High-resolution spatio-temporal analysis of snowmelt over Antarctic Peninsula ice shelves from 2015 to 2021 using SAR images

Ice shelves play an essential role in the dynamics of the Antarctic ice sheet. The surface meltwater is important, as it can irreversibly weaken ice shelves by exerting additional hydrostatic pressure. Therefore, high-resolution snowmelt products are urgently needed to accurately analyze melting pat...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:International Journal of Digital Earth
Main Authors: Qi Zhu, Huadong Guo, Lu Zhang, Dong Liang, Xuting Liu, Heng Zhou, Yiting Gou
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2023
Subjects:
surface snowmelt
ice shelf
sentinel-1 imagery
antarctic peninsula
high resolution
Mathematical geography. Cartography
GA1-1776
Antarctic
Antarctic Peninsula
The Antarctic
Wilkins
Antarc*
Ice Sheet
Ice Shelf
Ice Shelves
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1080/17538947.2023.2181991
https://doaj.org/article/11e7295d451a409493051720410ece52
Description
Summary:Ice shelves play an essential role in the dynamics of the Antarctic ice sheet. The surface meltwater is important, as it can irreversibly weaken ice shelves by exerting additional hydrostatic pressure. Therefore, high-resolution snowmelt products are urgently needed to accurately analyze melting patterns of ice shelves and further estimate mass loss. In this study, a new high-resolution (40 m) snowmelt dataset over all of the Antarctic Peninsula ice shelves larger than 100 km$^2$ was developed based on the modified snowmelt detection framework by using a co-orbit normalization method. The dataset provides detailed snowmelt information on each ice shelf, including the image coverage, melting area and melting ratio every 5 days. The melting patterns of three typical ice shelves (George VI, Wilkins and Larsen C Ice Shelves) and the spatio-temporal melting distribution of the Antarctic Peninsula (AP) were further analyzed. The snowmelt information indicates that both the extent and duration of snowmelt have been increasing in the Antarctic Peninsula from 2015 to 2021, and we found that the snowmelt on the Antarctic Peninsula showed a spatial pattern of significantly intense snowmelt on the western side. We believe this study will provide essential data for ice shelf investigation to support other fields of polar research.

Similar Items