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Polar Remote SensingPolar Remote Sensing

Presented by Beth CaissiePresented by Beth Caissie

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Remote Sensing• Observing something without

being able to physically “see” or touch it

http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/industry/esa_canada.asp

http://www.blogut.ca/2007/09/

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Muir Glacier

1941, William Field

2004, Bruce Molnia

http://nsidc.org/data/glacier_photo/repeat_photography.html

From the Glacier photograph collection. Boulder, Colorado USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology.

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1909, Ulysses Sherman Grant

McCarty Glacier

2004, Bruce Molnia

From the Glacier photograph collection. Boulder, Colorado USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology.

http://nsidc.org/data/glacier_photo/repeat_photography.html

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Geostationary Satellite

Maintains its position over a particular location as the Earth rotates beneath it

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Polar Orbiting Satellites

Near Polar Orbiting• Each satellite

passes near the poles ~14 times daily

• Multiple satellites: each location on Earth is imaged 4 times per day

• Polar regions are imaged much more often

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Daily Landsat tracks across

Antarctica

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Polar Remote Sensing via satellites• Glaciers• Snow Cover• Lake Ice • Sea Ice• Permafrost• Productivity• Surface

temperature• Volcanoes• Aurora Activity• And more…

Historic calving front locations (in grey), 1851 through 1964, compiled by Anker Weidick and Ole Bennike. Recent calving front locations (in color), 2001 through 2006, derived from Landsat satellite imagery.

Jakobshavn Glacier, Greenland

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003300/a003395/index.htmlhttp://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003300/a003395/index.html

9Data derived from Sea Ice Index data set. Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center. http://nsidc.org/news/press/2007_seaiceminimum/images/20070917animation.mov

1979-2006 September 9, 2007

Arctic Summer Sea-Ice Extent

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Arctic Summer Sea-Ice Extent

http://www.nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

SSM/I Data:

• Special Sensor Microwave/ Imager, operated by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program

• Not affected by clouds!

• Near polar orbiting satellite

• Continuous record since 1979

• Very coarse resolution:

• 25 x 25 km grid

white > 15% ice coverage

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Sensing primary productivity

Alaska

Russia

Quicktime movie compiled by Karen Frey, Clark University

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Greenland Ice Sheet Temperature and Sea Ice

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio. The Next Generation Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC). http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003500/a003506/index.html

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Volcanic Activity

March 15, 2009: Mt Redoubt erupts in Alaska (100 mi south of Anchorage)

Image by Kelly Reeves, courtesy of Alaska Airlines http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Redoubt.php

Image by Cheryl Cameron, courtesy of AVO/ADGGS

14http://geology.com/nasa/redoubt-ash-plume-satellite-images/

MODIS image used to track Mt Redoubt’s ash plume

Colors are actually derived from thermal infared measurements.White = colder (The plume is white because it is so high—50,000’)