scholarly journals Permafrost Dynamics and Degradation in Polar Arctic From Satellite Radar Observations, Yamal Peninsula

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kanayim Teshebaeva ◽  
Ko J. van Huissteden ◽  
Helmut Echtler ◽  
Alexander V. Puzanov ◽  
Dmitry N. Balykin ◽  
...  

We investigate permafrost surface features revealed from satellite radar data in the Siberian arctic at the Yamal peninsula. Surface dynamics analysis based on SRTM and TanDEM-X DEMs shows up to 2 m net loss of surface relief between 2000 and 2014 indicating a highly dynamic landscape. Surface features for the past 14 years reflect an increase in small stream channels and a number of new lakes that developed, likely caused by permafrost thaw. We used Sentinel-1 SAR imagery to measure permafrost surface changes. Owing to limited observation data we analyzed only 2 years. The InSAR time-series has detected surface displacements in three distinct spatial locations during 2017 and 2018. At these three locations, 60–120 mm/yr rates of seasonal surface permafrost changes are observed. Spatial location of seasonal ground displacements aligns well with lithology. One of them is located on marine sediments and is linked to anthropogenic impact on permafrost stability. Two other areas are located within alluvial sediments and are at the top of topographic elevated zones. We discuss the influence of the geologic environment and the potential effect of local upwelling of gas. These combined analyses of InSAR time-series with analysis of geomorphic features from DEMs present an important tool for continuous process monitoring of surface dynamics as part of a global warming risk assessment.

Author(s):  
Kanayim Teshebaeva ◽  
Ko J. van Huissteden ◽  
Alexander V. Puzanov ◽  
Dmitry N. Balykin ◽  
Anton I. Sinitsky ◽  
...  

Abstract. Widespread thawing of permafrost in the northern Eurasian continent causes severe problems for infrastructure and global climate. We test the potential of Sentinel-1 SAR imagery to enhance detection of permafrost surface changes in the Siberian lowlands of the northern Eurasian continent at the Yamal peninsula site. We used InSAR time-series technique to detect seasonal surface movements related to permafrost active layer changes. The satellite InSAR time-series analysis has detected continuous movements, subsidence in three zones, which have occurred during the time period from 2017 to 2018. Observed subsidence zones show up to 180 mm yr−1 rates of seasonal active layers changes. These seasonal ground displacement patterns align well with lithology and linked to anthropogenic impact on the permafrost surface changes in the area. The results show that Sentinel-1 mission is of great importance for the longer-term monitoring of active layer thickening in permafrost regions. The combined analyses of the obtained InSAR time series with additional field observations may support regular process monitoring as part of a global warming risk assessment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (15) ◽  
pp. 6923
Author(s):  
Rui Zhang ◽  
Zhanzhong Tang ◽  
Dong Luo ◽  
Hongxia Luo ◽  
Shucheng You ◽  
...  

The use of remote sensing technology to monitor farmland is currently the mainstream method for crop research. However, in cloudy and misty regions, the use of optical remote sensing image is limited. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology has many advantages, including high resolution, multi-mode, and multi-polarization. Moreover, it can penetrate clouds and mists, can be used for all-weather and all-time Earth observation, and is sensitive to the shape of ground objects. Therefore, it is widely used in agricultural monitoring. In this study, the polarization backscattering coefficient on time-series SAR images during the rice-growing period was analyzed. The rice identification results and accuracy of InSAR technology were compared with those of three schemes (single-time-phase SAR, multi-time-phase SAR, and combination of multi-time-phase SAR and InSAR). Results show that VV and VH polarization coherence coefficients can well distinguish artificial buildings. In particular, VV polarization coherence coefficients can well distinguish rice from water and vegetation in August and September, whereas VH polarization coherence coefficients can well distinguish rice from water and vegetation in August and October. The rice identification accuracy of single-time series Sentinel-1 SAR image (78%) is lower than that of multi-time series SAR image combined with InSAR technology (81%). In this study, Guanghan City, a cloudy region, was used as the study site, and a good verification result was obtained.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 2174
Author(s):  
Lijian Shi ◽  
Sen Liu ◽  
Yingni Shi ◽  
Xue Ao ◽  
Bin Zou ◽  
...  

Polar sea ice affects atmospheric and ocean circulation and plays an important role in global climate change. Long time series sea ice concentrations (SIC) are an important parameter for climate research. This study presents an SIC retrieval algorithm based on brightness temperature (Tb) data from the FY3C Microwave Radiation Imager (MWRI) over the polar region. With the Tb data of Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) as a reference, monthly calibration models were established based on time–space matching and linear regression. After calibration, the correlation between the Tb of F17/SSMIS and FY3C/MWRI at different channels was improved. Then, SIC products over the Arctic and Antarctic in 2016–2019 were retrieved with the NASA team (NT) method. Atmospheric effects were reduced using two weather filters and a sea ice mask. A minimum ice concentration array used in the procedure reduced the land-to-ocean spillover effect. Compared with the SIC product of National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), the average relative difference of sea ice extent of the Arctic and Antarctic was found to be acceptable, with values of −0.27 ± 1.85 and 0.53 ± 1.50, respectively. To decrease the SIC error with fixed tie points (FTPs), the SIC was retrieved by the NT method with dynamic tie points (DTPs) based on the original Tb of FY3C/MWRI. The different SIC products were evaluated with ship observation data, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sea ice cover products, and the Round Robin Data Package (RRDP). In comparison with the ship observation data, the SIC bias of FY3C with DTP is 4% and is much better than that of FY3C with FTP (9%). Evaluation results with SAR SIC data and closed ice data from RRDP show a similar trend between FY3C SIC with FTPs and FY3C SIC with DTPs. Using DTPs to present the Tb seasonal change of different types of sea ice improved the SIC accuracy, especially for the sea ice melting season. This study lays a foundation for the release of long time series operational SIC products with Chinese FY3 series satellites.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 491
Author(s):  
Niangang Jiao ◽  
Feng Wang ◽  
Hongjian You

Numerous earth observation data obtained from different platforms have been widely used in various fields, and geometric calibration is a fundamental step for these applications. Traditional calibration methods are developed based on the rational function model (RFM), which is produced by image vendors as a substitution of the rigorous sensor model (RSM). Generally, the fitting accuracy of the RFM is much higher than 1 pixel, whereas the result decreases to several pixels in mountainous areas, especially for Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery. Therefore, this paper proposes a new combined adjustment for geolocation accuracy improvement of multiple sources satellite SAR and optical imagery. Tie points are extracted based on a robust image matching algorithm, and relationships between the parameters of the range-doppler (RD) model and the RFM are developed by transformed into the same Geodetic Coordinate systems. At the same time, a heterogeneous weight strategy is designed for better convergence. Experimental results indicate that our proposed model can achieve much higher geolocation accuracy with approximately 2.60 pixels in the X direction and 3.50 pixels in the Y direction. Compared with traditional methods developed based on RFM, our proposed model provides a new way for synergistic use of multiple sources remote sensing data.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Enton Bedini

Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) analysis of Sentinel-1 time series was carried out to detect ground subsidence in the city of Recife, Brazil. The dataset consisted of sixty-eight Sentinel-1A Interferometric Wide (IW) Single Look Complex (SLC) images of the time period April 2017 – September 2019. The images were acquired in descending orbit in VV (vertical transmitting, vertical receiving) polarization. The results of the PSI analysis show that in the city of Recife occur several ground subsidence areas. The largest ground subsidence area occurs between the neighborhoods of Afogados, Torrŏes and Cordeiro. The subsidence rates in this area range from few mm/year up to -15 mm/year. This ground subsidence could be a result of groundwater extraction or of subsidence processes in urbanized reclaimed lands. Similar but smaller ground subsidence areas occur in several localities in Recife. In some cases, subsidence with rates of up to -25 mm/year is noted in small zones where new buildings have been constructed in the last decade. This should be due to ground settlement processes, taking a long time due to the particular soils and geology of the locality. This study can serve as a first contribution for further research on the ground subsidence hazard in the city of Recife and the surrounding areas by means of satellite radar imagery.


2018 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 06013
Author(s):  
Valentin Mansanarez ◽  
Ida K. Westerberg ◽  
Steve W. Lyon ◽  
Norris Lam

Establishing a reliable stage-discharge (SD) rating curve for calculating discharge at a hydrological gauging station normally takes years of data collection. Estimation of high flows is particularly difficult as they occur rarely and are often difficult to gauge in practice. At a minimum, hydraulicallymodelled rating curves could be derived with as few as two concurrent SD and water-surface slope measurements at different flow conditions. This means that a reliable rating curve can, potentially, be developed much faster via hydraulic modelling than using a traditional rating curve approach based on numerous stage-discharge gaugings. In this study, we use an uncertainty framework based on Bayesian inference and hydraulic modelling for developing SD rating curves and estimating their uncertainties. The framework incorporates information from both the hydraulic configuration (bed slope, roughness, vegetation) using hydraulic modelling and the information available in the SD observation data (gaugings). Discharge time series are estimated by propagating stage records through the posterior rating curve results. Here we apply this novel framework to a Swedish hydrometric station, accounting for uncertainties in the gaugings and the parameters of the hydraulic model. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of using only three gaugings for calibrating the hydraulic model on resultant uncertainty estimations within our framework. The results were compared to prior knowledge, discharge measurements and official discharge estimations and showed the potential of hydraulically-modelled rating curves for assessing uncertainty at high and medium flows, while uncertainty at low flows remained high. Uncertainty results estimated using only three gaugings for the studied site were smaller than ±15% for medium and high flows and reduced the prior uncertainty by a factor of ten on average and were estimated with only 3 gaugings.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jānis Bikše ◽  
Inga Retike ◽  
Andis Kalvāns ◽  
Aija Dēliņa ◽  
Alise Babre ◽  
...  

<p>Groundwater level time series are the basis for various groundwater-related studies. The most valuable are long term, gapless and evenly spatially distributed datasets. However, most historical datasets have been acquired during a long-term period by various operators and database maintainers, using different data collection methods (manual measurements or automatic data loggers) and usually contain gaps and errors, that can originate both from measurement process and data processing. The easiest way is to eliminate the time series with obvious errors from further analysis, but then most of the valuable dataset may be lost, decreasing spatial and time coverage. Some gaps can be easily replaced by traditional methods (e.g. by mean values), but filling longer observation gaps (missing months, years) is complicated and often leads to false results. Thus, an effort should be made to retain as much as possible actual observation data.</p><p>In this study we present (1) most typical data errors found in long-term groundwater level monitoring datasets, (2) provide techniques to visually identify such errors and finally, (3) propose best ways of how to treat such errors. The approach also includes confidence levels for identification and decision-making process. The aim of the study was to pre-treat groundwater level time series obtained from the national monitoring network in Latvia for further use in groundwater drought modelling studies.</p><p>This research is funded by the Latvian Council of Science, project “Spatial and temporal prediction of groundwater drought with mixed models for multilayer sedimentary basin under climate change”, project No. lzp-2019/1-0165.</p>


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 861 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hao Jiang ◽  
Dan Li ◽  
Wenlong Jing ◽  
Jianhui Xu ◽  
Jianxi Huang ◽  
...  

More than 90% of the sugar production in China comes from sugarcane, which is widely grown in South China. Optical image time series have proven to be efficient for sugarcane mapping. There are, however, two limitations associated with previous research: one is that the critical observations during the sugarcane growing season are limited due to frequent cloudy weather in South China; the other is that the classification method requires imagery time series covering the entire growing season, which reduces the time efficiency. The Sentinel-1A (S1A) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data featuring relatively high spatial-temporal resolution provides an ideal data source for all-weather observations. In this study, we attempted to develop a method for the early season mapping of sugarcane. First, we proposed a framework consisting of two procedures: initial sugarcane mapping using the S1A SAR imagery time series, followed by non-vegetation removal using Sentinel-2 optical imagery. Second, we tested the framework using an incremental classification strategy based on S1A imagery covering the entire 2017–2018 sugarcane season. The study area was in Suixi and Leizhou counties of Zhanjiang city, China. Results indicated that an acceptable accuracy, in terms of Kappa coefficient, can be achieved to a level above 0.902 using time series three months before sugarcane harvest. In general, sugarcane mapping utilizing the combination of VH + VV as well as VH polarization alone outperformed mapping using VV alone. Although the XGBoost classifier with VH + VV polarization achieved a maximum accuracy that was slightly lower than the random forest (RF) classifier, the XGBoost shows promising performance in that it was more robust to overfitting with noisy VV time series and the computation speed was 7.7 times faster than RF classifier. The total sugarcane areas in Suixi and Leizhou for the 2017–2018 harvest year estimated by this study were approximately 598.95 km2 and 497.65 km2, respectively. The relative accuracy of the total sugarcane mapping area was approximately 86.3%.


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