Brief communication: Mapping Greenland's perennial firn aquifers using enhanced-resolution L-band brightness temperature image time series

Enhanced-resolution L-band brightness temperature ( T B ) image time series generated from observations collected over the Greenland Ice Sheet by NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite are used to map Greenland's perennial firn aquifers from space. Exponentially decreasing L-...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Cryosphere
Main Authors: J. Z. Miller, D. G. Long, K. C. Jezek, J. T. Johnson, M. J. Brodzik, C. A. Shuman, L. S. Koenig, T. A. Scambos
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Copernicus Publications 2020
Subjects:
Environmental sciences
GE1-350
Geology
QE1-996.5
Greenland
Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS)
Ice Sheet
The Cryosphere
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2809-2020
https://doaj.org/article/5b88ade385654f80828b3a9bc5768161
Description
Summary:Enhanced-resolution L-band brightness temperature ( T B ) image time series generated from observations collected over the Greenland Ice Sheet by NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite are used to map Greenland's perennial firn aquifers from space. Exponentially decreasing L-band T B signatures are correlated with perennial firn aquifer areas identified via the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) Multi-Channel Coherent Radar Depth Sounder (MCoRDS) that was flown by NASA's Operation IceBridge (OIB) campaign. An empirical algorithm to map extent is developed by fitting these signatures to a set of sigmoidal curves. During the spring of 2016, perennial firn aquifer areas are found to extend over ∼66 000 km 2 .

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