Coastal meltwater plume detection and its response to melting variations around the Greenland Ice Sheet ...
Meltwater runoff is an important component of the mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet and is usually assessed using climate-mass balance models. In-situ measurements of runoff from the outlets are rare, and remote sensing platforms capable of monitoring runoff in rivers, lakes and fjords are in...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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University of Cambridge
2015
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| Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.35450 https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/288133 |
| Summary: | Meltwater runoff is an important component of the mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet and is usually assessed using climate-mass balance models. In-situ measurements of runoff from the outlets are rare, and remote sensing platforms capable of monitoring runoff in rivers, lakes and fjords are in their infancy. Thus, there is a need to investigate new methods of observing meltwater losses. Preliminary studies have been conducted correlating measured meltwater discharge to different characteristics of plumes containing suspended sediment in fjords retrieved from remote sensing. However, suspended sediments are not directly representative of meltwater leaving the ice sheet, and later in the melt season the meltwater may have a very low sediment load due to exhaustion in sediment supply. Also, the spatial resolution of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) imagery used in these studies limits the accuracy of sediment plume retrieval, especially in areas of pervasive iceberg and sea ice cover. ... |
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