Toward Monitoring Surface and Subsurface Lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet Using Sentinel-1 SAR and Landsat-8 OLI Imagery
Supraglacial lakes are an important component of the Greenland Ice Sheet's mass balance and hydrology, with their drainage affecting ice dynamics. This study uses imagery from the recently launched Sentinel-1A Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite to investigate supraglacial lakes in West Gr...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:cc591fde5868433790f87b831ebdb577 2023-05-15T16:26:17+02:00 Toward Monitoring Surface and Subsurface Lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet Using Sentinel-1 SAR and Landsat-8 OLI Imagery Katie E. Miles Ian C. Willis Corinne L. Benedek Andrew G. Williamson Marco Tedesco 2017-07-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2017.00058 https://doaj.org/article/cc591fde5868433790f87b831ebdb577 EN eng Frontiers Media S.A. http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/feart.2017.00058/full https://doaj.org/toc/2296-6463 2296-6463 doi:10.3389/feart.2017.00058 https://doaj.org/article/cc591fde5868433790f87b831ebdb577 Frontiers in Earth Science, Vol 5 (2017) Greenland hydrology supraglacial lakes drainage satellite remote sensing Sentinel-1 Science Q article 2017 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2017.00058 2022-12-31T00:37:04Z Supraglacial lakes are an important component of the Greenland Ice Sheet's mass balance and hydrology, with their drainage affecting ice dynamics. This study uses imagery from the recently launched Sentinel-1A Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite to investigate supraglacial lakes in West Greenland. A semi-automated algorithm is developed to detect surface lakes from Sentinel-1 images during the 2015 summer. A combined Landsat-8 and Sentinel-1 dataset, which has a comparable temporal resolution to MODIS (3 days vs. daily) but a higher spatial resolution (25–40 vs. 250–500 m), is then used together with a fully automated lake drainage detection algorithm. Rapid (<4 days) and slow (>4 days) drainages are investigated for both small (<0.125 km2, the minimum size detectable by MODIS) and large (≥0.125 km2) lakes through the summer. Drainage events of small lakes occur at lower elevations (mean 159 m), and slightly earlier (mean 4.5 days) in the melt season than those of large lakes. The analysis is extended manually into the early winter to calculate the dates and elevations of lake freeze-through more precisely than is possible with optical imagery (mean 30 August; 1,270 m mean elevation). Finally, the Sentinel-1 imagery is used to detect subsurface lakes and, for the first time, their dates of appearance and freeze-through (mean 9 August and 7 October, respectively). These subsurface lakes occur at higher elevations than the surface lakes detected in this study (mean 1,593 and 1,185 m, respectively). Sentinel-1 imagery therefore provides great potential for tracking melting, water movement and freezing within both the firn zone and ablation area of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Ice Sheet Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Greenland The Sentinel ENVELOPE(73.317,73.317,-52.983,-52.983) Frontiers in Earth Science 5 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Greenland hydrology supraglacial lakes drainage satellite remote sensing Sentinel-1 Science Q |
spellingShingle |
Greenland hydrology supraglacial lakes drainage satellite remote sensing Sentinel-1 Science Q Katie E. Miles Ian C. Willis Corinne L. Benedek Andrew G. Williamson Marco Tedesco Toward Monitoring Surface and Subsurface Lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet Using Sentinel-1 SAR and Landsat-8 OLI Imagery |
topic_facet |
Greenland hydrology supraglacial lakes drainage satellite remote sensing Sentinel-1 Science Q |
description |
Supraglacial lakes are an important component of the Greenland Ice Sheet's mass balance and hydrology, with their drainage affecting ice dynamics. This study uses imagery from the recently launched Sentinel-1A Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite to investigate supraglacial lakes in West Greenland. A semi-automated algorithm is developed to detect surface lakes from Sentinel-1 images during the 2015 summer. A combined Landsat-8 and Sentinel-1 dataset, which has a comparable temporal resolution to MODIS (3 days vs. daily) but a higher spatial resolution (25–40 vs. 250–500 m), is then used together with a fully automated lake drainage detection algorithm. Rapid (<4 days) and slow (>4 days) drainages are investigated for both small (<0.125 km2, the minimum size detectable by MODIS) and large (≥0.125 km2) lakes through the summer. Drainage events of small lakes occur at lower elevations (mean 159 m), and slightly earlier (mean 4.5 days) in the melt season than those of large lakes. The analysis is extended manually into the early winter to calculate the dates and elevations of lake freeze-through more precisely than is possible with optical imagery (mean 30 August; 1,270 m mean elevation). Finally, the Sentinel-1 imagery is used to detect subsurface lakes and, for the first time, their dates of appearance and freeze-through (mean 9 August and 7 October, respectively). These subsurface lakes occur at higher elevations than the surface lakes detected in this study (mean 1,593 and 1,185 m, respectively). Sentinel-1 imagery therefore provides great potential for tracking melting, water movement and freezing within both the firn zone and ablation area of the Greenland Ice Sheet. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Katie E. Miles Ian C. Willis Corinne L. Benedek Andrew G. Williamson Marco Tedesco |
author_facet |
Katie E. Miles Ian C. Willis Corinne L. Benedek Andrew G. Williamson Marco Tedesco |
author_sort |
Katie E. Miles |
title |
Toward Monitoring Surface and Subsurface Lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet Using Sentinel-1 SAR and Landsat-8 OLI Imagery |
title_short |
Toward Monitoring Surface and Subsurface Lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet Using Sentinel-1 SAR and Landsat-8 OLI Imagery |
title_full |
Toward Monitoring Surface and Subsurface Lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet Using Sentinel-1 SAR and Landsat-8 OLI Imagery |
title_fullStr |
Toward Monitoring Surface and Subsurface Lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet Using Sentinel-1 SAR and Landsat-8 OLI Imagery |
title_full_unstemmed |
Toward Monitoring Surface and Subsurface Lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet Using Sentinel-1 SAR and Landsat-8 OLI Imagery |
title_sort |
toward monitoring surface and subsurface lakes on the greenland ice sheet using sentinel-1 sar and landsat-8 oli imagery |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2017.00058 https://doaj.org/article/cc591fde5868433790f87b831ebdb577 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(73.317,73.317,-52.983,-52.983) |
geographic |
Greenland The Sentinel |
geographic_facet |
Greenland The Sentinel |
genre |
Greenland Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Greenland Ice Sheet |
op_source |
Frontiers in Earth Science, Vol 5 (2017) |
op_relation |
http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/feart.2017.00058/full https://doaj.org/toc/2296-6463 2296-6463 doi:10.3389/feart.2017.00058 https://doaj.org/article/cc591fde5868433790f87b831ebdb577 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2017.00058 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Earth Science |
container_volume |
5 |
_version_ |
1766015191506485248 |