TY - JOUR
T1 - Remote Sensing of Surface Melt on Antarctica
T2 - Opportunities and Challenges
AU - de Roda Husman, Sophie
AU - Hu, Zhongyang
AU - Wouters, Bert
AU - Munneke, Peter Kuipers
AU - Veldhuijsen, Sanne
AU - Lhermitte, Stef
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Antarctic Ice Sheet
KW - Antarctica
KW - Earth Observation
KW - ice shelves
KW - Land surface
KW - melt detection
KW - multi-source remote sensing
KW - Ocean temperature
KW - polar regions
KW - satellite observations
KW - Sea surface
KW - Sensors
KW - Surface topography
KW - Surface treatment
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85141517353&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/JSTARS.2022.3216953
DO - 10.1109/JSTARS.2022.3216953
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85141517353
SN - 1939-1404
VL - 16
SP - 2462
EP - 2480
JO - IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing
JF - IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing
ER -