Detecting Melt Pond Onset on Landfast Arctic Sea Ice Using a Dual C-Band Satellite Approach ...

• Main Author: Maknun, Syeda Shahida
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Graduate Studies 2024
• Subjects: Canadian Arctic Archipelago; Sea ice; Melt ponds; Pond onset; Co-polarized ratio; Sentinel-1; ASCAT; Dual-sensor C-band; Snow; Remote Sensing; Physical Geography; Arctic; albedo; Arctic Archipelago
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/prism/46563; https://prism.ucalgary.ca/handle/1880/118967

The presence of melt ponds on the surface of Arctic sea ice affects its albedo, thermal properties, and overall melting rate, and thus, the detection of melt pond onset is of significant importance for understanding the Arctic's changing climate. This study investigates the utility of a novel method for detecting the onset of melt ponds on sea ice using a satellite-based, dual-sensor C-band approach, whereby Sentinel-1 provides horizontally polarized (HH) data and Advanced SCATterometer (ASCAT) provides vertically polarized (VV) data. The co-polarized ratio (VV/HH) is used to detect the presence of melt ponds on landfast sea ice in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago in 2017 and 2018. ERA-5 air temperature, and wind speed reanalysis datasets are used to establish the VV/HH threshold for pond onset detection which have been further validated by Landsat-8 reflectance. Co-polarized ratio threshold of 3 standard deviations from late winter season (April) acquisitions is used for assessing pond onset detection ...