Ground-Based Oblique-View Photogrammetry and Sentinel-1 Spaceborne RADAR Reflectivity Snow Melt Processes Assessment on an Arctic Glacier

The snowpack evolution during the melt season on an Arctic glacier is assessed using ground-based oblique-view cameras, spaceborne imaging and spaceborne RADAR. The repeated and systematic Synthetic Aperture RADAR (SAR) imaging by the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 spaceborne RADARs allows for a...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Remote Sensing
Main Authors: Jean-Michel Friedt, Éric Bernard, Madeleine Griselin
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2023
Subjects:
Q
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15071858
https://doaj.org/article/78bc947375c745218516ba162e34ba9e
Description
Summary:The snowpack evolution during the melt season on an Arctic glacier is assessed using ground-based oblique-view cameras, spaceborne imaging and spaceborne RADAR. The repeated and systematic Synthetic Aperture RADAR (SAR) imaging by the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 spaceborne RADARs allows for all-weather, all-illumination condition monitoring of the snow-covered fraction of the glacier and hence assessing its water production potential. A comparison of the RADAR reflectivity with optical and multispectral imaging highlights the difference between the observed quantities—water content in the former, albedo in the latter—and the complementarity for understanding the snow melt processes. This work highlights the temporal inertia between the visible spring melting of the snowpack and the snow metamorphism. It was found that the snowpack exhibits that approximately 30 days before it starts to fade.