Toward Long-Term Monitoring of Regional Permafrost Thaw with Satellite InSAR

We estimate active layer thickness (ALT) for part of northern Alaska’s permafrost zone for summer 2017 to 2022 using satellite data from Sentinel-1 and ICESat-2. Interferograms were inverted using a Short Baseline Subset (SBAS) approach to estimate the amplitude of seasonal subsidence. ALT was estim...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sadeghi Chorsi, Taha, Meyer, Franz J., Dixon, Timothy H.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Copernicus Publications 2023
Subjects:
article
Verlagsveröffentlichung
Active layer thickness
permafrost
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2605
https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00070712
https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00069048/egusphere-2023-2605.pdf
https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2023/egusphere-2023-2605/egusphere-2023-2605.pdf
Description
Summary:We estimate active layer thickness (ALT) for part of northern Alaska’s permafrost zone for summer 2017 to 2022 using satellite data from Sentinel-1 and ICESat-2. Interferograms were inverted using a Short Baseline Subset (SBAS) approach to estimate the amplitude of seasonal subsidence. ALT was estimated from the measured subsidence. ICESat-2 products were used to validate the InSAR displacement time-series. Most subsidence occurs between June and August in our study area. The maximum amplitude of seasonal subsidence was 2–6 cm, with ALT exceeding 1.5 m. Estimated ALT is in good agreement with in-situ and other remotely sensed data, but is sensitive to assumed thaw season onset, indicating the need for reliable surface temperature data. Our results suggest the feasibility of long-term permafrost monitoring with satellite InSAR.

Similar Items