Abstract
Liquid water stored on the surface of ice sheets and glaciers impacts
surface mass balance, ice dynamics, and heat transport. Multispectral remote
sensing can be used to detect supraglacial lakes and estimate their depth
and area. In this study, we use in situ spectral and bathymetric data to
assess lake depth retrieval using the recently launched Landsat 8
Operational Land Imager (OLI). We also extend our analysis to other
multispectral sensors to evaluate their performance with similar methods.
Digital elevation models derived from WorldView stereo imagery (pre-lake
filling and post-drainage) are used to validate spectrally derived depths,
combined with a lake edge determination from imagery. The optimal
supraglacial lake depth retrieval is a physically based single-band model
applied to two OLI bands independently (red and panchromatic) that are then
averaged together. When OLI- and WorldView-derived depths are differenced,
they yield a mean and standard deviation of 0.0 ± 1.6 m. This method
is then applied to OLI data for the Sermeq Kujalleq (Jakobshavn Isbræ)
region of Greenland to study the spatial and intra-seasonal variability of
supraglacial lakes during summer 2014. We also give coefficients for
estimating supraglacial lake depth using a similar method with other
multispectral sensors.
Citation
ID:
232115
Ref Key:
pope2016theestimating