Remote Sensing of Surface Melt on Antarctica

Remote Sensing of Surface Melt on Antarctica: Opportunities and Challenges

de Roda Husman, S. (TU Delft Physical and Space Geodesy)
Hu, Zhongyang (Universiteit Utrecht)
Wouters, B. (TU Delft Physical and Space Geodesy)
Munneke, Peter Kuipers (Universiteit Utrecht)
Veldhuijsen, Sanne (Universiteit Utrecht)
Lhermitte, S.L.M. (TU Delft Mathematical Geodesy and Positioning; Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)

2022

Surface melt is an important driver of ice shelf disintegration and its consequent mass loss over the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Monitoring surface melt using satellite remote sensing can enhance our understanding of ice shelf stability. However, the sensors do not measure the actual physical process of surface melt, but rather observe the presence of liquid water. Moreover, the sensor observations are influenced by the sensor characteristics and surface properties. Therefore, large inconsistencies can exist in the derived melt estimates from different sensors. In this study, we apply state-of-the-art melt detection algorithms to four frequently used remote sensing sensors, i.e., two active microwave sensors, which are Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) and Sentinel-1, a passive microwave sensor, i.e., Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS), and an optical sensor, i.e., Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). We intercompare the melt detection results over the entire Antarctic Ice Sheet and four selected study regions for the melt seasons 2015-2020. Our results show large spatiotemporal differences in detected melt between the sensors, with particular disagreement in blue ice areas, in aquifer regions, and during wintertime surface melt. We discuss that discrepancies between sensors are mainly due to cloud obstruction and polar darkness, frequency-dependent penetration of satellite signals, temporal resolution, and spatial resolution, as well as the applied melt detection methods. Nevertheless, we argue that different sensors can complement each other, enabling improved detection of surface melt over the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Antarctic Ice Sheet
Antarctica
Earth Observation
ice shelves
Land surface
melt detection
multi-source remote sensing
Ocean temperature
polar regions
satellite observations
Sea surface
Sensors
Surface topography
Surface treatment

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:96c4918b-4df6-4135-bff4-e9121e11a245

https://doi.org/10.1109/JSTARS.2022.3216953

1939-1404

IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 16, 2462-2480

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2022 S. de Roda Husman, Zhongyang Hu, B. Wouters, Peter Kuipers Munneke, Sanne Veldhuijsen, S.L.M. Lhermitte