Fully Automated Detection of Supraglacial Lake Area for Northeast Greenland Using Sentinel-2 Time-Series

Hochreuther P, Neckel N, Reimann N, Humbert A, Braun M (2021)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2021

Journal

Remote Sensing MDPI

Book Volume: 13

Pages Range: 205

Issue: 2

DOI: 10.3390/rs13020205

Abstract

The usability of multispectral satellite data for detecting and monitoring supraglacial meltwater ponds has been demonstrated for western Greenland. For a multitemporal analysis of large regions or entire Greenland, largely automated processing routines are required. Here, we present a sequence of algorithms that allow for an automated Sentinel-2 data search, download, processing, and generation of a consistent and dense melt pond area time-series based on open-source software. We test our approach for a ~82,000 km2 area at the 79 °N Glacier (Nioghalvfjerdsbrae) in northeast Greenland, covering the years 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. Our lake detection is based on the ratio of the blue and red visible bands using a minimum threshold. To remove false classification caused by the similar spectra of shadow and water on ice, we implement a shadow model to mask out topographically induced artifacts. We identified 880 individual lakes, traceable over 479 time-steps throughout 2016–2019, with an average size of 64,212 m2. Of the four years, 2019 had the most extensive lake area coverage with a maximum of 333 km2 and a maximum individual lake size of 30 km2. With 1.5 days average observation interval, our time-series allows for a comparison with climate data of daily resolution, enabling a better understanding of short-term climate-glacier feedbacks.

Authors with CRIS profile

Philipp Hochreuther Lehrstuhl für Geographie (Physische Geographie) Nathalie Reimann Institut für Geographie Matthias Braun Professur für Geographie (Fernerkundung und GIS)

Involved external institutions

Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung (AWI) DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Hochreuther, P., Neckel, N., Reimann, N., Humbert, A., & Braun, M. (2021). Fully Automated Detection of Supraglacial Lake Area for Northeast Greenland Using Sentinel-2 Time-Series. Remote Sensing, 13, 205. https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs13020205

MLA:

Hochreuther, Philipp, et al. "Fully Automated Detection of Supraglacial Lake Area for Northeast Greenland Using Sentinel-2 Time-Series." Remote Sensing 13 (2021): 205.

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