TerraSAR-X time series fill a gap in spaceborne snowmelt monitoring of small Arctic catchments
The timing of snowmelt is an important turning point in the seasonal cycle of small Arctic catchments. The TerraSAR-X (TSX) satellite mission is a synthetic aperture radar system (SAR) with high potential to measure the high spatiotemporal variability of snow cover extent (SCE) and fractional snow c...
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Online Access: | https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/42681 https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-426810 https://doi.org/10.25932/publishup-42681 https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/files/42681/pmnr689.pdf |
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ftubpotsdam:oai:kobv.de-opus4-uni-potsdam:42681 2023-12-03T10:16:57+01:00 TerraSAR-X time series fill a gap in spaceborne snowmelt monitoring of small Arctic catchments Stettner, Samuel Lantuit, Hugues (Prof. Dr.) Heim, Birgit (Dr.) Eppler, Jayson Roth, Achim Bartsch, Annett Rabus, Bernhard 2019-04-04 application/pdf https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/42681 https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-426810 https://doi.org/10.25932/publishup-42681 https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/files/42681/pmnr689.pdf eng eng https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/42681 urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-426810 https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-426810 https://doi.org/10.25932/publishup-42681 https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/files/42681/pmnr689.pdf https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess ddc:620 Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät postprint doc-type:article 2019 ftubpotsdam https://doi.org/10.25932/publishup-42681 2023-11-05T23:35:04Z The timing of snowmelt is an important turning point in the seasonal cycle of small Arctic catchments. The TerraSAR-X (TSX) satellite mission is a synthetic aperture radar system (SAR) with high potential to measure the high spatiotemporal variability of snow cover extent (SCE) and fractional snow cover (FSC) on the small catchment scale. We investigate the performance of multi-polarized and multi-pass TSX X-Band SAR data in monitoring SCE and FSC in small Arctic tundra catchments of Qikiqtaruk (Herschel Island) off the Yukon Coast in the Western Canadian Arctic. We applied a threshold based segmentation on ratio images between TSX images with wet snow and a dry snow reference, and tested the performance of two different thresholds. We quantitatively compared TSX- and Landsat 8-derived SCE maps using confusion matrices and analyzed the spatiotemporal dynamics of snowmelt from 2015 to 2017 using TSX, Landsat 8 and in situ time lapse data. Our data showed that the quality of SCE maps from TSX X-Band data is strongly influenced by polarization and to a lesser degree by incidence angle. VH polarized TSX data performed best in deriving SCE when compared to Landsat 8. TSX derived SCE maps from VH polarization detected late lying snow patches that were not detected by Landsat 8. Results of a local assessment of TSX FSC against the in situ data showed that TSX FSC accurately captured the temporal dynamics of different snow melt regimes that were related to topographic characteristics of the studied catchments. Both in situ and TSX FSC showed a longer snowmelt period in a catchment with higher contributions of steep valleys and a shorter snowmelt period in a catchment with higher contributions of upland terrain. Landsat 8 had fundamental data gaps during the snowmelt period in all 3 years due to cloud cover. The results also revealed that by choosing a positive threshold of 1 dB, detection of ice layers due to diurnal temperature variations resulted in a more accurate estimation of snow cover than a negative threshold ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Herschel Herschel Island Tundra Yukon University of Potsdam: publish.UP Arctic Yukon Herschel Island ENVELOPE(-139.089,-139.089,69.583,69.583) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Potsdam: publish.UP |
op_collection_id |
ftubpotsdam |
language |
English |
topic |
ddc:620 Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät |
spellingShingle |
ddc:620 Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät Stettner, Samuel Lantuit, Hugues (Prof. Dr.) Heim, Birgit (Dr.) Eppler, Jayson Roth, Achim Bartsch, Annett Rabus, Bernhard TerraSAR-X time series fill a gap in spaceborne snowmelt monitoring of small Arctic catchments |
topic_facet |
ddc:620 Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät |
description |
The timing of snowmelt is an important turning point in the seasonal cycle of small Arctic catchments. The TerraSAR-X (TSX) satellite mission is a synthetic aperture radar system (SAR) with high potential to measure the high spatiotemporal variability of snow cover extent (SCE) and fractional snow cover (FSC) on the small catchment scale. We investigate the performance of multi-polarized and multi-pass TSX X-Band SAR data in monitoring SCE and FSC in small Arctic tundra catchments of Qikiqtaruk (Herschel Island) off the Yukon Coast in the Western Canadian Arctic. We applied a threshold based segmentation on ratio images between TSX images with wet snow and a dry snow reference, and tested the performance of two different thresholds. We quantitatively compared TSX- and Landsat 8-derived SCE maps using confusion matrices and analyzed the spatiotemporal dynamics of snowmelt from 2015 to 2017 using TSX, Landsat 8 and in situ time lapse data. Our data showed that the quality of SCE maps from TSX X-Band data is strongly influenced by polarization and to a lesser degree by incidence angle. VH polarized TSX data performed best in deriving SCE when compared to Landsat 8. TSX derived SCE maps from VH polarization detected late lying snow patches that were not detected by Landsat 8. Results of a local assessment of TSX FSC against the in situ data showed that TSX FSC accurately captured the temporal dynamics of different snow melt regimes that were related to topographic characteristics of the studied catchments. Both in situ and TSX FSC showed a longer snowmelt period in a catchment with higher contributions of steep valleys and a shorter snowmelt period in a catchment with higher contributions of upland terrain. Landsat 8 had fundamental data gaps during the snowmelt period in all 3 years due to cloud cover. The results also revealed that by choosing a positive threshold of 1 dB, detection of ice layers due to diurnal temperature variations resulted in a more accurate estimation of snow cover than a negative threshold ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Stettner, Samuel Lantuit, Hugues (Prof. Dr.) Heim, Birgit (Dr.) Eppler, Jayson Roth, Achim Bartsch, Annett Rabus, Bernhard |
author_facet |
Stettner, Samuel Lantuit, Hugues (Prof. Dr.) Heim, Birgit (Dr.) Eppler, Jayson Roth, Achim Bartsch, Annett Rabus, Bernhard |
author_sort |
Stettner, Samuel |
title |
TerraSAR-X time series fill a gap in spaceborne snowmelt monitoring of small Arctic catchments |
title_short |
TerraSAR-X time series fill a gap in spaceborne snowmelt monitoring of small Arctic catchments |
title_full |
TerraSAR-X time series fill a gap in spaceborne snowmelt monitoring of small Arctic catchments |
title_fullStr |
TerraSAR-X time series fill a gap in spaceborne snowmelt monitoring of small Arctic catchments |
title_full_unstemmed |
TerraSAR-X time series fill a gap in spaceborne snowmelt monitoring of small Arctic catchments |
title_sort |
terrasar-x time series fill a gap in spaceborne snowmelt monitoring of small arctic catchments |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/42681 https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-426810 https://doi.org/10.25932/publishup-42681 https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/files/42681/pmnr689.pdf |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-139.089,-139.089,69.583,69.583) |
geographic |
Arctic Yukon Herschel Island |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Yukon Herschel Island |
genre |
Arctic Herschel Herschel Island Tundra Yukon |
genre_facet |
Arctic Herschel Herschel Island Tundra Yukon |
op_relation |
https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/42681 urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-426810 https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-426810 https://doi.org/10.25932/publishup-42681 https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/files/42681/pmnr689.pdf |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.25932/publishup-42681 |
_version_ |
1784263902434951168 |