Inferring Glacier Mass Balance Using Radarsat: Results From Peyto Glacier, Canada

Demuth, M. N.; Pietroniro, Alain

doi:10.1111/1468-0459.00081

Cited by 17 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…In addition, Rabatel et al [9] have shown that using images recorded within one month before the end of the hydrological year (i.e., between mid-August and late September for the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes) generates accurate annual SMB values because the elevation changes of the snow line at the end of the summer are limited. Another alternative could be the use of radar data, which showed promising results for the identification of the end-of-summer snow line [52,53].…”

Section: Cloud Covermentioning

confidence: 99%

Annual and Seasonal Glacier-Wide Surface Mass Balance Quantified from Changes in Glacier Surface State: A Review on Existing Methods Using Optical Satellite Imagery

et al. 2017

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Glaciers are one of the terrestrial essential climate variables (ECVs) as they respond very sensitively to climate change. A key driver of their response is the glacier surface mass balance that is typically derived from field measurements. It deserves to be quantified over long time scales to better understand the accumulation and ablation processes at the glacier surface and their relationships with inter-annual changes in meteorological conditions and long-term climate changes. Glaciers with in situ monitoring of surface mass balance are scarce at the global scale, and satellite remote sensing provides a powerful tool to increase the number of monitored glaciers. In this study, we present a review of three optical remote sensing methods developed to quantify seasonal and annual glacier surface mass balances. These methodologies rely on the multitemporal monitoring of the end-of-summer snow line for the equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) method, the annual cycle of glacier surface albedo for the albedo method and the mapping of the regional snow cover at the seasonal scale for the snow-map method. Together with a presentation of each method, an application is illustrated. The ELA method shows promising results to quantify annual surface mass balance and to reconstruct multi-decadal time series. The other two methods currently need a calibration on the basis of existing in situ data; however, a generalization of these methods (without calibration) could be achieved. The two latter methods show satisfying results at the annual and seasonal scales, particularly for the summer surface mass balance in the case of the albedo method and for the winter surface mass balance in the case of the snow-map method. The limits of each method (e.g., cloud coverage, debris-covered glaciers, monsoon-regime and cold glaciers), their complementarities and the future challenges (e.g., automating of the satellite images processing, generalization of the methods needing calibration) are also discussed.

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Section: Cloud Covermentioning

confidence: 99%

Annual and Seasonal Glacier-Wide Surface Mass Balance Quantified from Changes in Glacier Surface State: A Review on Existing Methods Using Optical Satellite Imagery

et al. 2017

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“…Peyto currently hosts a glaciological research and monitoring station, and has been extensively studied since 1966 when it was chosen for inclusion as a reference site for the International Hydrological Decade (1965-1975Østrem, 2006). The glacier remains a focal point for much glaciological research activity (Demuth et al, 2008) including investigations into remote sensing-based techniques for monitoring mass balance (Demuth and Pietroniro, 1999;Hopkinson et al, 2001;Hopkinson and Demuth, 2006). Automatic weather station data have been recorded at Peyto since the 1970s and the site has been used in radiation and energy balance melt modelling research (Cutler and Munro, 1996;Munro, 2006).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of DEM resolution on simulated solar radiation‐induced glacier melt

Hopkinson

Chasmer

Munro

et al. 2010

Hydrological Processes

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Abstract:The influence of digital elevation model (DEM) resolution to modelled glacier melt during peak melt production was evaluated by performing a clear sky GIS radiation simulation over the Peyto Glacier in the Canadian Rockies. DEMs were generated at eight resolutions ranging from 1 m to 1000 m grid spacing from airborne lidar data. When applied to the planar area (PA) of the terrain, it was found that total melt increased with DEM resolution (r 2 D 0Ð63) by 4% over 3 orders of magnitude. This systematic scaling-effect was mitigated at the basin scale, however, when the DEM slope variant area (SVA) was used to account for the increased divergence from PA as resolution increases. However, even after the inclusion of SVA in glacier surface melt simulations, localized melt variations with scale were still evident in the ablation and accumulation zone observations. In the ablation zone, there was a systematic increase in simulated melt (¾4%) as resolution decreased from 1 m to 1000 m (r 2 D 0Ð89), with the opposite effect in the accumulation zone (r 2 D 0Ð81). DEM resolution also affected the diurnal melt cycle, such that for the entire glacier there was a tendency for a morning over-estimation and afternoon underestimation of melt rate with decreasing resolution. For the accumulation zone, there was an increased melt rate at low resolutions occurring in the afternoon, while in the ablation zone there was a tendency for increasing melt rates with decreasing resolution throughout the day. These localized spatio-temporal variations in simulated melt are largely due to the lowering of ridges and raising of valley floors that occur as resolution decreases. This scale dependence in the representation of terrain morphology directly controls the pattern and relative proportion of direct beam shadowing over actively melting surfaces and thereby has a systematic influence on the grid cell-level hydrological balance. It is recommended that GIS-based glacier melt modelling routines take into account the slope area of grid cells, while noting that the choice of DEM scale can have a discernible and systematic influence on modelled runoff magnitude. It is important to note that while higher grid resolutions mitigate the effect of terrain smoothing on spatio-temporal melt patterns, lower resolutions actually mitigate the systematic error associated with assuming all surface areas are planar.

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“…In spite of these observations, SAR images have been compared to in situ mass-balance observations only a few times (e.g. Demuth and Pietroniro, 1999;Hall and others, 2000;Ko« nig and others, 2001), while a comparison of radar images with mass-balance measurements and/or albedo images from a number of years has yet to be made. From the latter two studies it appears that, as is often the case for albedo images, the ¼ 0 signal cannot distinguish between snow and firn.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Satellite retrieval of mass balance: comparing SAR images with albedo images and in situ mass-balance observations

Oerlemans¹,

Wildt²

2003

J. Glaciol.

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ABSTRACT. We present an analysis of many European Remote-sensing Satellite (ERS) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images of Vatnajo« kull, Iceland, by comparing them with Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) images, massbalance observations and modelled firn stratigraphy. Summer SAR and AVHRR images both detect the surface firn line (or the transient snow-line when it lies below the firn line) as a distinct boundary. Winter SAR images of Vatnajo« kull generally display the late-summer surface firn line, and often also a transition at a higher elevation that possibly reflects a subsurface continuation of the firn line. On some winter images the firn line is not adequately detected, possibly due to a shallow firn pack. We found no differences in backscatter between melting snow and firn, and for most years no differences in reflectance either. ForVatnajo« kull, equilibrium-line altitude is therefore not a particularly useful estimator of the mean specific mass balance (B m ). Unlike albedo images, SAR images do not display interannual variations of the signal within the accumulation area that are clearly related to B m . Hence, SAR images of Vatnajo« kull contain less information about B m than albedo images. However, for some drainage basins, mean transient snow-line/firn-line altitude during the melting season can be used to infer B m .

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Inferring Glacier Mass Balance Using Radarsat: Results From Peyto Glacier, Canada

Cited by 17 publications

References 35 publications

Annual and Seasonal Glacier-Wide Surface Mass Balance Quantified from Changes in Glacier Surface State: A Review on Existing Methods Using Optical Satellite Imagery

Annual and Seasonal Glacier-Wide Surface Mass Balance Quantified from Changes in Glacier Surface State: A Review on Existing Methods Using Optical Satellite Imagery

The influence of DEM resolution on simulated solar radiation‐induced glacier melt

Satellite retrieval of mass balance: comparing SAR images with albedo images and in situ mass-balance observations

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