Spatio-temporal evolution of surface melting over the Helheim glacier at high spatial resolution using Sentinel-1, enhanced passive microwave data and downscaled model outputs
Abstract
Improving our ability to map the spatio-temporal evolution of surface melting is crucial to properly understand and quantify the contribution of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) to sea level rise. In this regard, the skills of recent space-borne sensors to provide data at high spatial resolution (e.g., 10s of meters) are fundamental to address the processes driving the recent increase of surface melting. For example, Sentinel-1 C-band Synthetic-Aperture Radar (SAR) provides high-resolution observations over Greenland with a 12-day repeat cycle. Moreover, recently released enhanced spatial resolution passive microwave products allow to perform analysis at long temporal scales (1979 to date) at unprecedented spatial resolutions for such datasets (i.e., 3.125 km). Lastly, recently developed statistical downscaling techniques allow to produce model outputs at resolutions of the order of ~1 km. In this presentation, we show results concerning the comparison of surface melting obtained from Sentinel-1 SAR, enhanced passive microwave data and the outputs of the MAR model downscaled at 1 km spatial resolution over the Helheim Glacier, Greenland. We compare the three datasets and assess their agreement (disagreement) through geospatial tools and regression-based analysis. The outputs from the three datasets are also compared with in-situ observations to assess their skills independently. We also perform a spatial scales analysis to quantify the relative information contained in each dataset and understand scale breaks of the surface melting process in an effort to better understand the missing links between surface melting and driving processes (e.g., albedo, elevation gradient, etc.).
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2021
- Bibcode:
- 2021AGUFM.C15E0846L