The Capability of high spatial-temporal remote sensing imagery for monitoring surface morphology of lake ice in Chagan Lake of Northeast China

Abstract

Abstract. The surface morphology of lake ice undergoes remarkable changes under the combined influence of thermal and mechanical forces, which has been rarely observed by remote sensing. A large-scale linear structure has repeatedly appeared on satellite images of Chagan Lake in recent years. We prosed a method to extract linear structure on the lake ice surface. We applied it to high spatial-temporal images merged by the Landsat and GOCI images using an enhanced spatial and temporal adaptive reflectance fusion model (ESTARFM). We monitored the changes in surface morphology in Chagan Lake from November 2018 to March 2019, which were further verified as ice ridges during the field investigation. The average length of the ice ridges during the completely frozen period was 21141.57 ± 68.36 m. The average azimuth angle was 335.48° ± 0.23°, perpendicular to the wind domain. Besides, we discovered spherical ice balls along the southwestern coast. The deformation of surface morphology is closed related to wind direction, snowfall, and air temperature.

Lake Ice From Historical Records to Contemporary Science

“…Putting in situ observations and remote sensing approaches in conversation strengthens both approaches. For example, satellite sensors with fine spatial resolution can accurately capture the spatial extent of ice cover across most lakes, including those currently studied with ongoing in situ campaigns (Yang et al., 2022), which is particularly useful for both small and large lakes whereas an in situ observer cannot account for the entire spatial extent on a large lake (Yang et al., 2022). Fine spatial resolution sensors, however, miss the fine timescale at which ice formation and breakup can occur (on the order of days); therefore, combinations with sensors that have as fine as daily overpass times can compensate for what they miss in spatial resolution (Zhang et al., 2021; Zhang & Pavelsky, 2019).…”