Automated mapping of the seasonal evolution of surface meltwater and its links to climate on the Amery Ice Shelf, Antarctica
Surface meltwater is widespread around the Antarctic Ice Sheet margin and has the potential to influence ice shelf stability, ice flow and ice–albedo feedbacks. Our understanding of the seasonal and multi-year evolution of Antarctic surface meltwater is limited. Attempts to generate robust meltwater...
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Copernicus Publications
2021
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:d8ee049fdcd548909cbea94ba4de9a7a 2023-05-15T13:22:04+02:00 Automated mapping of the seasonal evolution of surface meltwater and its links to climate on the Amery Ice Shelf, Antarctica P. A. Tuckett J. C. Ely A. J. Sole J. M. Lea S. J. Livingstone J. M. Jones J. M. van Wessem 2021-12-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-5785-2021 https://doaj.org/article/d8ee049fdcd548909cbea94ba4de9a7a EN eng Copernicus Publications https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/15/5785/2021/tc-15-5785-2021.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-15-5785-2021 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/d8ee049fdcd548909cbea94ba4de9a7a The Cryosphere, Vol 15, Pp 5785-5804 (2021) Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-5785-2021 2022-12-31T16:32:07Z Surface meltwater is widespread around the Antarctic Ice Sheet margin and has the potential to influence ice shelf stability, ice flow and ice–albedo feedbacks. Our understanding of the seasonal and multi-year evolution of Antarctic surface meltwater is limited. Attempts to generate robust meltwater cover time series have largely been constrained by computational expense or limited ice surface visibility associated with mapping from optical satellite imagery. Here, we add a novel method for calculating visibility metrics to an existing meltwater detection method within Google Earth Engine. This enables us to quantify uncertainty induced by cloud cover and variable image data coverage, allowing time series of surface meltwater area to be automatically generated over large spatial and temporal scales. We demonstrate our method on the Amery Ice Shelf region of East Antarctica, analysing 4164 Landsat 7 and 8 optical images between 2005 and 2020. Results show high interannual variability in surface meltwater cover, with mapped cumulative lake area totals ranging from 384 to 3898 km 2 per melt season. By incorporating image visibility assessments, however, we estimate that cumulative total lake areas are on average 42 % higher than minimum mapped values. We show that modelled melt predictions from a regional climate model provide a good indication of lake cover in the Amery region and that annual lake coverage is typically highest in years with a negative austral summer SAM index. Our results demonstrate that our method could be scaled up to generate a multi-year time series record of surface water extent from optical imagery at a continent-wide scale. Article in Journal/Newspaper Amery Ice Shelf Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelf The Cryosphere Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Amery ENVELOPE(-94.063,-94.063,56.565,56.565) Amery Ice Shelf ENVELOPE(71.000,71.000,-69.750,-69.750) Antarctic Austral East Antarctica The Antarctic The Cryosphere 15 12 5785 5804 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
spellingShingle |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 P. A. Tuckett J. C. Ely A. J. Sole J. M. Lea S. J. Livingstone J. M. Jones J. M. van Wessem Automated mapping of the seasonal evolution of surface meltwater and its links to climate on the Amery Ice Shelf, Antarctica |
topic_facet |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
description |
Surface meltwater is widespread around the Antarctic Ice Sheet margin and has the potential to influence ice shelf stability, ice flow and ice–albedo feedbacks. Our understanding of the seasonal and multi-year evolution of Antarctic surface meltwater is limited. Attempts to generate robust meltwater cover time series have largely been constrained by computational expense or limited ice surface visibility associated with mapping from optical satellite imagery. Here, we add a novel method for calculating visibility metrics to an existing meltwater detection method within Google Earth Engine. This enables us to quantify uncertainty induced by cloud cover and variable image data coverage, allowing time series of surface meltwater area to be automatically generated over large spatial and temporal scales. We demonstrate our method on the Amery Ice Shelf region of East Antarctica, analysing 4164 Landsat 7 and 8 optical images between 2005 and 2020. Results show high interannual variability in surface meltwater cover, with mapped cumulative lake area totals ranging from 384 to 3898 km 2 per melt season. By incorporating image visibility assessments, however, we estimate that cumulative total lake areas are on average 42 % higher than minimum mapped values. We show that modelled melt predictions from a regional climate model provide a good indication of lake cover in the Amery region and that annual lake coverage is typically highest in years with a negative austral summer SAM index. Our results demonstrate that our method could be scaled up to generate a multi-year time series record of surface water extent from optical imagery at a continent-wide scale. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
P. A. Tuckett J. C. Ely A. J. Sole J. M. Lea S. J. Livingstone J. M. Jones J. M. van Wessem |
author_facet |
P. A. Tuckett J. C. Ely A. J. Sole J. M. Lea S. J. Livingstone J. M. Jones J. M. van Wessem |
author_sort |
P. A. Tuckett |
title |
Automated mapping of the seasonal evolution of surface meltwater and its links to climate on the Amery Ice Shelf, Antarctica |
title_short |
Automated mapping of the seasonal evolution of surface meltwater and its links to climate on the Amery Ice Shelf, Antarctica |
title_full |
Automated mapping of the seasonal evolution of surface meltwater and its links to climate on the Amery Ice Shelf, Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
Automated mapping of the seasonal evolution of surface meltwater and its links to climate on the Amery Ice Shelf, Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
Automated mapping of the seasonal evolution of surface meltwater and its links to climate on the Amery Ice Shelf, Antarctica |
title_sort |
automated mapping of the seasonal evolution of surface meltwater and its links to climate on the amery ice shelf, antarctica |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-5785-2021 https://doaj.org/article/d8ee049fdcd548909cbea94ba4de9a7a |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-94.063,-94.063,56.565,56.565) ENVELOPE(71.000,71.000,-69.750,-69.750) |
geographic |
Amery Amery Ice Shelf Antarctic Austral East Antarctica The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Amery Amery Ice Shelf Antarctic Austral East Antarctica The Antarctic |
genre |
Amery Ice Shelf Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelf The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
Amery Ice Shelf Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelf The Cryosphere |
op_source |
The Cryosphere, Vol 15, Pp 5785-5804 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/15/5785/2021/tc-15-5785-2021.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-15-5785-2021 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/d8ee049fdcd548909cbea94ba4de9a7a |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-5785-2021 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
15 |
container_issue |
12 |
container_start_page |
5785 |
op_container_end_page |
5804 |
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1766363128359026688 |