Polar Permafrost Review of Requirements, Achievements and Expected Data Annett Bartsch Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics, Vienna, Austria PSTG 5, DLR, Oct.,
Developments since last meeting promotion The white paper has been made available through WMO PSTG, CliC and Pangaea epic the full Pangaea record includes the kml of all 49 cold spots (one more has been added, Sentinel cal/val site in Norway) and transects. It also includes the excel sheet with all meta information Bartsch, A et al. (2014): Permafrost longterm monitoring sites (Arctic and Antarctic). doi:10.1594/pangaea.847003, Supplement to: Bartsch, Annett et al. (2014): Requirements for monitoring of permafrost in polar regions - A community white paper in response to the WMO Polar (PSTG), Version 4, 2014-10-09. Austrian Polar Research Institute, Vienna, Austria, 20 pp, hdl:10013/epic.45648.d001 Presentation of the cold spots and white paper at ESA-CliC (WCRP) Earth Observation and Arctic Science Priorities workshop in Tromso, January, -> Baeseman, J and D.Fernandez Prieto Eds.. ESA-CliC Earth Observation and Arctic Science Priorities. Zenodo. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.27538 EGU, Open permafrost session, poster, April ESA Sentinel-3 conference, Venice June ESA Arctic Instrumentation workshop, Norsköpping, October Session on high latitude lakes at ESA Mapping water Bodies from workshop, March topics covered long time series analyses and circum polar mapping (presentations online) PSTG 5, DLR, Oct.,
Developments since last meeting Initiatives Initiation of an InSAR Permafrost focus group by Franz Meyer, first webex was held in June with > 15 participants 4 cold spots where included in the SPOT5-Take5 campaign by ESA request ESA calls with reference to white paper ESA Polaris: User Needs and High-Level Requirements for Next Generation Observing Systems for the Polar Regions -> PolarView ESA Future EO Mission Concepts for the Polar Regions ESA DUE GlobPermafrost, includes sites outside Arctic/Antarctic PSTG 5, DLR, Oct.,
PSTG5 Meeting, DLR, 5-7 Oct., Polar Requirements review ECV parameters Permafrost extent Soil temperature profiles Active layer thickness Ground ice condition Satellite data should be utilized to identify hot spots of surface change and thus advice on extension of in-situ monitoring networks; support modelling of sub-surface conditions; provide higher resolution (spatial and temporal) measurements in the proximity of long-term in-situ monitoring sites; and place the in-situ measurements into a wider spatial and temporal context. Features of interest for EO Coastal erosion Thaw lakes (summer extent, winter ice; time stamp missing on land cover products) and wetlands (circum polar account for flux studies required) Subsidence Needed: circumpolar accounts, baseline for future monitoring needed temporally and spatially consistent acquisitions of optical, thermal and microwave
PSTG5 Meeting, DLR, 5-7 Oct., Polar EO usage challenges (ESA CliC workshop Jan ) subsurface temperature - via models currently LST and SWE from satellites is used, soil/landsurface properties needed soil properties to estimate response carbon content indirectly with EO via land surface properties, only partially applicable ice/ water content indirectly with EO via terrain changes due to thawing and freezing, role of moisture? indirectly by gravimetry, interpretation difficult near surface saturation but land surface heterogeneity challenge carbon exchange: to atmosphere - measured with flux towers, airplanes but sources need to be quantified with EO to lakes, rivers and oceans - erosion rates and sediment yields from EO needed (resolution!) trends in surface parameters - major challenge scale, varying fraction of water-non water - challenge for all global products
Developments since last meeting Research I HGF Alliance and PAGE21 high lights based on TSX availability Cliff top retreat Lena Delta Investigations of role of moisture changes for InSAR applications http://hgf-eda.de TerraSAR-X DInSAR signal observed over the Lena River Delta (72 N, 126 E), which is underlain by permafrost, in late August 2014 with a time gap of 11 days. The water bodies such as the river branches are shown in black. The brightness of the image indicates the coherence, a measure of the quality with which deformations can be retrieved. The phase, from which the displacements are computed, is indicated by different colours. Spatial variations of this phase might not only be caused by deformations, but for instance also changes of the soil moisture content. Stettner, Samuel; Bartsch, Annett; Widhalm, Barbara; Heim, Birgit; Günther, Frank; Morgenstern, Anne; Roth, Achim; Chetverova, Antonina; Fedorova, Irina (): Retreat of top cliff of Kurungnakh Island, Lena Delta, Siberia, Russia, 2010-2014, with links to shapefiles. Alfred Wegener Institute - Research Unit Potsdam, doi: 10.1594/PANGAEA.846164 PSTG SAR CWG-4 Meeting, DLR, 8-9 Oct.,
Developments since last meeting Research II Field work Intensification of activities related to especially TSX, but also ALOS PALSAR and Spot5 Take 5 campaigns (and SMAP e.g. Alaska) ALT (cm) Barrow Special Issue Remote Sensing of Changing Northern High Latitude Ecosystems completed Most papers on long term change, esp. NDVI Schaefer, K.; Liu, L.; Parsekian, A.; Jafarov, E.; Chen, A.; Zhang, T.; Gusmeroli, A.; Panda, S.; Zebker, H.A.; Schaefer, T. Remotely Sensed Active Layer Thickness (ReSALT) at Barrow, Alaska Using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar. Remote Sens., 7, 3735-3759 Ullmann, T.; Schmitt, A.; Roth, A.; Duffe, J.; Dech, S.; Hubberten, H.-W.; Baumhauer, R. Land Cover Characterization and Classification of Arctic Tundra Environments by Means of Polarized Synthetic Aperture X- and C-Band Radar (PolSAR) and Landsat 8 Multispectral Imagery Richards Island, Canada. Remote Sens. 2014, 6, 8565-8593. Högström, E.; Trofaier, A.M.; Gouttevin, I.; Bartsch, A. Assessing Seasonal Backscatter Variations with Respect to Uncertainties in Soil Moisture Retrieval in Siberian Tundra Regions. Remote Sens. 2014, 6, 8718-8738. PSTG SAR CWG-4 Meeting, DLR, 8-9 Oct.,
Developments since last meeting Research III Circum polar account of wetlands for flux studies addressed in PAGE21 ASAR GM Landsat (AWI) CCI land cover Widhalm, B., Bartsch, A., Heim, B. (accepted): A novel Approach for Wetland Detection with C-Band SAR Data in Tundra Regions. PSTG SAR CWG-4 Meeting, DLR, 8-9 Oct.,
PSTG5 Meeting, DLR, 5-7 Oct., Polar Developments since last meeting Research IV place the in-situ measurements into a wider context Circumpolar landscape units derived from ESA DUE Permafrost products (LST, ASCAT freeze/thaw, DEM) and SAR (data source FP7 PAGE21 deliverable 5.2) and WMO PSTG Cold spots and monitoring transects.
PSTG5 Meeting, DLR, 5-7 Oct., Polar Developments since last meeting Research V support modelling of sub-surface conditions Permafrost extent modeled with the approach of Westermann et al. () for Scandinavia and W Russia using LST. The displayed classes of permafrost probabilities correspond to the permafrost zonations used by the International Permafrost Association, i.e. continuous, discontinuous and sporadic permafrost, as well as permafrostfree areas. data gaps are a challenge for application Westermann, S., Østby, T., Gisnås, K., Schuler, T. V., and Etzelmüller, B.: A ground temperature map of the North Atlantic permafrost region based on remote sensing and reanalysis data, The Cryosphere Discuss., 9, 753-790, doi:10.5194/tcd-9-753-, b.
PSTG5 Meeting, DLR, 5-7 Oct., Polar Developments since last meeting Research VI support modeling of sub-surface conditions proper description of soil properties (indirectly from land surface characteristics) needed CCI Landcover now includes a class lichens and mosses. represents a range of different surface types class sparse vegetation needs to be revised CCI Landcover evaluation provided by B. Heim Figure 6: CCI LC evaluation North of treeline shows tundra classified as sparse vegetation. Upper left: Alaska North Slope; lower left: Yamal and Ob Region, Western Siberia; upper right: high Canadian Arctic; lower right: Lena Delta and Laptev Sea region, Siberia. Dry graminoid tundra is classified as lichens & mosses (e.g. Yamal, Western Siberia), mountain tundra as lichens & mosses (e.g. Laptev Sea mountain ranges, high Canadian Arctic), sands with cryptogam crusts as lichens & mosses (North Slope, Alaska).
PSTG5 Meeting, DLR, 5-7 Oct., Polar Data availability SPOT5/Take 5 (none glaciated)
PSTG5 Meeting, DLR, 5-7 Oct., Polar Data availability recent changes Sentinel-1 So far no lowland InSAR possible for permafrost research outside of Europe Why not before? Current purpose freeze-up? Representative for snow free season
Data availability ALOS-2 Palsar since May 3m, 50km 6m May June July August Sept PSTG5 Meeting, DLR, 5-7 Oct.,
Data availability ALOS-2 Palsar since May 10 m June July August Sept (first 10 days)
Data availability ALOS-2 Palsar 100 m June-July August - midsept