Quantifying suspended sediment concentration in subglacial sediment plumes discharging from two Svalbard tidewater glaciers using Landsat-8 and in situ measurements
Marine-terminating outlet glaciers discharge mass through iceberg calving, submarine melting, and meltwater run-off. While calving can be quantified by in situ and remote-sensing observations, meltwater run-off, the subglacial transport of meltwater, and submarine melting are not well constrained du...
Published in: | International Journal of Remote Sensing |
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Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
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2017
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Online Access: | https://risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk/portal/en/researchoutput/quantifying-suspended-sediment-concentration-in-subglacial-sediment-plumes-discharging-from-two-svalbard-tidewater-glaciers-using-landsat8-and-in-situ-measurements(8a183a44-aebd-4968-93b1-8ad02d0709aa).html https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2017.1365388 https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/10023/11926/1/Benn_2017_IJRS_SuspendedSediment_CC.pdf |
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ftunstandrewcris:oai:risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk:publications/8a183a44-aebd-4968-93b1-8ad02d0709aa 2023-05-15T16:22:16+02:00 Quantifying suspended sediment concentration in subglacial sediment plumes discharging from two Svalbard tidewater glaciers using Landsat-8 and in situ measurements Schild, Kristin M. Hawley, Robert L. Chipman, Jonathan W. Benn, Douglas I. 2017-12-02 application/pdf https://risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk/portal/en/researchoutput/quantifying-suspended-sediment-concentration-in-subglacial-sediment-plumes-discharging-from-two-svalbard-tidewater-glaciers-using-landsat8-and-in-situ-measurements(8a183a44-aebd-4968-93b1-8ad02d0709aa).html https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2017.1365388 https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/10023/11926/1/Benn_2017_IJRS_SuspendedSediment_CC.pdf eng eng info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Schild , K M , Hawley , R L , Chipman , J W & Benn , D I 2017 , ' Quantifying suspended sediment concentration in subglacial sediment plumes discharging from two Svalbard tidewater glaciers using Landsat-8 and in situ measurements ' , International Journal of Remote Sensing , vol. 38 , no. 23 , pp. 6865-6881 . https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2017.1365388 article 2017 ftunstandrewcris https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2017.1365388 2022-06-02T07:47:57Z Marine-terminating outlet glaciers discharge mass through iceberg calving, submarine melting, and meltwater run-off. While calving can be quantified by in situ and remote-sensing observations, meltwater run-off, the subglacial transport of meltwater, and submarine melting are not well constrained due to inherent difficulties observing the subglacial and proglacial environments at tidewater glaciers. Remote-sensing and in situ measurements of surface sediment plumes, and their suspended sediment concentration (SSC), have been used as a proxy for glacier meltwater run-off. However, this relationship between satellite reflectance and SSC has predominantly been established using land-terminating glaciers. Here, we use two Svalbard tidewater glaciers to establish a well-constrained relationship between Landsat-8 surface reflecance and SSC and argue that it can be used to measure relative meltwater run-off at tidewater glaciers throughout a summer melt season. We find the highest correlation between SSCs and Landsat-8 surface reflectance by using the red + NIR band combination (r 2 = 0.76). The highest correlation between SSCs and in situ field spectrometer measurements is in the 740-800 nm wavelength range (r 2 = 0.85), a spectral range not currently measured by Landsat. Additionally, we find that in situ and Landsat-8 measurements for surface reflectance of SSCs are not interchangeable and therefore establish a relationship for each detection method. We then use the Landsat-8 relationship to calculate total surface sediment load, finding a strong correlation between total surface sediment load and a proxy for meltwater run-off (r 2 ≥ 0.89). Our results establish a new metric to calculate SSCs from Landsat-8 surface reflectance and demonstrate how the SSC of subglacial sediment plumes can be used to monitor relative seasonal meltwater discharge at tidewater glaciers. Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier Svalbard Tidewater University of St Andrews: Research Portal Svalbard International Journal of Remote Sensing 38 23 6865 6881 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
University of St Andrews: Research Portal |
op_collection_id |
ftunstandrewcris |
language |
English |
description |
Marine-terminating outlet glaciers discharge mass through iceberg calving, submarine melting, and meltwater run-off. While calving can be quantified by in situ and remote-sensing observations, meltwater run-off, the subglacial transport of meltwater, and submarine melting are not well constrained due to inherent difficulties observing the subglacial and proglacial environments at tidewater glaciers. Remote-sensing and in situ measurements of surface sediment plumes, and their suspended sediment concentration (SSC), have been used as a proxy for glacier meltwater run-off. However, this relationship between satellite reflectance and SSC has predominantly been established using land-terminating glaciers. Here, we use two Svalbard tidewater glaciers to establish a well-constrained relationship between Landsat-8 surface reflecance and SSC and argue that it can be used to measure relative meltwater run-off at tidewater glaciers throughout a summer melt season. We find the highest correlation between SSCs and Landsat-8 surface reflectance by using the red + NIR band combination (r 2 = 0.76). The highest correlation between SSCs and in situ field spectrometer measurements is in the 740-800 nm wavelength range (r 2 = 0.85), a spectral range not currently measured by Landsat. Additionally, we find that in situ and Landsat-8 measurements for surface reflectance of SSCs are not interchangeable and therefore establish a relationship for each detection method. We then use the Landsat-8 relationship to calculate total surface sediment load, finding a strong correlation between total surface sediment load and a proxy for meltwater run-off (r 2 ≥ 0.89). Our results establish a new metric to calculate SSCs from Landsat-8 surface reflectance and demonstrate how the SSC of subglacial sediment plumes can be used to monitor relative seasonal meltwater discharge at tidewater glaciers. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Schild, Kristin M. Hawley, Robert L. Chipman, Jonathan W. Benn, Douglas I. |
spellingShingle |
Schild, Kristin M. Hawley, Robert L. Chipman, Jonathan W. Benn, Douglas I. Quantifying suspended sediment concentration in subglacial sediment plumes discharging from two Svalbard tidewater glaciers using Landsat-8 and in situ measurements |
author_facet |
Schild, Kristin M. Hawley, Robert L. Chipman, Jonathan W. Benn, Douglas I. |
author_sort |
Schild, Kristin M. |
title |
Quantifying suspended sediment concentration in subglacial sediment plumes discharging from two Svalbard tidewater glaciers using Landsat-8 and in situ measurements |
title_short |
Quantifying suspended sediment concentration in subglacial sediment plumes discharging from two Svalbard tidewater glaciers using Landsat-8 and in situ measurements |
title_full |
Quantifying suspended sediment concentration in subglacial sediment plumes discharging from two Svalbard tidewater glaciers using Landsat-8 and in situ measurements |
title_fullStr |
Quantifying suspended sediment concentration in subglacial sediment plumes discharging from two Svalbard tidewater glaciers using Landsat-8 and in situ measurements |
title_full_unstemmed |
Quantifying suspended sediment concentration in subglacial sediment plumes discharging from two Svalbard tidewater glaciers using Landsat-8 and in situ measurements |
title_sort |
quantifying suspended sediment concentration in subglacial sediment plumes discharging from two svalbard tidewater glaciers using landsat-8 and in situ measurements |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk/portal/en/researchoutput/quantifying-suspended-sediment-concentration-in-subglacial-sediment-plumes-discharging-from-two-svalbard-tidewater-glaciers-using-landsat8-and-in-situ-measurements(8a183a44-aebd-4968-93b1-8ad02d0709aa).html https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2017.1365388 https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/10023/11926/1/Benn_2017_IJRS_SuspendedSediment_CC.pdf |
geographic |
Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Svalbard |
genre |
glacier Svalbard Tidewater |
genre_facet |
glacier Svalbard Tidewater |
op_source |
Schild , K M , Hawley , R L , Chipman , J W & Benn , D I 2017 , ' Quantifying suspended sediment concentration in subglacial sediment plumes discharging from two Svalbard tidewater glaciers using Landsat-8 and in situ measurements ' , International Journal of Remote Sensing , vol. 38 , no. 23 , pp. 6865-6881 . https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2017.1365388 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2017.1365388 |
container_title |
International Journal of Remote Sensing |
container_volume |
38 |
container_issue |
23 |
container_start_page |
6865 |
op_container_end_page |
6881 |
_version_ |
1766010236855910400 |