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

• 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

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 .