatic variables. But most importantly, glaciers have aroused a lot of concern in terms of glacier area changes, thickness change, mass balance and their consequences on water resources as well as related hazards. The contribution of glacier mass loss to global sea-level rise and increasing number of glacier-related hazards are the most important and current socioeconomic concerns. Therefore, understanding the dynamics of the changes and constant monitoring of glaciers are essential for studying climate, water resource management and hydropower and also to predict and evade glacier-related hazards. The recent advances in the techniques of earth observations have proved as a boon for investigating glaciers and glacier-related hazards. Remote sensing technology enables extraction of glacier parameters such as albedo/reflectance/scattering, glacier area, glacier zones and facies, equilibrium line, glacier thickness, volume, mass balance, velocity and glacier topography. The present chapter explores the prospective of remote sensing technology for understanding and surveying glaciers formed at high, inaccessible mountains and glacier-induced hazards

Autonomous Repeat Image Feature Tracking (autoRIFT) and Its Application for Tracking Ice Displacement

In this paper, we build on past efforts with regard to the implementation of an efficient feature tracking algorithm for the mass processing of satellite images. This generic open-source feature tracking routine can be applied to any type of imagery to measure sub-pixel displacements between images. The routine consists of a feature tracking module (autoRIFT) that enhances computational efficiency and a geocoding module (Geogrid) that mitigates problems found in existing geocoding algorithms. When applied to satellite imagery, autoRIFT can run on a grid in the native image coordinates (such as radar or map) and, when used in conjunction with the Geogrid module, on a user-defined grid in geographic Cartesian coordinates such as Universal Transverse Mercator or Polar Stereographic. To validate the efficiency and accuracy of this approach, we demonstrate its use for tracking ice motion by using ESA’s Sentinel-1A/B radar data (seven pairs) and NASA’s Landsat-8 optical data (seven pairs) collected over Greenland’s Jakobshavn Isbræ glacier in 2017. Feature-tracked velocity errors are characterized over stable surfaces, where the best Sentinel-1A/B pair with a 6 day separation has errors in X/Y of 12 m/year or 39 m/year, compared to 22 m/year or 31 m/year for Landsat-8 with a 16-day separation. Different error sources for radar and optical image pairs are investigated, where the seasonal variation and the error dependence on the temporal baseline are analyzed. Estimated velocities were compared with reference velocities derived from DLR’s TanDEM-X SAR/InSAR data over the fast-moving glacier outlet, where Sentinel-1 results agree within 4% compared to 3–7% for Landsat-8. A comprehensive apples-to-apples comparison is made with regard to runtime and accuracy between multiple implementations of the proposed routine and the widely-used “dense ampcor" program from NASA/JPL’s ISCE software. autoRIFT is shown to provide two orders of magnitude of runtime improvement with a 20% improvement in accuracy

Innovative Techniques for the Retrieval of Earth’s Surface and Atmosphere Geophysical Parameters: Spaceborne Infrared/Microwave Combined Analyses

With the advent of the first satellites for Earth Observation: Landsat-1 in July 1972 and ERS-1 in May 1991, the discipline of environmental remote sensing has become, over time, increasingly fundamental for the study of phenomena characterizing the planet Earth. The goal of environmental remote sensing is to perform detailed analyses and to monitor the temporal evolution of different physical phenomena, exploiting the mechanisms of interaction between the objects that are present in an observed scene and the electromagnetic radiation detected by sensors, placed at a distance from the scene, operating at different frequencies. The analyzed physical phenomena are those related to climate change, weather forecasts, global ocean circulation, greenhouse gas profiling, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, soil subsidence, and the effects of rapid urbanization processes. Generally, remote sensing sensors are of two primary types: active and passive. Active sensors use their own source of electromagnetic radiation to illuminate and analyze an area of interest. An active sensor emits radiation in the direction of the area to be investigated and then detects and measures the radiation that is backscattered from the objects contained in that area. Passive sensors, on the other hand, detect natural electromagnetic radiation (e.g., from the Sun in the visible band and the Earth in the infrared and microwave bands) emitted or reflected by the object contained in the observed scene. The scientific community has dedicated many resources to developing techniques to estimate, study and analyze Earth’s geophysical parameters. These techniques differ for active and passive sensors because they depend strictly on the type of the measured physical quantity. In my P.h.D. work, inversion techniques for estimating Earth’s surface and atmosphere geophysical parameters will be addressed, emphasizing methods based on machine learning (ML). In particular, the study of cloud microphysics and the characterization of Earth’s surface changes phenomenon are the critical points of this work

Investigation of Glacial Dynamics in the Lambert Glacier-Amery Ice Shelf System (LAS) Using Remote Sensing

Numerous recent studies have documented dynamic changes in the behaviors of large marine-terminating outlet glaciers and ice streams in Greenland, the Antarctic Peninsula, and West Antarctica. However, fewer observations of outlet glaciers and ice shelves exist for the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. In addition, most recent surface velocity mappings of the Lambert Glacier-Amery Ice Shelf system (LAS) are derived for the time period of 1997-2000. From this research, surface velocity measurements provide a more extended view of the behavior and stability of the LAS over the past two decades than can be gleaned from a single observational period. This study uses remote sensing to investigate whether significant changes in velocities have occurred from the late 1980’s through the late 2010’s and assesses the magnitude of mass balance changes observed at the grounding line. To accomplish this goal, surface velocities of the LAS from late 1980’s to late 2010’s for three separate time periods are measured. The observed surface velocities of the LAS ranged from 0 to 1300 m yr^-1 during 1988-1990. A slight slowing down is detected in the central Amery Ice Shelf front by analyzing the surface velocity measurements made along the centerlines. The mass balance is the difference between snow accumulation and the outflux of the grounded LAS and is calculated for individual sub-basin during the three time intervals of 1988-1990, 1999-2004, and 2007-2011 to illustrate the mass balance variation under sub-basin level. The flux gates of the Lambert Glacial sub-basin combined with the Mellor Glacial and the Fisher Glacial sub-basin appear to be the largest outlet of the grounded ice of the LAS. The ice mass transported from the interior region through the three flux gates in total is 43.58 Gt yr^-1, 36.72 Gt yr^-1, and 38.61 Gt yr^-1 respectively for the three time intervals above. The sub-basins in the eastern side appear differently than the western side. The outfluxes of the eastern sub-basins vary from 15.85 to 18.64 Gt yr^-1, while the western outfluxes vary from 15.85 to 18.64 Gt yr^-1. The grounded LAS has discharged ice from 84.55 to 81.60 Gt yr^-1 and to 79.20 Gt yr^-1 during 1980s-1990s and 1990s-2000s. Assuming the snow accumulation distribution is stable, the grounded LAS mass lose has increased 2.95 Gt yr^-1 from 1980s to 1990s and 2.40 Gt yr^-1 from 1990s to 2000s. These results indicate insight into the stability of the Amery Ice Shelf over the last few decades

The RADARSAT-1 Antarctic Mapping Project

The University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history.This report summarizes the motivation, processing procedures and products that were part of the RADARSAT-1 Antarctic Mapping Project (RAMP). RAMP was a collaboration between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency to map Antarctica using the RADARSAT -1 Synthetic Aperture Radar. The project proceeded in two parts. The first part, called Antarctic Mapping Mission -1 that acquired data in 1997, resulted in the first high-resolution radar map of Antarctica. The second part, called the Modified Antarctic Mapping Mission which occurred in 2000, remapped the continent below 80 degrees South latitude and exploited interferometric repeat-pass observations to estimate glacier surface velocities. RAMP project goals and objectives are reviewed here along with several science highlights. These highlights include observations of ice sheet margin change using both RAMP and historical data sets, the discovery of large ice streams in Coates Land, observations of the ice sheet surface-velocity field and changes in the velocity field, and observations of surface change using radar coherence. RAMP data products are summarized and a tabulated list of data products is appended to this report. The appendix also lists all of the partner organizations, including the Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF) DAAC, who have received a copy of the complete data set.NASA Pathfinder ProgramNASA Polar Oceans and Ice Sheets ProgramOffice of Polar Programs, National Science FoundationCanadian Space Agenc

Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review

The importance of snow cover extent (SCE) has been proven to strongly link with various natural phenomenon and human activities; consequently, monitoring snow cover is one the most critical topics in studying and understanding the cryosphere. As snow cover can vary significantly within short time spans and often extends over vast areas, spaceborne remote sensing constitutes an efficient observation technique to track it continuously. However, as optical imagery is limited by cloud cover and polar darkness, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) attracted more attention for its ability to sense day-and-night under any cloud and weather condition. In addition to widely applied backscattering-based method, thanks to the advancements of spaceborne SAR sensors and image processing techniques, many new approaches based on interferometric SAR (InSAR) and polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) have been developed since the launch of ERS-1 in 1991 to monitor snow cover under both dry and wet snow conditions. Critical auxiliary data including DEM, land cover information, and local meteorological data have also been explored to aid the snow cover analysis. This review presents an overview of existing studies and discusses the advantages, constraints, and trajectories of the current developments

Sea Tide Influence on Ice Flow of David Drygalski’s Ice Tongue Inferred from Geodetic GNSS Observations and SAR Offset Tracking Analysis

David Glacier and Drygalski Ice Tongue are massive glaciers in Victoria Land, Antarctica. The ice from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet is drained through the former, and then discharged into the western Ross Sea through the latter. David Drygalski is the largest outlet glacier in Northern Victoria Land, floating kilometers out to sea. The floating and grounded part of the David Glacier are the main focus of this article. During the XXI Italian Antarctic Expedition (2005-2006), within the framework of the National Antarctic Research Programme (PNRA), two GNSS stations were installed at different points: the first close to the grounding line of David Glacier, and the second approximately 40 km downstream of the first one. Simultaneous data logging was performed by both GNSS stations for 24 days. In the latest data processing, the kinematic PPP technique was adopted to evaluate the dominant diurnal components and the very small semi-diurnal variations in ice motion induced by the ocean tide and the mean ice flow rates of both GNSS stations. Comparison of the GNSS time series with predicted ocean tide calculated from harmonic coefficients of the nearest tide gauge stations, installed at Cape Roberts and Mario Zucchelli Station, highlight different local response of the glacier to ocean tide, with a minor amplitude of vertical motion at a point partially anchored at the bedrock close to the grounding line. During low tide, the velocity of the ice flow reaches its daily maximum, in accordance with the direction of seawater outflow from the fjord into the ocean, while the greatest daily tidal excursion generates an increase in the horizontal ice flow velocity. With the aim to extend the analysis in spatial terms, five COSMO-SkyMED Stripmap scenes were processed. The comparison of the co-registered offset tracking rates, obtained from SAR images, with the GNSS estimation shows good agreement

Advances in Sonar Technology

The demand to explore the largest and also one of the richest parts of our planet, the advances in signal processing promoted by an exponential growth in computation power and a thorough study of sound propagation in the underwater realm, have lead to remarkable advances in sonar technology in the last years.The work on hand is a sum of knowledge of several authors who contributed in various aspects of sonar technology. This book intends to give a broad overview of the advances in sonar technology of the last years that resulted from the research effort of the authors in both sonar systems and their applications. It is intended for scientist and engineers from a variety of backgrounds and even those that never had contact with sonar technology before will find an easy introduction with the topics and principles exposed here

Fusing simulated GEDI, ICESat-2 and NISAR data for regional aboveground biomass mapping

Accurate mapping of forest aboveground biomass (AGB) is critical for better understanding the role of forests in the global carbon cycle. NASA's current GEDI and ICESat-2 missions as well as the upcoming NISAR mission will collect synergistic data with different coverage and sensitivity to AGB. In this study, we present a multi-sensor data fusion approach leveraging the strength of each mission to produce wall-to-wall AGB maps that are more accurate and spatially comprehensive than what is achievable with any one sensor alone. Specifically, we calibrate a regional L-band radar AGB model using the sparse, simulated spaceborne lidar AGB estimates. We assess our data fusion framework using simulations of GEDI, ICESat-2 and NISAR data from airborne laser scanning (ALS) and UAVSAR data acquired over the temperate high AGB forest and complex terrain in Sonoma County, California, USA. For ICESat-2 and GEDI missions, we simulate two years of data coverage and AGB at footprint level are estimated using realistic AGB models. We compare the performance of our fusion framework when different combinations of the sparse simulated GEDI and ICEsat-2 AGB estimates are used to calibrate our regional L-band AGB models. In addition, we test our framework at Sonoma using (a) 1-ha square grid cells and (b) similarly sized irregularly shaped objects. We demonstrate that the estimated mean AGB across Sonoma is more accurately estimated using our fusion framework than using GEDI or ICESat-2 mission data alone, either with a regular grid or with irregular segments as mapping units. This research highlights methodological opportunities for fusing new and upcoming active remote sensing data streams toward improved AGB mapping through data fusion.</p