Monitoring snow and ice surfaces on King George Island, Antarctic Peninsula, with high-resolution TerraSAR-X time series

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
U. Falk ◽  
H. Gieseke ◽  
F. Kotzur ◽  
M. Braun

AbstractChanges of glaciers and snow cover in polar regions affect a wide range of physical and ecosystem processes on land and in the adjacent marine environment. In this study, we investigated the potential of 11-day repeat high-resolution satellite image time series from the TerraSAR-X mission to derive glaciological and hydrological parameters on King George Island, Antarctica, between 25 October 2010 and 19 April 2011. The spatial pattern and temporal evolution of snow cover extent on ice-free areas can be monitored using multi-temporal coherence images. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) coherence is used to map glacier extent of land-terminating glaciers with an average accuracy of 25 m. Multi-temporal SAR colour composites identify the position of the late summer snow line at ~220 m a.s.l. Glacier surface velocities are obtained from intensity feature-tracking. Surface velocities near the calving front of Fourcade Glacier were up to 1.8±0.01 m d-1. Using an intercept theorem based on fundamental geometric principles together with differential GPS field measurements, the ice discharge of Fourcade Glacier was estimated at 20 700±5500 m3 d-1 (corresponding to ~19±5 kt d-1). The rapidly changing surface conditions on King George Island and the lack of high-resolution digital elevation models for the region remain restrictions for the applicability of SAR data and the precision of derived products. Supplemental data are available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.853954.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mickaël Lalande ◽  
Martin Ménégoz ◽  
Gerhard Krinner

<p>The High Mountains of Asia (HMA) region and the Tibetan Plateau (TP), with an average altitude of 4000 m, are hosting the third largest reservoir of glaciers and snow after the two polar ice caps, and are at the origin of strong orographic precipitation. Climate studies over HMA are related to serious challenges concerning the exposure of human infrastructures to natural hazards and the water resources for agriculture, drinking water, and hydroelectricity to whom several hundred million inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent are depending. However, climate variables such as temperature, precipitation, and snow cover are poorly described by global climate models because their coarse resolution is not adapted to the rugged topography of this region. Since the first CMIP exercises, a cold model bias has been identified in this region, however, its attribution is not obvious and may be different from one model to another. Our study focuses on a multi-model comparison of the CMIP6 simulations used to investigate the climate variability in this area to answer the next questions: (1) are the biases in HMA reduced in the new generation of climate models? (2) Do the model biases impact the simulated climate trends? (3) What are the links between the model biases in temperature, precipitation, and snow cover extent? (4) Which climate trajectories can be projected in this area until 2100? An analysis of 27 models over 1979-2014 still show a cold bias in near-surface air temperature over the HMA and TP reaching an annual value of -2.0 °C (± 3.2 °C), associated with an over-extended relative snow cover extent of 53 % (± 62 %), and a relative excess of precipitation of 139 % (± 38 %), knowing that the precipitation biases are uncertain because of the undercatch of solid precipitation in observations. Model biases and trends do not show any clear links, suggesting that biased models should not be excluded in trend and projections analysis, although non-linear effects related to lagged snow cover feedbacks could be expected. On average over 2081-2100 with respect to 1995-2014, for the scenarios SSP126, SSP245, SSP370, and SSP585, the 9 available models shows respectively an increase in annual temperature of 1.9 °C (± 0.5 °C), 3.4 °C (± 0.7 °C), 5.2 °C (± 1.2 °C), and 6.6 °C (± 1.5 °C); a relative decrease in the snow cover extent of 10 % (± 4.1 %), 19 % (± 5 %), 29 % (± 8 %), and 35 % (± 9 %); and an increase in total precipitation of 9 % (± 5 %), 13 % (± 7 %), 19 % (± 11 %), and 27 % (± 13 %). Further analyses will be considered to investigate potential links between the biases at the surface and those at higher tropospheric levels as well as with the topography. The models based on high resolution do not perform better than the coarse-gridded ones, suggesting that the race to high resolution should be considered as a second priority after the developments of more realistic physical parameterizations.</p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan Yuan ◽  
Lei Lin

Satellite image time series (SITS) classification is a major research topic in remote sensing and is relevant for a wide range of applications. Deep learning approaches have been commonly employed for SITS classification and have provided state-of-the-art performance. However, deep learning methods suffer from overfitting when labeled data is scarce. To address this problem, we propose a novel self-supervised pre-training scheme to initialize a Transformer-based network by utilizing large-scale unlabeled data. In detail, the model is asked to predict randomly contaminated observations given an entire time series of a pixel. The main idea of our proposal is to leverage the inherent temporal structure of satellite time series to learn general-purpose spectral-temporal representations related to land cover semantics. Once pre-training is completed, the pre-trained network can be further adapted to various SITS classification tasks by fine-tuning all the model parameters on small-scale task-related labeled data. In this way, the general knowledge and representations about SITS can be transferred to a label-scarce task, thereby improving the generalization performance of the model as well as reducing the risk of overfitting. Comprehensive experiments have been carried out on three benchmark datasets over large study areas. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, leading to a classification accuracy increment up to 1.91% to 6.69%. <div><b>This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessible.</b></div>


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (13) ◽  
pp. 1619 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhou Ya’nan ◽  
Luo Jiancheng ◽  
Feng Li ◽  
Zhou Xiaocheng

Spatial features retrieved from satellite data play an important role for improving crop classification. In this study, we proposed a deep-learning-based time-series analysis method to extract and organize spatial features to improve parcel-based crop classification using high-resolution optical images and multi-temporal synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. Central to this method is the use of multiple deep convolutional networks (DCNs) to extract spatial features and to use the long short-term memory (LSTM) network to organize spatial features. First, a precise farmland parcel map was delineated from optical images. Second, hundreds of spatial features were retrieved using multiple DCNs from preprocessed SAR images and overlaid onto the parcel map to construct multivariate time-series of crop growth for parcels. Third, LSTM-based network structures for organizing these time-series features were constructed to produce a final parcel-based classification map. The method was applied to a dataset of high-resolution ZY-3 optical images and multi-temporal Sentinel-1A SAR data to classify crop types in the Hunan Province of China. The classification results, showing an improvement of greater than 5.0% in overall accuracy relative to methods without spatial features, demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method in extracting and organizing spatial features for improving parcel-based crop classification.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigrid Roessner ◽  
Robert Behling ◽  
Mahdi Motagh ◽  
Hans Ulrich-wetzel

&lt;p&gt;Landslides represent a worldwide natural hazard and often occur as cascading effects related to triggering events, such as earthquakes and hydrometeorological extremes. Recent examples are the Kaikoura earthquake in New Zealand (November 2016), the Gorkha earthquake in Nepal (April/May 2015), and the Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan (August 2009) as well as less intense rainfall events persisting over unusually long periods of time as observed for Central Asia (spring 2017) and Iran (spring 2019). Each of these events has caused thousands of landslides that account substantially to the primary disaster&amp;#8217;s impact. Moreover, their initial failure usually represents the onset of long-term progressing slope destabilization leading to multiple reactivations and thus to long-term increased hazard and risk. Therefore, regular systematic high-resolution monitoring of landslide prone regions is of key importance for characterization, understanding and modelling of spatiotemporal landslide evolution in the context of different triggering and predisposing settings. Because of the large extent of the affected areas of up to several ten thousands km&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;, the use of multi-temporal and multi-scale remote sensing methods is of key importance for large area process analysis. In this context, new opportunities have opened up with the increasing availability of satellite remote sensing data of suitable spatial and temporal resolution (Sentinels, Planet) as well as the advances in UAV based very high resolution monitoring and mapping.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;During the last decade, we have been pursuing extensive methodological developments in remote sensing based time series analysis including optical and radar observations with the goal of performing large area and at the same time detailed spatiotemporal analysis of landslide prone regions. These developments include automated post-failure landslide detection and mapping as well as assessment of the kinematics of pre- and post-failure slope evolution.&amp;#160; Our combined optical and radar remote sensing approaches aim at an improved understanding of spatiotemporal dynamics and complexities related to evolution of landslide prone slopes at different spatial and temporal scales. &amp;#160;In this context, we additionally integrate UAV-based observation for deriving volumetric changes also related to globally available DEM products, such as SRTM and ALOS. &amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We present results for selected settings comprising large area co-seismic landslide occurrence related to the Kaikoura 2016 and the Nepal 2015 earthquakes. For the latter one we also analyzed annual pre- and post-seismic monsoon related landslide activity contributing to a better understanding of the interplay between these main triggering factors. Moreover, we report on ten years of large area systematic landslide monitoring in Southern Kyrgyzstan resulting in a multi-temporal regional landslide inventory of so far unprecedented spatiotemporal detail and completeness forming the basis for further analysis of the obtained landslide concentration patterns. We also present first results of our analysis of landslides triggered by intense rainfall and flood events in spring of 2019 in the North of Iran. We conclude that in all cases, the obtained results are crucial for improved landslide prediction and reduction of future landslide impact. Thus, our methodological developments represent an important contribution towards improved hazard and risk assessment as well as rapid mapping and early warning&lt;/p&gt;


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordi Inglada ◽  
Arthur Vincent ◽  
Marcela Arias ◽  
Benjamin Tardy ◽  
David Morin ◽  
...  

2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Braun ◽  
Jefferson C. Simões ◽  
Steffen Vogt ◽  
Ulisses F. Bremer ◽  
Norbert Blindow ◽  
...  

A new topographic database for King George Island, one of the most visited areas in Antarctica, is presented. Data from differential GPS surveys, gained during the summers 1997/98 and 1999/2000, were combined with up to date coastlines from a SPOT satellite image mosaic, and topographic information from maps as well as from the Antarctic Digital Database. A digital terrain model (DTM) was generated using ARC/INFO GIS. From contour lines derived from the DTM and the satellite image mosaic a satellite image map was assembled. Extensive information on data accuracy, the database as well as on the criteria applied to select place names is given in the multilingual map. A lack of accurate topographic information in the eastern part of the island was identified. It was concluded that additional topographic surveying or radar interferometry should be conducted to improve the data quality in this area. In three case studies, the potential applications of the improved topographic database are demonstrated. The first two examples comprise the verification of glacier velocities and the study of glacier retreat from the various input data-sets as well as the use of the DTM for climatological modelling. The last case study focuses on the use of the new digital database as a basic GIS (Geographic Information System) layer for environmental monitoring and management on King George Island.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerio Gagliardi ◽  
Luca Bianchini Ciampoli ◽  
Amir Alani ◽  
Fabio Tosti ◽  
Andrea Benedetto

&lt;p&gt;Multi-temporal Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) is a space-borne monitoring technique capable of detecting cumulative surface displacements with millimeter accuracy in the Line of Sight (LOS) of the radar sensor [1-3]. Several developments in the processing methods and the increasing availability of SAR datasets from different satellite missions, have proven the viability of this technique in the near-real-time assessment of bridges and the health monitoring of transport infrastructures [2-4].&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This research aims to demonstrate the potential of satellite-based remote sensing techniques as an innovative health-monitoring method for structural assessment of bridges and the prevention of damages by structural subsidence, using high-resolution SAR datasets integrated with complementary Ground-Based (GB) Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) techniques. To this purpose, high-resolution COSMO&amp;#8208;SkyMed (CSK) products provided by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) were acquired and processed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In particular, a multi-temporal InSAR analysis was developed to identify and monitor the structural displacements of the Rochester Bridge, located in Rochester, Kent, UK. To this extent, a clustering operation is realised to collect the identified Persistent Scatterers (PSs) over the structural elements of the bridge (i.e., bridge piers and arcs). Furthermore, several sub-clusters with a comparable deformation trend were identified and located over the bridge elements. This operation paves the way for an automatisation of the process through a Machine Learning (ML) clustering algorithms to assign each PS data-point to specific groups, based on the structural element type and the trend of seasonal deformation time-series.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The outcomes of this study demonstrate how multi-temporal InSAR remote sensing techniques can be synergistically applied to complement non-destructive ground-based analyses, paving the way for future integrated methodologies in the monitoring of infrastructure assets.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Acknowledgments: &lt;/strong&gt;The authors want to acknowledge the Italian Space Agency (ASI) for providing the COSMO-SkyMed Products&amp;#174; (&amp;#169;ASI, 2017-2019),&amp;#160; in the framework of the ASI-Open Call Project &amp;#8220;MoTIB, ID 742&amp;#8221; accepted by ASI. In addition, the authors would like to acknowledge the Rochester Bridge Trust for facilitating and supporting this research. This research is supported by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research under the National Project &amp;#8220;EXTRA TN&amp;#8221;, PRIN 2017, Prot. 20179BP4SM.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;References&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1] Alani A. M., Tosti F., Bianchini Ciampoli L., Gagliardi V., Benedetto A., Integration of GPR and InSAR methods for the health monitoring of masonry arch bridges. NDT&amp;E International. (2020)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] Gagliardi V., Bianchini Ciampoli L., D'Amico F., Alani A. M., Tosti F., Battagliere M. L., Benedetto A., Bridge monitoring and assessment by high-resolution satellite remote sensing technologies, Proc. SPIE 11525, SPIE Future Sensing Technologies. 2020. doi: 10.1117/12.2579700&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] Selvakumaran, S., Plank, S., Gei&amp;#223;, C., Rossi, C., Middleton, C. (2018). Remote monitoring to predict bridge scour failure using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) stacking techniques, Int. J. .Appl. Earth Obs. and Geoinf. 73, 463-470.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;[4] Qin X, Liao M., Zhang L., &amp; Yang M., Structural Health and Stability Assessment of High-Speed Railways via Thermal Dilation Mapping with Time-Series InSAR Analysis. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing&lt;/p&gt;


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