Retrievals of Lake Ice Thickness From Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake Using CryoSat-2
Satellite observations have revealed decreases in the duration of the seasonal snow and ice coverage of Great Slave Lake (GSL) and Great Bear Lake (GBL), large freshwater lakes in Northern Canada. However, limited information is available about ice thickness changes. Here, we present and validate a...
Published in: | IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing |
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Online Access: | https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/51882/ https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2017.2677583 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.3464b7b3-f9a1-40fd-bade-e1203913303e |
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ftawi:oai:epic.awi.de:51882 2024-09-15T18:08:12+00:00 Retrievals of Lake Ice Thickness From Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake Using CryoSat-2 Beckers, Justin F. Alec Casey, J. Haas, Christian 2017 https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/51882/ https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2017.2677583 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.3464b7b3-f9a1-40fd-bade-e1203913303e unknown Beckers, J. F. , Alec Casey, J. and Haas, C. orcid:0000-0002-7674-3500 (2017) Retrievals of Lake Ice Thickness From Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake Using CryoSat-2 , IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 55 (7), pp. 3708-3720 . doi:10.1109/TGRS.2017.2677583 <https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2017.2677583> , hdl:10013/epic.3464b7b3-f9a1-40fd-bade-e1203913303e EPIC3IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 55(7), pp. 3708-3720, ISSN: 0196-2892 Article isiRev 2017 ftawi https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2017.2677583 2024-06-24T04:24:41Z Satellite observations have revealed decreases in the duration of the seasonal snow and ice coverage of Great Slave Lake (GSL) and Great Bear Lake (GBL), large freshwater lakes in Northern Canada. However, limited information is available about ice thickness changes. Here, we present and validate a method to retrieve lake ice thickness using the CryoSat-2 (CS2) radar altimeter. These are the first satellite altimeter retrievals of lake ice thickness. Under optimal conditions, the CS2 signal is scattered from both the snow-ice and the ice-water interfaces, with returns from each interface being of sufficient power to be identified in the radar waveform. The distance between the scattering horizons is used to determine the ice thickness, similar to traditional ground penetrating radar measurements. The seasonal evolution of ice thickness of GBL and GSL is compared with in situ measurements, modeled ice thicknesses, and previous studies. The impact of ice and snow properties on signal penetration and the thickness retrieval are examined with synthetic aperture radar imagery. The CS2 ice thickness retrievals are able to observe the seasonal thickening of the lake ice and closely match the in situ measurements over both lakes (R > 0.65 , RMSE <; 0.33 m). Thickness retrievals of thin ice are limited by a minimum waveform peak separation of 2 range bins, approximately 0.26 m in ice. Although not designed for lake ice studies, CS2 and future SAR satellite altimeter missions offer new possibilities to monitor the ice and water levels of climatically sensitive and influential lakes. Article in Journal/Newspaper Great Bear Lake Great Slave Lake Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar- and Marine Research (AWI): ePIC (electronic Publication Information Center) IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 55 7 3708 3720 |
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Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar- and Marine Research (AWI): ePIC (electronic Publication Information Center) |
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Satellite observations have revealed decreases in the duration of the seasonal snow and ice coverage of Great Slave Lake (GSL) and Great Bear Lake (GBL), large freshwater lakes in Northern Canada. However, limited information is available about ice thickness changes. Here, we present and validate a method to retrieve lake ice thickness using the CryoSat-2 (CS2) radar altimeter. These are the first satellite altimeter retrievals of lake ice thickness. Under optimal conditions, the CS2 signal is scattered from both the snow-ice and the ice-water interfaces, with returns from each interface being of sufficient power to be identified in the radar waveform. The distance between the scattering horizons is used to determine the ice thickness, similar to traditional ground penetrating radar measurements. The seasonal evolution of ice thickness of GBL and GSL is compared with in situ measurements, modeled ice thicknesses, and previous studies. The impact of ice and snow properties on signal penetration and the thickness retrieval are examined with synthetic aperture radar imagery. The CS2 ice thickness retrievals are able to observe the seasonal thickening of the lake ice and closely match the in situ measurements over both lakes (R > 0.65 , RMSE <; 0.33 m). Thickness retrievals of thin ice are limited by a minimum waveform peak separation of 2 range bins, approximately 0.26 m in ice. Although not designed for lake ice studies, CS2 and future SAR satellite altimeter missions offer new possibilities to monitor the ice and water levels of climatically sensitive and influential lakes. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Beckers, Justin F. Alec Casey, J. Haas, Christian |
spellingShingle |
Beckers, Justin F. Alec Casey, J. Haas, Christian Retrievals of Lake Ice Thickness From Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake Using CryoSat-2 |
author_facet |
Beckers, Justin F. Alec Casey, J. Haas, Christian |
author_sort |
Beckers, Justin F. |
title |
Retrievals of Lake Ice Thickness From Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake Using CryoSat-2 |
title_short |
Retrievals of Lake Ice Thickness From Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake Using CryoSat-2 |
title_full |
Retrievals of Lake Ice Thickness From Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake Using CryoSat-2 |
title_fullStr |
Retrievals of Lake Ice Thickness From Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake Using CryoSat-2 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Retrievals of Lake Ice Thickness From Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake Using CryoSat-2 |
title_sort |
retrievals of lake ice thickness from great slave lake and great bear lake using cryosat-2 |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/51882/ https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2017.2677583 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.3464b7b3-f9a1-40fd-bade-e1203913303e |
genre |
Great Bear Lake Great Slave Lake |
genre_facet |
Great Bear Lake Great Slave Lake |
op_source |
EPIC3IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 55(7), pp. 3708-3720, ISSN: 0196-2892 |
op_relation |
Beckers, J. F. , Alec Casey, J. and Haas, C. orcid:0000-0002-7674-3500 (2017) Retrievals of Lake Ice Thickness From Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake Using CryoSat-2 , IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 55 (7), pp. 3708-3720 . doi:10.1109/TGRS.2017.2677583 <https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2017.2677583> , hdl:10013/epic.3464b7b3-f9a1-40fd-bade-e1203913303e |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2017.2677583 |
container_title |
IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing |
container_volume |
55 |
container_issue |
7 |
container_start_page |
3708 |
op_container_end_page |
3720 |
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1810445536839335936 |