The Polar Ice Sheets Monitoring Project A Coordinated Response from Space Agencies

Transcription

1 The Polar Ice Sheets Monitoring Project A Coordinated Response from Space Agencies Yves Crevier / Members of the PSTG SAR Coordination WG Canadian Space Agency CEOS SIT-28 Meeting Hampton, Virginia, USA March 14, 2013

2 Outline PSTG background and related Plenary action Ice sheets motivation and requirements Coordination framework Progress

3 Polar Space Task Group (PSTG) PSTG, established in 2011, builds on the legacy of the successful WMO-ICSU IPY Space Task Group; PSTG comprises (not exclusively) members nominated by Heads of Space Agencies, upon invitation by WMO Secretary General; Seek for coordinated and prioritized requirements from Polar thematic communities. Entertain a dialogue with Polar thematic science Authorities; Objective is to contribute to, or provide support to, the development of specific derived products required for cryospheric scientific research and applications.

4 Accomplishments as a Direct Consequence of STG Actions Multi-agency coordination for a pole to coast and coast to coast InSAR acquisition campaign ASI/CSA/DLR/ESA/JAXA InSAR acquisitions over Greenland with NASA commitment to process and distribute velocity products CSA/MDA Radarsat-2 mapping of Antarctica and multi-polarization map production USGS Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA) ESA Envisat ASAR mapping of Antarctica margins and coastal ice DLR TerraSAR-X and ASI Cosmo-SkyMED repeat mapping of fast glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica Expanded JAXA ALOS coverage in the Arctic NRCAN MODIS circumpolar mosaic of the Arctic Extension of CNES SPIRIT project for stereo image data availability and production of DEMs 4

5 CEOS Plenary Action Presentation and document submitted at CEOS 26 Plenary with the objective of seeking CEOS reaction CEOS agencies encouraged to review the report of the Polar Space Task Group and to provide comments on the nature and structure of CEOS engagement and appropriate roles and responsibilities for the space systems coordination. Converging reactions provided at and post Plenary Understand the importance of PSTG as an interface with thematic and sectoral authorities; CEOS should develop an accountable interface and be responsible for the coordination of space-based earth observation assets in response to PSTG; Progress on these matters will be reported to SIT chair and to CEOS plenaries as appropriate. Seeking guidance from CEOS (in the context of CSS)

6 SIT-28 Meeting Hampton, Virginia, USA March 2013 Ice Sheet Monitoring - Motivation and Background Motivation: Ice sheets acknowledged by UNFCCC and WMO as GCOS Essential Climate Variable (ECV). Significant progress needed in generating continuous, all-weather global datasets of cryosphere ECVs to assess their sensitivity to climate change and impact on sea level. Changes of the ice sheets are a large contributor to sea level rise. Monitoring of ice dynamics and any changes is therefore crucial to understand their contribution Background: Ice sheet surface velocity (crucial dynamical control on mass balance) can only be measured using spaceborne interferometric SAR. Risk - Current situation: 3 missions offline since IPY (ERS-2, Envisat, ALOS) resulting in a critical data gap for ice sheet velocity monitoring 6

7 SIT-28 Meeting Hampton, Virginia, USA March 2013 Ice Sheet Requirements The need to monitor the great ice sheets was identified: in the 1999 EOS Science Plan, the 2001 Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) Science Coordination Plan, the 2006 GIIPSY IPY Science Requirements, the 2007 IGOS Cryosphere Theme Report, the GCOS Implementation plan for the global observing system for climate in support of the UNFCCC (2010 update), the GCOS Systematic observation requirements for satellite-based data products for climate, 2011 update. Preliminary scientific needs for Cryosphere Sentinel products Preparatory material up-dated after the SEN4SCI workshop March 2011) During Fringe 2011 (Panel Discussion) During PSTG-2 (June 2012) by the ESA/NASA Ice Sheet Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise (IMBIE) PSTG SAR Coordination Group meeting, November 2012 ESA-CliC-EGU Earth Observation and Cryosphere Science Conference, November

8 Value of Coordination Polar imaging activities and Polar interests are common to several CEOS space agencies in support of their policy mandate, science priorities, and science community requirements Provides multi-frequency observation over polar regions (complementary observation and information depth) Ensure high-frequency of revisit in the case of coherent and inter-operable datasets from various missions Ensure workload distribution across agencies justified by mission constraints and capabilities

9 PSTG SAR Coordination WG Established to fulfill the need for inter-agency mission acquisition planning and to carry out implementation actions at agency level Objectives: To provide coordination across space agencies with SAR missions, to facilitate acquisition and distribution of fundamental SAR satellite datasets, and to contribute to or support development of specific derived products in support of cryospheric scientific research and applications. Open invitation to other space agencies with relevant assets Supported by Agencies commercial partners (MDA, ASF, E-GEOS, etc.) Close collaboration with ice sheet science community - definition of detailed requirements

10 Coordinated Response to Ice Sheet Monitoring - North Greenland, Svalbard and Canadian ice caps: from Jan to April/May to be repeated for 2-3 consecutives years with an increasing number of missions Plan: Sensors: RADARSAT-1, TerraSAR-X, Cosmo-SkyMED, ALOS2*, Sentinel1* Goals: Full interferometric coverage of Greenland Jan to April and Nov to March RADARSAT-1 F1 mode, 3-4 consecutive coverages Full interferometric coverage of Svalbard March to May and Nov to March RADARSAT-1 F1 mode, 4 consecutive coverages Regions included in science TanDEM-X first and second global DEM acquisitions X-Band missions dense time series over Greenland and Antarctica fast flowing glaciers NSC provides the reception of the RADARSAT-1data using the Tromso receiving station NASA provides support to processing and generation of scientific products through the MEaSUREs Program Access to data is/will be sensor dependent. Agreements for broader access considered * according to ALOS2 BOS and S1 HLOP when missions will be commissioned. 10

11 Coordinated Response to Ice Sheet Monitoring - Antarctica Antarctica: Phased implementation approach taking into account the availability of Sentinel 1 and ALOS 2 in the coming years. Plan: 2013 Sensors: RADARSAT-2, TerraSAR-X, Cosmo-SkyMED Goals: Interferometric Coverage of Antarctica April to Sept (visible area for right looking acquisitions) RADARSAT-2 Standard mode, 3 consecutive coverages X-Band missions dense time series over Greenland and Antarctica fast flowing glaciers TanDEM-X Antarctica acquisitions campaign starting with June 2013 NASA to provide support for the generation of scientific products through the MEaSUREs Program Plan: Sensors: ALOS 2, Sentinel 1, RADARSAT-2, TerraSAR-X, Cosmo-SkyMED Goals: Interferometric Coverage of Antarctica ALOS2 coverages as defined in the BOS, Sentinel 1 coverages as defined in the HLOP, RADARSAT-2 three consecutive coverages in left looking mode to cover the region south of 80 degrees X-Band missions dense time series over Greenland and Antarctica fast flowing glaciers NASA to provide support to the generation of scientific products through the MEaSUREs Program Access to data is/will be sensor dependent. Agreements for broader access considered 11

12 Northern Sites

13 Antarctica RADARSAT-2 coverage RADARSAT-2 coverage for 2014/15 Left-looking configuration

14 New Missions Sentinel 1 Preliminary Observation Plan Greenland ice sheet Few consecutive coverages per year Dense time series over fast moving glaciers (focused on dynamic periods) Coastal regions of Antarctica expected revisit frequency to be similar to Envisat past regular activities

15 New Mission - JAXA ALOS 2 Basic Observation Scenario (BOS) Northern and southern ice sheets at high res as part of their Global land areas 3 coverages per year at med res as part of their polar ice coverage Fast flowing glaciers (Greenland and Antarctic Peninsula) 2-3 coverages per year at high resolution 3 cov/yr (Antarctica) (10m) 2 cov/yr (Greenland) (10m) 1 cov/3 years (3m) 2 cov/year (10m) 3 cov/year (tbd)

16 * Products generated from the data collected during the IPY Science Products*

17 Archived Ice Sheet Products resulting from Inter-agency IPY data collection NSIDC PI: E. J. Rignot MEaSUREs InSAR-Based Ice Velocity Maps of Central Antarctica: 1997 and 2009 NSIDC PI: E. J. Rignot MEaSUREs Antarctic Grounding Line from Differential Satellite Radar Interferometry NSIDC PI: E. J. Rignot MEaSUREs InSAR-Based Antarctica Ice Velocity Map NSIDC PI: I. Joughin MEaSUREs Greenland Ice Velocity: Selected Glacier Site Velocity Maps from InSAR NSIDC PI: I. Joughin MEaSUREs Greenland Ice Velocity Map from InSAR Data 2000/1 2005/6 2006/7 2007/8 2008/9

18 SIT-28 Meeting Hampton, Virginia, USA March 2013 Ice Sheet Product Utilization Cumulative number of downloads shown (Status: Nov 2012) InSAR based ice velocity products of Antarctica and Greenland + DInSAR-based grounding line of Antarctica A combined ~1000 downloads worldwide (not all of the countries are identified) R 484 R 498 J 481 J Download locations (sorted by volume) USA Japan Italy United Kingdom Sweden Canada Germany Australia Brazil Denmark Belgium India France Switzerland New Zealand Netherlands Norway Austria Russian Federation Turkey South Africa Argentina Poland Mexico

19 SIT-28 Meeting Hampton, Virginia, USA March 2013 Satellite Images on New Zealand Post Stamp Series Image Acknowlwdgements CSA, ESA and NASA

20 Summary Assessing the impact of climate change on the cryosphere, and its climate feedbacks, is fully dependent on the combination of coordinated inter-agency satellite remote sensing with data from the Global Climate Observing System in-situ sensor networks The coordinated space agencies effort for monitoring the Poles, building on several decades (legacy) of space-based monitoring in support of polar science, has harnessed CEOS member agency assets in a federated manner to support the development of an invaluable archive of our Planet history. No other international effort focuses solely on the cryosphere and polar regions