Grosse, Guido

Jones, Benjamin M.

Nitze, Ingmar

Strauss, Jens

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INTRO TO REMOTE SENSING OFPERMAFROST LANDSCAPES AND DYNAMICSGuido GrosseAlfred Wegener Institute, Periglacial Research Unit...with input from Ben Jones, Ingmar Nitze, Jens Strauss, and others.Brown et al 1998Northern Hemisphere PermafrostPermafrost in numbers:• Ground that stays below 0°C for at least ≥ 2 consecutive years• 22.8×106 km² (23%) of the northern hemisphere land mass• Up to > 2.5 million years old• Up to 1600 m thickTypical Arctic tundra landscape with ice wedge polygonsWetterich et al. 2014 (modified after Romanovskii, 1977) Arctic Northslope of AlaskaPhoto: B. JonesPermafrost and ground ice© Geoeye-1 (26 Sep 2009)Yedoma, North SiberiaIce-rich marine silt, North AlaskaBuried glacier ice, NW Canada (Fritz et al 2011 PPP)Permafrost Carbon FeedbackStrauss et al. 2013 (GRL), Hugelius et al. 2014 (Biogeosciences), Walter Anthony et al. 2014 (Nature), Schuur et al. 2015 (Nature)Sobo-Sise Yedoma Cliff, Lena Delta (Photo: Strauss)Permafrost 1330-1580 GtCAtmosphere  800 GtCVegetation  550 GtC Fossil Fuel  4,130 GtC Global Soils  2,300 GtCGlobal Ocean  38,000 GtC Why remote sensing of permafrost landscapes?Permafrost field research: – Vast and remote regions– Harsh climate– Limited access– Expensive logistics– Sparse field sites– Few long records– Few continuous datasetsRemote Sensing: – Covering large regions– Remote data collection– Increasingly long + continuous datasets– Allows scaling of field data– Can inform where permafrost is changing– Provides spatially continuous data for models– New platforms and sensors– Increasing computational capacities– New processing methodsRapidly Growing Method in Permafrost Research• Atmospheric chemistry instruments • Atmospheric temperature and humidity sounders• Cloud profile and rain radars • Earth radiation budget radiometers • High resolution optical imagers • Imaging multi-/hyper-spectral radiometers (vis/IR) • Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) • Imaging microwave radars • Lidars• Multiple direction/polarisation instruments • Ocean colour instruments • Radar altimeters • Scatterometers• Gravity, magnetic field and geodynamic instruments• Airborne geophysical instruments (tomography, resistivity)Remote sensing instrument categories• Challenges– Polar night, frequent clouds, ice/snow cover, low sun anglesSource: Satimagingcorp• Advantages– Frequent revisit times– Strongly overlapping acquisition swathsLandsat-8, Svalbard, 29-06-2014Challenges and advantages of high latitude EOChallenge:• Permafrost is a subsurface temperature phenomenon• Surface features related to permafrost may be non-existent, covered, abundant, or relict• Permafrost changes may manifest at the surface or not• Surface changes may have temporal lags to permafrost changesRemote sensing of permafrostWorldView-1 IkonosTasks for Remote Sensing:• Constraining the presence or absence of permafrost (spatial extent, ground-ice content + distribution)• Quantifying geo/biophysical characteristics of ground and land surfaces (temperatures, water content, resistivity, vegetation + soil layers) • Measurement of permafrost change-related dynamics (thaw subsidence + frost heave, erosion, biogeochemical fluxes, energy, water, and matter fluxes)Remote sensing of permafrostRemote sensing approaches depend on:• Permafrost type: mountain permafrost / lowland permafrost• Target: surface features / geophysical parameters / processes Choice of platform + sensors: ground-based / aerial / satellite Permafrost State1. Ground temperature2. Thickness of the active layer or depth to the permafrost surface3. Thickness of permafrost4. Spatial patchiness of permafrost5. Ice content and distribution in permafrostRemote sensing observables in permafrost regions• Permafrost and active layer surface expressions• Landscape change due to permafrost degradation/aggradation• Seasonal active layer settlement/heave• Vegetation related to permafrost properties• Physical land surface properties related to permafrost and active layer (LST, Freeze-Thaw, snow)• Subsurface properties related to permafrost (active layer thickness, ground ice)Permafrost variables  vs. remote sensingPermafrost features: Formed by permafrost aggradationIce wedge polygons Perennial frost mounds (pingo)Sorted ground Small-scale patterned groundActive layer features: Formed by seasonal freeze-thaw cyclesPermafrost and active layer featuresCollapse scar fens (Photo: L. Farquharson) Collapsed pingo (Photo: B. Jones)Thermokarst lakes (Photo: B. Jones)Ice wedge collapse and TK ponds (Photo: B. Jones)- Formed by thaw settlement in ice-rich permafrostThermokarst featuresThermo-erosion gully (Photo: L. Farquharson)Coastal erosion (Photo: B. Jones)Thaw slump, glacial  deposits (Photo: S. Kokelj)Active layer detachment slide (Photo: G. Grosse)- Formed by thermal and mechanical erosion along topographic gradientsThermo-erosion features• Alaska North Slope• Continuous Permafrost• Based on ortho aerial photography, IfSAR DEM and NLCD data• 9 types of thermokarstlandforms mapped across 6 different surficial geology types• 12 study areas @ 5x5 kmFarquharson et al., 2016, GeomorphologyMapping of lowland thermokarst features Mapping of lowland thermokarst features Highlights•63% of the 300-km2 study area covered by TK landforms•TK landform distribution varies across surficial geology types, ice-rich marine silt areas most TK affected•Drained TK lake basins are the most widespread thaw-related landform, covering 33% of study region• In the future, ice-rich aeolian upland terrain (yedoma) and marine silt may be particularly susceptible to thawFarquharson et al., 2016, GeomorphologyIce wedge degradation with VHR imageryLiljedahl et al., 2016 (Nature Geoscience)Ice wedge degradation with VHR imageryLiljedahl et al., 2016 (Nature Geoscience)Arctic Coastal Dynamics with repeat LiDARObu et al., 2016 (Geomorphology)Permafrost coastal erosion surveys with annual repeat LiDAR at 24 sites on Yukon Coastal Plain, CanadaArctic Coastal Dynamics with repeat LiDAR• Low-elevation ice-rich coasts erode uniformly by up to 20 m a− 1.• Mass wasting causes high erosion variability of high-elevation permafrost coasts.• Intensive slumping can result in coastline progradation by up to 40 m a− 1.• Short-term coastline movements can impact erosion estimates from aerial imagery.Obu et al., 2016 (Geomorphology)Landsat Data CoverageTotal of 5,532,454 images4134 TB of image dataWulder et al 2015 (Remote Sensing of Environment)Annual acquisition rate L7: 119,135 imagesAnnual acquisition rate L8: 214,081 imagesUSGS Landsat archive holdings on 01-01-2015Analysis of temporally dense image stacksExample: 63 Landsat tiles for Lena Delta from 1999-2014• Increasing availability of data, long time series for Landsat– Seasonal + multi-annual dynamics in permafrost regions– Disturbances: thaw lake drainage, thermokarst pond initation, thaw slump and detachment slide evolution, coastal erosion– Land surface trends: Surface wetness, brightness, greennessSpaceTimeParadigm shift: Interpreter-driven image processing, analysis  big data processing, analytics Panarctic monitoring of permafrost disturbancesNitze & Grosse 2016 (Remote Sensing of Environment)Analysis of temporally dense image stacksNitze & Grosse 2016 (RSE)Landsat Tasseled Cap Greenness Trend (change per decade)Years 2000 – 2014: 31 Landsat Scenes (TM, ETM+, OLI) Land surface properties based on Landsat trendsNitze & Grosse 2016 (RSE)• Remote sensing is a useful tool for a wide range of research on permafrost and periglacial landscape dynamics• Remote sensing is key to scale field research and observe rapid and gradual changes across large permafrost regions• The future for remote sensing of permafrost is bright:  New airborne and satellite sensors Better data availability and accessibility Longer data time series Enhanced methods for processing and analysisSummary• LiDAR!: Excellent tool for mapping thermokarst and thaw-related landscape modifications• Analysis of temporally dense image stacks to determine landscape changes + trends• Refining permafrost extent maps using MS remote sensing combined with various geophysical measurement techniques: Some great examples from Interior Alaska• Potential applications of UAVs for deriving SfM type terrain models, sensor miniaturization: High deployment flexibility, lots of prohibitive rules currently• SAR time series analysis and InSAR deformation mapping: Issues with trying to remotely sense thermokarst development as it leads to loss of coherence• Optical and radar remote sensing data fusion• New and planned satellite and airborne missionsThe future of permafrost remote sensingCONSORTIUM• Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik (Austria)• AWI for Polar and Marine Research (Germany)• University of Oslo (Norway)• Gamma Remote Sensing (Switzerland)• H2O Geomatics (Canada)• Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (Germany)• IGOT, University of Lisbon (Portugal)ESA GlobPermafrostA service for permafrost monitoringwww.globpermafrost.infoOBJECTIVES• Define Earth Observation (EO) applications for permafrost monitoring based on user requirements• Integrate the latest EO technology with state-of-the-art ground based measurements and models• Demonstrate and validate the products with the user organizations• Develop mid to long term scenarios for polar and mountain permafrost monitoring• Contribute to new scientific results in the domain of climate change, climate modelling and hydrological modelling5 THEMATIC PRODUCTSLocal “cold spots” ESA GlobPermafrostPermafrost Information System (PerSys)Open Access Data CatalogMountain permafrost areasInSAR signals related to rockglaciers dynamic in TerraSAR-X 11 days and Sentinel-1 12 days interferograms over part of the Oberwallisregion in Switzerland.Transects for identification of hotspot regions of permafrost changePermafrost dedicated land cover class prototypesWetland classes based on C-Band SAR Permafrost extentLakes and periglacial processesReviews• Duguay et al. (2005): Remote sensing of permafrost and seasonally frozen ground. In Remote Sensing in Northern Hydrology: Measuring Environmental Change, Geophysical Monograph 163, AGU.• Kääb et al. (2005): Remote sensing of glacier- and permafrost-related hazards in high mountains: an overview, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences.• Westermann et al. (2015): Remote sensing of permafrost and frozen ground. In: Remote Sensing of the Cryosphere. Wiley.• Jorgenson & Grosse (2016, accepted): Remote Sensing of Landscape Change in Permafrost Regions, Permafrost & Periglacial Processes.Community Reports• IGOS Cryosphere Theme Report (2007), Chapter Remote Sensing of Permafrost.• Gogineni & Romanovsky, et al. (2014), Opportunities to use remote sensing in understanding permafrost and ecosystems. National Research Council of the National Academies. The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.Where to find more information?Thank youFoto: P. Overduin

Introduction to Remote Sensing of Permafrost Landscapes and Dynamics

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