The Geometry of Large Tundra Lakes Observed in Historical Maps and Satellite Images
The climate of the Arctic is warming rapidly and this is causing major changes to the cycling of carbon and the distribution of permafrost in this region. Tundra lakes are key components of the Arctic climate system because they represent a source of methane to the atmosphere. In this paper, we aim...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:55003ced7ec84fe1ae010fe4f22a64fe 2023-05-15T14:54:28+02:00 The Geometry of Large Tundra Lakes Observed in Historical Maps and Satellite Images Ivan Sudakov Almabrok Essa Luke Mander Ming Gong Tharanga Kariyawasam 2017-10-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9101072 https://doaj.org/article/55003ced7ec84fe1ae010fe4f22a64fe EN eng MDPI AG https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/9/10/1072 https://doaj.org/toc/2072-4292 2072-4292 doi:10.3390/rs9101072 https://doaj.org/article/55003ced7ec84fe1ae010fe4f22a64fe Remote Sensing, Vol 9, Iss 10, p 1072 (2017) Arctic permafrost tundra lakes image processing fractals power law Science Q article 2017 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9101072 2022-12-31T15:21:24Z The climate of the Arctic is warming rapidly and this is causing major changes to the cycling of carbon and the distribution of permafrost in this region. Tundra lakes are key components of the Arctic climate system because they represent a source of methane to the atmosphere. In this paper, we aim to analyze the geometry of the patterns formed by large (> 0.8 km 2 ) tundra lakes in the Russian High Arctic. We have studied images of tundra lakes in historical maps from the State Hydrological Institute, Russia (date 1977; scale 0.21166 km/pixel) and in Landsat satellite images derived from the Google Earth Engine (G.E.E.; date 2016; scale 0.1503 km/pixel). The G.E.E. is a cloud-based platform for planetary-scale geospatial analysis on over four decades of Landsat data. We developed an image-processing algorithm to segment these maps and images, measure the area and perimeter of each lake, and compute the fractal dimension of the lakes in the images we have studied. Our results indicate that as lake size increases, their fractal dimension bifurcates. For lakes observed in historical maps, this bifurcation occurs among lakes larger than 100 km 2 (fractal dimension 1.43 to 1.87 ). For lakes observed in satellite images this bifurcation occurs among lakes larger than ∼100 km 2 (fractal dimension 1.31 to 1.95 ). Tundra lakes with a fractal dimension close to 2 have a tendency to be self-similar with respect to their area–perimeter relationships. Area–perimeter measurements indicate that lakes with a length scale greater than 70 km 2 are power-law distributed. Preliminary analysis of changes in lake size over time in paired lakes (lakes that were visually matched in both the historical map and the satellite imagery) indicate that some lakes in our study region have increased in size over time, whereas others have decreased in size over time. Lake size change during this 39-year time interval can be up to half the size of the lake as recorded in the historical map. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic permafrost Tundra Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Remote Sensing 9 10 1072 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic permafrost tundra lakes image processing fractals power law Science Q |
spellingShingle |
Arctic permafrost tundra lakes image processing fractals power law Science Q Ivan Sudakov Almabrok Essa Luke Mander Ming Gong Tharanga Kariyawasam The Geometry of Large Tundra Lakes Observed in Historical Maps and Satellite Images |
topic_facet |
Arctic permafrost tundra lakes image processing fractals power law Science Q |
description |
The climate of the Arctic is warming rapidly and this is causing major changes to the cycling of carbon and the distribution of permafrost in this region. Tundra lakes are key components of the Arctic climate system because they represent a source of methane to the atmosphere. In this paper, we aim to analyze the geometry of the patterns formed by large (> 0.8 km 2 ) tundra lakes in the Russian High Arctic. We have studied images of tundra lakes in historical maps from the State Hydrological Institute, Russia (date 1977; scale 0.21166 km/pixel) and in Landsat satellite images derived from the Google Earth Engine (G.E.E.; date 2016; scale 0.1503 km/pixel). The G.E.E. is a cloud-based platform for planetary-scale geospatial analysis on over four decades of Landsat data. We developed an image-processing algorithm to segment these maps and images, measure the area and perimeter of each lake, and compute the fractal dimension of the lakes in the images we have studied. Our results indicate that as lake size increases, their fractal dimension bifurcates. For lakes observed in historical maps, this bifurcation occurs among lakes larger than 100 km 2 (fractal dimension 1.43 to 1.87 ). For lakes observed in satellite images this bifurcation occurs among lakes larger than ∼100 km 2 (fractal dimension 1.31 to 1.95 ). Tundra lakes with a fractal dimension close to 2 have a tendency to be self-similar with respect to their area–perimeter relationships. Area–perimeter measurements indicate that lakes with a length scale greater than 70 km 2 are power-law distributed. Preliminary analysis of changes in lake size over time in paired lakes (lakes that were visually matched in both the historical map and the satellite imagery) indicate that some lakes in our study region have increased in size over time, whereas others have decreased in size over time. Lake size change during this 39-year time interval can be up to half the size of the lake as recorded in the historical map. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ivan Sudakov Almabrok Essa Luke Mander Ming Gong Tharanga Kariyawasam |
author_facet |
Ivan Sudakov Almabrok Essa Luke Mander Ming Gong Tharanga Kariyawasam |
author_sort |
Ivan Sudakov |
title |
The Geometry of Large Tundra Lakes Observed in Historical Maps and Satellite Images |
title_short |
The Geometry of Large Tundra Lakes Observed in Historical Maps and Satellite Images |
title_full |
The Geometry of Large Tundra Lakes Observed in Historical Maps and Satellite Images |
title_fullStr |
The Geometry of Large Tundra Lakes Observed in Historical Maps and Satellite Images |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Geometry of Large Tundra Lakes Observed in Historical Maps and Satellite Images |
title_sort |
geometry of large tundra lakes observed in historical maps and satellite images |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9101072 https://doaj.org/article/55003ced7ec84fe1ae010fe4f22a64fe |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic permafrost Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic permafrost Tundra |
op_source |
Remote Sensing, Vol 9, Iss 10, p 1072 (2017) |
op_relation |
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/9/10/1072 https://doaj.org/toc/2072-4292 2072-4292 doi:10.3390/rs9101072 https://doaj.org/article/55003ced7ec84fe1ae010fe4f22a64fe |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9101072 |
container_title |
Remote Sensing |
container_volume |
9 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
1072 |
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1766326197940125696 |