Quantifying Surface‐Height Change Over a Periglacial Environment With ICESat‐2 Laser Altimetry

Abstract We use Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite 2 (ICESat‐2) laser altimetry crossovers and repeat tracks collected over the North Slope of Alaska to estimate ground surface‐height change due to the seasonal freezing and thawing of the active layer. We compare these measurements to a time s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Earth and Space Science
Main Authors: R. J. Michaelides, M. B. Bryant, M. R. Siegfried, A. A. Borsa
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2021
Subjects:
ICESat‐2
altimetry
permafrost
InSAR
Astronomy
QB1-991
Geology
QE1-996.5
Ice
north slope
Alaska
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EA001538
https://doaj.org/article/79407307728a47d2a5d2d26a512185ec
Description
Summary:Abstract We use Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite 2 (ICESat‐2) laser altimetry crossovers and repeat tracks collected over the North Slope of Alaska to estimate ground surface‐height change due to the seasonal freezing and thawing of the active layer. We compare these measurements to a time series of surface deformation from Sentinel‐1 interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) and demonstrate agreement between these independent observations of surface deformation at broad spatial scales. We observe a relationship between ICESat‐2‐derived surface subsidence/uplift and changes in normalized accumulated degree days, which is consistent with the thermodynamically driven seasonal freezing and thawing of the active layer. Integrating ICESat‐2 crossover estimates of surface‐height change yields an annual time series of surface‐height change that is sensitive to changes in snow cover during spring and thawing of the active layer throughout spring and summer. Furthermore, this time series exhibits temporal correlation with independent reanalysis datasets of temperature and snow cover, as well as an InSAR‐derived time series. ICESat‐2‐derived surface‐height change estimates can be significantly affected by short length‐scale topographic gradients and changes in snow cover and snow depth. We discuss optimal strategies of post‐processing ICESat‐2 data for permafrost applications, as well as the future potential of joint ICESat‐2 and InSAR investigations of permafrost surface‐dynamics.

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