Multi-source Remote Sensing of Arctic-Boreal Surface Water
Abstract
Surface water processes play a prominent role in Arctic-Boreal physical, biogeochemical, and human systems. However, these processes are not well understood from local to regional spatial scales, or from daily to sub-seasonal temporal scales. New remote sensing technologies and programs are beginning to address these knowledge gaps, including: 1) the NASA Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) which is conducting ongoing airborne, satellite, and field campaigns across Alaska and western Canada. As part of the 2017 ABoVE airborne campaigns, the NASA AirSWOT airborne platform flew over 23,000 km of flight lines across this domain to map water surface elevations and extents using interferometric Ka-band synthetic aperture radar and color-infrared camera imagery designed to overlap lines flown by UAVSAR, LVIS, AVIRIS-NG, and other airborne sensors. 2) CubeSat constellations launched by the aerospace company Planet, shattering a long-standing tradeoff between high temporal and spatial resolution that historically challenged remote sensing of dynamic northern surface water systems. Recent work using CubeSats suggests fine-scale sub-seasonal lake inundation on the Canadian Shield, for example, is more dynamic than commonly thought. 3) Recent and forthcoming space missions, including the IceSat-2 lidar altimeter and the forthcoming SWOT Ka-band InSAR satellite missions. These and other evolving sensor technologies portend emerging opportunities for multi-source remote sensing of highly dynamic surface water systems in Arctic-Boreal regions.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFM.H34E..01S
- Keywords:
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- 1855 Remote sensing;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 1856 River channels;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 1857 Reservoirs (surface);
- HYDROLOGY;
- 1928 GIS science;
- INFORMATICS