Glacier facies of Vestfonna (Svalbard) based on SAR images and GPR measurements
The warming climate of the Arctic affects the mass budget of glaciers, and changes in the distribution of glacier facies are indicative of their response to climate change. The glacial mass budget over large land ice masses can be estimated by remote sensing techniques, but selecting an efficient re...
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ftunivsilesia:oai:rebus.us.edu.pl:20.500.12128/8190 2023-05-15T14:55:36+02:00 Glacier facies of Vestfonna (Svalbard) based on SAR images and GPR measurements Barzycka, Barbara Błaszczyk, Małgorzata Grabiec, Mariusz Jania, Jacek 2019 https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12128/8190 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2018.11.020 en eng Remote Sensing of Environment Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol. 221 (2019), s. 373-385 0034-4257 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12128/8190 doi:10.1016/j.rse.2018.11.020 Uznanie autorstwa-Użycie niekomercyjne-Bez utworów zależnych 3.0 Polska http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/pl/ CC-BY-NC-ND Backscatter Polarimetry Decomposition Internal Reflection Energy Glacier facies Vestfonna Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2019 ftunivsilesia https://doi.org/20.500.12128/8190 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2018.11.020 2022-12-31T20:12:12Z The warming climate of the Arctic affects the mass budget of glaciers, and changes in the distribution of glacier facies are indicative of their response to climate change. The glacial mass budget over large land ice masses can be estimated by remote sensing techniques, but selecting an efficient remote sensing method for recognizing and mapping glacier facies in the Arctic remains a challenge. In this study, we compared several methods of distinguishing the facies of the Vestfonna ice cap, Svalbard, based upon Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images and terrestrial high frequency Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) measurements. Glacier zones as determined using the backscattering coefficient (sigma0) of SAR images were compared against GPR data, and an alternative application of Internal Reflection Energy (IRE) calculated from terrestrial GPR data was also used for differentiating the extent of glacier facies. The IRE coefficient was found to offer a suitable method for distinguishing glacier zones and for validating SAR analysis. Furthermore, results of analysis of fully polarimetric Phased Array type Lband Synthetic Aperture Radar (ALOS PALSAR) and European Remote Sensing Synthetic Aperture Radar (ERS-2 SAR) images were compared with the IRE coefficient classification. Especially promising method is H-α segmentation, where the glacier zone boundaries corresponded very well with both GPR visual interpretation and IRE classification results. The IRE coefficient's simplicity of calculation makes it a good alternative to the subjective GPR visual interpretation method, where results strongly depend on the operator's level of experience. We therefore recommend for GPR profiles to be used for additional validation of SAR image analysis in studies of glacier facies on the High Arctic ice masses. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change glacier Ice cap Svalbard Vestfonna The Repository of the University of Silesia (RE-BUŚ) Arctic Svalbard Vestfonna ENVELOPE(20.761,20.761,79.941,79.941) Remote Sensing of Environment 221 373 385 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
The Repository of the University of Silesia (RE-BUŚ) |
op_collection_id |
ftunivsilesia |
language |
English |
topic |
Backscatter Polarimetry Decomposition Internal Reflection Energy Glacier facies Vestfonna Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) |
spellingShingle |
Backscatter Polarimetry Decomposition Internal Reflection Energy Glacier facies Vestfonna Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) Barzycka, Barbara Błaszczyk, Małgorzata Grabiec, Mariusz Jania, Jacek Glacier facies of Vestfonna (Svalbard) based on SAR images and GPR measurements |
topic_facet |
Backscatter Polarimetry Decomposition Internal Reflection Energy Glacier facies Vestfonna Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) |
description |
The warming climate of the Arctic affects the mass budget of glaciers, and changes in the distribution of glacier facies are indicative of their response to climate change. The glacial mass budget over large land ice masses can be estimated by remote sensing techniques, but selecting an efficient remote sensing method for recognizing and mapping glacier facies in the Arctic remains a challenge. In this study, we compared several methods of distinguishing the facies of the Vestfonna ice cap, Svalbard, based upon Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images and terrestrial high frequency Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) measurements. Glacier zones as determined using the backscattering coefficient (sigma0) of SAR images were compared against GPR data, and an alternative application of Internal Reflection Energy (IRE) calculated from terrestrial GPR data was also used for differentiating the extent of glacier facies. The IRE coefficient was found to offer a suitable method for distinguishing glacier zones and for validating SAR analysis. Furthermore, results of analysis of fully polarimetric Phased Array type Lband Synthetic Aperture Radar (ALOS PALSAR) and European Remote Sensing Synthetic Aperture Radar (ERS-2 SAR) images were compared with the IRE coefficient classification. Especially promising method is H-α segmentation, where the glacier zone boundaries corresponded very well with both GPR visual interpretation and IRE classification results. The IRE coefficient's simplicity of calculation makes it a good alternative to the subjective GPR visual interpretation method, where results strongly depend on the operator's level of experience. We therefore recommend for GPR profiles to be used for additional validation of SAR image analysis in studies of glacier facies on the High Arctic ice masses. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Barzycka, Barbara Błaszczyk, Małgorzata Grabiec, Mariusz Jania, Jacek |
author_facet |
Barzycka, Barbara Błaszczyk, Małgorzata Grabiec, Mariusz Jania, Jacek |
author_sort |
Barzycka, Barbara |
title |
Glacier facies of Vestfonna (Svalbard) based on SAR images and GPR measurements |
title_short |
Glacier facies of Vestfonna (Svalbard) based on SAR images and GPR measurements |
title_full |
Glacier facies of Vestfonna (Svalbard) based on SAR images and GPR measurements |
title_fullStr |
Glacier facies of Vestfonna (Svalbard) based on SAR images and GPR measurements |
title_full_unstemmed |
Glacier facies of Vestfonna (Svalbard) based on SAR images and GPR measurements |
title_sort |
glacier facies of vestfonna (svalbard) based on sar images and gpr measurements |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12128/8190 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2018.11.020 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(20.761,20.761,79.941,79.941) |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard Vestfonna |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard Vestfonna |
genre |
Arctic Climate change glacier Ice cap Svalbard Vestfonna |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change glacier Ice cap Svalbard Vestfonna |
op_relation |
Remote Sensing of Environment Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol. 221 (2019), s. 373-385 0034-4257 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12128/8190 doi:10.1016/j.rse.2018.11.020 |
op_rights |
Uznanie autorstwa-Użycie niekomercyjne-Bez utworów zależnych 3.0 Polska http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/pl/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/20.500.12128/8190 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2018.11.020 |
container_title |
Remote Sensing of Environment |
container_volume |
221 |
container_start_page |
373 |
op_container_end_page |
385 |
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1766327628149555200 |