Seasonal evolution of Antarctic supraglacial lakes in 2015–2021 and links to environmental controls
Supraglacial meltwater accumulation on ice shelves may have important implications for future sea level rise. Despite recent progress in the understanding of Antarctic surface hydrology, potential influences on ice shelf stability as well as links to environmental drivers remain poorly constrained....
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-5205-2021 https://doaj.org/article/f5b71f9ed58a404fa61a9e775941184b |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:f5b71f9ed58a404fa61a9e775941184b 2023-05-15T13:48:41+02:00 Seasonal evolution of Antarctic supraglacial lakes in 2015–2021 and links to environmental controls M. C. Dirscherl A. J. Dietz C. Kuenzer 2021-11-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-5205-2021 https://doaj.org/article/f5b71f9ed58a404fa61a9e775941184b EN eng Copernicus Publications https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/15/5205/2021/tc-15-5205-2021.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-15-5205-2021 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/f5b71f9ed58a404fa61a9e775941184b The Cryosphere, Vol 15, Pp 5205-5226 (2021) Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-5205-2021 2022-12-31T11:13:25Z Supraglacial meltwater accumulation on ice shelves may have important implications for future sea level rise. Despite recent progress in the understanding of Antarctic surface hydrology, potential influences on ice shelf stability as well as links to environmental drivers remain poorly constrained. In this study, we employ state-of-the-art machine learning on Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and optical Sentinel-2 satellite imagery to provide new insight into the inter-annual and intra-annual evolution of surface hydrological features across six major Antarctic Peninsula and East Antarctic ice shelves. For the first time, we produce a high-resolution record of supraglacial lake extent dynamics for the period 2015–2021 at unprecedented 10 m spatial resolution and bi-weekly temporal scale. Through synergetic use of optical and SAR data, we obtain a more complete mapping record also enabling the delineation of buried lakes. Our results for Antarctic Peninsula ice shelves reveal below-average meltwater ponding during most of melting seasons 2015–2018 and above-average meltwater ponding throughout summer 2019–2020 and early 2020–2021 considering years 2015–2021 as a reference period. Meltwater ponding on investigated East Antarctic ice shelves was far more variable, with above-average lake extents during most 2016–2019 melting seasons and below-average lake extents during 2020–2021, considering the reference interval 2016–2021. This study is the first to investigate relationships with climate drivers both spatially and temporally including time lag analysis. The results indicate that supraglacial lake formation in 2015–2021 is coupled to the complex interplay of local, regional and large-scale environmental drivers with similar driving factors over both ice sheet regions. In particular, varying air temperature, solar radiation and wind conditions influenced supraglacial lake formation over all six ice shelves despite strong local to regional discrepancies, as revealed through pixel-based correlation ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Ice Shelves The Cryosphere Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula The Cryosphere 15 11 5205 5226 |
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 M. C. Dirscherl A. J. Dietz C. Kuenzer Seasonal evolution of Antarctic supraglacial lakes in 2015–2021 and links to environmental controls |
topic_facet |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
description |
Supraglacial meltwater accumulation on ice shelves may have important implications for future sea level rise. Despite recent progress in the understanding of Antarctic surface hydrology, potential influences on ice shelf stability as well as links to environmental drivers remain poorly constrained. In this study, we employ state-of-the-art machine learning on Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and optical Sentinel-2 satellite imagery to provide new insight into the inter-annual and intra-annual evolution of surface hydrological features across six major Antarctic Peninsula and East Antarctic ice shelves. For the first time, we produce a high-resolution record of supraglacial lake extent dynamics for the period 2015–2021 at unprecedented 10 m spatial resolution and bi-weekly temporal scale. Through synergetic use of optical and SAR data, we obtain a more complete mapping record also enabling the delineation of buried lakes. Our results for Antarctic Peninsula ice shelves reveal below-average meltwater ponding during most of melting seasons 2015–2018 and above-average meltwater ponding throughout summer 2019–2020 and early 2020–2021 considering years 2015–2021 as a reference period. Meltwater ponding on investigated East Antarctic ice shelves was far more variable, with above-average lake extents during most 2016–2019 melting seasons and below-average lake extents during 2020–2021, considering the reference interval 2016–2021. This study is the first to investigate relationships with climate drivers both spatially and temporally including time lag analysis. The results indicate that supraglacial lake formation in 2015–2021 is coupled to the complex interplay of local, regional and large-scale environmental drivers with similar driving factors over both ice sheet regions. In particular, varying air temperature, solar radiation and wind conditions influenced supraglacial lake formation over all six ice shelves despite strong local to regional discrepancies, as revealed through pixel-based correlation ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
M. C. Dirscherl A. J. Dietz C. Kuenzer |
author_facet |
M. C. Dirscherl A. J. Dietz C. Kuenzer |
author_sort |
M. C. Dirscherl |
title |
Seasonal evolution of Antarctic supraglacial lakes in 2015–2021 and links to environmental controls |
title_short |
Seasonal evolution of Antarctic supraglacial lakes in 2015–2021 and links to environmental controls |
title_full |
Seasonal evolution of Antarctic supraglacial lakes in 2015–2021 and links to environmental controls |
title_fullStr |
Seasonal evolution of Antarctic supraglacial lakes in 2015–2021 and links to environmental controls |
title_full_unstemmed |
Seasonal evolution of Antarctic supraglacial lakes in 2015–2021 and links to environmental controls |
title_sort |
seasonal evolution of antarctic supraglacial lakes in 2015–2021 and links to environmental controls |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-5205-2021 https://doaj.org/article/f5b71f9ed58a404fa61a9e775941184b |
geographic |
Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Ice Shelves The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Ice Shelves The Cryosphere |
op_source |
The Cryosphere, Vol 15, Pp 5205-5226 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/15/5205/2021/tc-15-5205-2021.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-15-5205-2021 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/f5b71f9ed58a404fa61a9e775941184b |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-5205-2021 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
15 |
container_issue |
11 |
container_start_page |
5205 |
op_container_end_page |
5226 |
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1766249581247463424 |