Ground based oblique view photogrammetry and Sentinel1 spaceborne RADAR reflectivity snow melt processes assessment on an Arctic glacier

• Published in: Remote Sensing
• Main Authors: Friedt, Jean-Michel, Bernard, Eric, Griselin, Madeleine
• Other Authors: Franche-Comté Électronique Mécanique, Thermique et Optique - Sciences et Technologies (UMR 6174) (FEMTO-ST), Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbeliard (UTBM)-Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique et des Microtechniques (ENSMM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Franche-Comté (UFC), Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté COMUE (UBFC)-Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté COMUE (UBFC), Théoriser et modéliser pour aménager (UMR 6049) (ThéMA), Université de Bourgogne (UB)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Franche-Comté (UFC)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2023
• Subjects: [SPI.OTHER]Engineering Sciences [physics]/Other; Arctic; albedo
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04257646; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15071858

International audience The snowpack evolution during the melt season on an Arctic glacieris assessed using ground-based oblique-view cameras, spaceborneimaging and spaceborne RADAR. The repeated and systematic SyntheticAperture RADAR (SAR) imaging by the European Space Agency’sSentinel-1 spaceborne RADARs allows for all-weather,all-illumination condition monitoring of the snowcovered fractionof the glacier and hence assessing its water production potential.A comparison of the RADAR reflectivity with optical andmultispectral imaging highlights the difference between theobserved quantities—water content in the former, albedo in thelatter—and the complementarity for understanding the snow meltprocesses. This work highlights the temporal inertia between thevisible spring melting of the snowpack and the snow metamorphism.It was found that the snowpack exhibits that approximately 30 daysbefore it starts to fade.