S.L.M. Lhermitte
90 records found
1
The determination of the Surface Mass Balance (SMB) for the Antarctic ice sheet remains subject to significant uncertainty. Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite sensors with their large spatial coverage and ability to penetrate the snowpack, represent a promising t
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While of critical importance for coastal communities, Antarctica’s future sea-level contribution remains highly uncertain. This uncertainty largely stems from the complex interaction between the ocean and the ice shelves, which is both difficult to observe and model. To better un
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Integrating radar and multi-spectral data to detect cocoa crops
A deep learning approach
The production of cocoa beans contributes to 7.5 % of European Union (EU) driven deforestation. As a result, the recent European Union Deforestation-free Regulation (EUDR) mandates producers to track cocoa farm extents comprehensively. While Remote Sensing has enormous capacity i
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Damage features, such as rifts and crevasses, are the first signs of a weakened ice shelf and the precursor for retreat. Yet, damage changes are not widely quantified on Antarctic ice shelves, leaving future ice shelf weakening poorly understood. Here we use satellite imagery to
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Brief communication
Tides and damage as drivers of lake drainages on Shackleton Ice Shelf
To investigate the drivers of lake drainages in Antarctica, we analyzed optical remote sensing data from the Shackleton Ice Shelf in East Antarctica over seven melt seasons, 2016 to 2023. Our study identified seven drainage event in 2016-2017, one in 2018-2019, fifteen in 2019-20
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Patagonian glaciers have been rapidly losing mass in the last two decades, but the driving processes remain poorly known. Here we use two state-of-the-art regional climate models to reconstruct long-term (1940-2023) glacier surface mass balance (SMB), i.e., the difference between
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Climate change and human-induced land degradation threaten dryland ecosystems, vital to one-third of the global population and pivotal to inter-annual global carbon fluxes. Early warning systems are essential for guiding conservation, climate change mitigation and alleviating foo
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Rivers and slush fields on the Greenland Ice Sheet increasingly develop in locations where the accumulation zone hosts near-impermeable ice slabs. However, the division between runoff versus retention in these areas remains unmeasured. We present field measurements of superimpose
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Snow cover is a crucial driver for plant species distributions in cold environments. The primary source of snow cover data used in distribution models is remotely sensed satellite imagery, which is characterized by coarser spatial resolutions than plot-scale observations of plant
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MAT-MS
A mask-aware transformer for constructing gap-free MODIS normalized difference snow index products
The Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) is essential for accurate snow monitoring, but the widely used MODIS NDSI products generally have significant data gaps mainly due to cloud cover. Existing gap-filling methods often introduce artifact issue in regions with extensive and
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Firn density plays a crucial role in assessing the surface mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet. However, our understanding of the spatial and temporal variations in firn density is limited due to (i) spatial and temporal limitations of in situ measurements, (ii) potential mod
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In recent decades, satellite radar altimetry has been widely used to assess volume changes over the Greenland Ice Sheet. In particular, melt events result in drastic changes in the volume scattering of firn, which induces a pronounced change in the parameters derived from radar a
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Snowfall is an important climate change indicator affecting surface albedo, glaciers, sea ice, freshwater storage, cloud lifetime, and ecosystems. Precise snowfall measurements at high latitudes are particularly important for the estimation of the mass balance of ice sheets; howe
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Channelized basal melting is a critical process influencing ice shelf weakening, as basal channels create zones of thinning and vulnerability that can potentially lead to ice shelf destabilization. In this study, we reveal and examine the rapid development of a channel within the
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Digital twins of the Earth are digital representations of the Earth system, spanning scales and domains. Their purpose is to monitor, forecast and assess the Earth system and the consequences of human interventions on the Earth system. Providing users with the capability to inter
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Because Antarctic surface melt is mostly driven by local processes, its simulation necessitates high-resolution regional climate models (RCMs). However, the current horizontal resolution of RCMs (≈25–30 km) is inadequate for capturing small-scale melt processes. To address this l
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Large Variability in Dominant Scattering from Sentinel-1 SAR in East Antarctica
Challenges and Opportunities
Assessing the Surface Mass Balance (SMB) of the Antarctic Ice Sheet is crucial for understanding its response to climate change. Synthetic Aperture Radar observations from Sentinel-1 provide the potential to monitor the variability of SMB processes through changes in the scatteri
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Most of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are covered with firn — the transitional material between snow and glacial ice. Firn is vital for understanding ice-sheet mass balance and hydrology, and palaeoclimate. In this Review, we synthesize knowledge of firn, including its f
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SLAINTE
A SAR mission concept for sub-daily microwave remote sensing of vegetation
This paper presents an overview of the Sub-daily Land Atmosphere INTEractions (SLAINTE) mission. SLAINTE comprises a constellation of identical synthetic aperture radars (SAR) with interferometric capability. It aims to bridge a critical observation gap, by providing sub-daily, ≤
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Over 60% of all meteorites found on Earth are found in Antarctica. Antarctic meteorites are collected from so-called
blue ice areas in the interior of the continent. In these blue ice areas, meteorological processes and a redirected ice flow lead to the removal of surface lay ...
blue ice areas in the interior of the continent. In these blue ice areas, meteorological processes and a redirected ice flow lead to the removal of surface lay ...