Where the White Continent Is Blue

Where the White Continent Is Blue: Deep Learning Locates Bare Ice in Antarctica

Tollenaar, Veronica (Vrije Universiteit Brussel; Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)
Zekollari, Harry (Vrije Universiteit Brussel; ETH Zürich; Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research)
Pattyn, Frank (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
Rußwurm, Marc (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology; Wageningen University & Research)
Kellenberger, Benjamin (Yale University)
Lhermitte, S.L.M. (TU Delft Mathematical Geodesy and Positioning; Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)
Izeboud, M. (TU Delft Civil Engineering & Geosciences)
Tuia, Devis (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)

Civil Engineering & Geosciences

2024

In some areas of Antarctica, blue-colored bare ice is exposed at the surface. These blue ice areas (BIAs) can trap meteorites or old ice and are vital for understanding the climatic history. By combining multi-sensor remote sensing data (MODIS, RADARSAT-2, and TanDEM-X) in a deep learning framework, we map blue ice across the continent at 200-m resolution. We use a novel methodology for image segmentation with “noisy” labels to learn an underlying “clean” pattern with a neural network. In total, BIAs cover ca. 140,000 km² (∼1%) of Antarctica, of which nearly 50% located within 20 km of the grounding line. There, the low albedo of blue ice enhances melt-water production and its mapping is crucial for mass balance studies that determine the stability of the ice sheet. Moreover, the map provides input for fieldwork missions and can act as constraint for other geophysical mapping efforts.

Antarctica
blue ice
deep learning
noisy labels

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2f557067-9e37-4271-a499-ce469d51d8fc

https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL106285

0094-8276

Geophysical Research Letters, 51 (3)

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2024 Veronica Tollenaar, Harry Zekollari, Frank Pattyn, Marc Rußwurm, Benjamin Kellenberger, S.L.M. Lhermitte, M. Izeboud, Devis Tuia