Automatic detection of snow avalanche debris in central Svalbard using C-band SAR data
Snow avalanches pose a threat to people and infrastructure in and around Svalbard’s main settlement Longyearbyen. Since January 2016, publically available regional avalanche warnings are issued daily for Nordenskiöld Land, the area around Longyearbyen. Avalanche warning services rely on information...
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fttudelft:oai:tudelft.nl:uuid:493d723f-f445-426d-811b-a6428816c77a 2024-04-28T08:27:54+00:00 Automatic detection of snow avalanche debris in central Svalbard using C-band SAR data Wesselink, Dieuwertje S. (author) Malnes, Eirik (author) Eckerstorfer, Markus (author) Lindenbergh, R.C. (author) 2017-06-30 http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:493d723f-f445-426d-811b-a6428816c77a https://doi.org/10.1080/17518369.2017.1333236 en eng http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85025811012&partnerID=8YFLogxK http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:493d723f-f445-426d-811b-a6428816c77a Polar Research--0800-0395--616a4582-5e82-4afd-9ace-142c3ebc928f https://doi.org/10.1080/17518369.2017.1333236 © 2017 Dieuwertje S. Wesselink, Eirik Malnes, Markus Eckerstorfer, R.C. Lindenbergh Avalanche debris detection Avalanche forecasting Radar remote sensing Radarsat-2 Sentinel-1 journal article 2017 fttudelft https://doi.org/10.1080/17518369.2017.1333236 2024-04-09T23:43:17Z Snow avalanches pose a threat to people and infrastructure in and around Svalbard’s main settlement Longyearbyen. Since January 2016, publically available regional avalanche warnings are issued daily for Nordenskiöld Land, the area around Longyearbyen. Avalanche warning services rely on information of when and where avalanches occur. Systematic field observations of avalanche activity are not feasible across all of the vast area (ca. 7200 km 2 ) of Nordenskiöld Land. Svalbard also experiences over four months of polar night per year. However, using synthetic aperture radar (SAR), a weather- and light-independent technique, large areas can be monitored at once. We have developed a SAR-based automatic avalanche debris detection algorithm and tested it on satellite image pairs from Sentinel-1A at medium resolution and from Radarsat-2 at very high resolution. The detection algorithm uses a threshold value that distinguishes avalanche debris with increased backscatter from undisturbed snow with lower backscatter. Depending on the spatial resolution of the SAR image, different post-processing filters are applied. There is a promising level of agreement between automatic detection results and manual identification of avalanche debris, but the algorithm’s drawback is marked overdetection. We envision that further improvements in the form of avalanche debris shape recognition could ultimately lead to the development of operational avalanche activity maps. These frequently updated maps could then assist in regional avalanche forecasting, notably in and around Longyearbyen, Svalbard. The detection algorithm we have developed could eventually have applications in other avalanche-prone regions in the world. Optical and Laser Remote Sensing Article in Journal/Newspaper Longyearbyen Nordenskiöld Land polar night Polar Research Svalbard Delft University of Technology: Institutional Repository Polar Research 36 1 1333236 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Delft University of Technology: Institutional Repository |
op_collection_id |
fttudelft |
language |
English |
topic |
Avalanche debris detection Avalanche forecasting Radar remote sensing Radarsat-2 Sentinel-1 |
spellingShingle |
Avalanche debris detection Avalanche forecasting Radar remote sensing Radarsat-2 Sentinel-1 Wesselink, Dieuwertje S. (author) Malnes, Eirik (author) Eckerstorfer, Markus (author) Lindenbergh, R.C. (author) Automatic detection of snow avalanche debris in central Svalbard using C-band SAR data |
topic_facet |
Avalanche debris detection Avalanche forecasting Radar remote sensing Radarsat-2 Sentinel-1 |
description |
Snow avalanches pose a threat to people and infrastructure in and around Svalbard’s main settlement Longyearbyen. Since January 2016, publically available regional avalanche warnings are issued daily for Nordenskiöld Land, the area around Longyearbyen. Avalanche warning services rely on information of when and where avalanches occur. Systematic field observations of avalanche activity are not feasible across all of the vast area (ca. 7200 km 2 ) of Nordenskiöld Land. Svalbard also experiences over four months of polar night per year. However, using synthetic aperture radar (SAR), a weather- and light-independent technique, large areas can be monitored at once. We have developed a SAR-based automatic avalanche debris detection algorithm and tested it on satellite image pairs from Sentinel-1A at medium resolution and from Radarsat-2 at very high resolution. The detection algorithm uses a threshold value that distinguishes avalanche debris with increased backscatter from undisturbed snow with lower backscatter. Depending on the spatial resolution of the SAR image, different post-processing filters are applied. There is a promising level of agreement between automatic detection results and manual identification of avalanche debris, but the algorithm’s drawback is marked overdetection. We envision that further improvements in the form of avalanche debris shape recognition could ultimately lead to the development of operational avalanche activity maps. These frequently updated maps could then assist in regional avalanche forecasting, notably in and around Longyearbyen, Svalbard. The detection algorithm we have developed could eventually have applications in other avalanche-prone regions in the world. Optical and Laser Remote Sensing |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Wesselink, Dieuwertje S. (author) Malnes, Eirik (author) Eckerstorfer, Markus (author) Lindenbergh, R.C. (author) |
author_facet |
Wesselink, Dieuwertje S. (author) Malnes, Eirik (author) Eckerstorfer, Markus (author) Lindenbergh, R.C. (author) |
author_sort |
Wesselink, Dieuwertje S. (author) |
title |
Automatic detection of snow avalanche debris in central Svalbard using C-band SAR data |
title_short |
Automatic detection of snow avalanche debris in central Svalbard using C-band SAR data |
title_full |
Automatic detection of snow avalanche debris in central Svalbard using C-band SAR data |
title_fullStr |
Automatic detection of snow avalanche debris in central Svalbard using C-band SAR data |
title_full_unstemmed |
Automatic detection of snow avalanche debris in central Svalbard using C-band SAR data |
title_sort |
automatic detection of snow avalanche debris in central svalbard using c-band sar data |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:493d723f-f445-426d-811b-a6428816c77a https://doi.org/10.1080/17518369.2017.1333236 |
genre |
Longyearbyen Nordenskiöld Land polar night Polar Research Svalbard |
genre_facet |
Longyearbyen Nordenskiöld Land polar night Polar Research Svalbard |
op_relation |
http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85025811012&partnerID=8YFLogxK http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:493d723f-f445-426d-811b-a6428816c77a Polar Research--0800-0395--616a4582-5e82-4afd-9ace-142c3ebc928f https://doi.org/10.1080/17518369.2017.1333236 |
op_rights |
© 2017 Dieuwertje S. Wesselink, Eirik Malnes, Markus Eckerstorfer, R.C. Lindenbergh |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1080/17518369.2017.1333236 |
container_title |
Polar Research |
container_volume |
36 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
1333236 |
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1797586643061833728 |