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18 pages, 5229 KiB  
Article
Exploring the Spectral Variability of Estonian Lakes Using Spaceborne Imaging Spectroscopy
by Alice Fabbretto, Mariano Bresciani, Andrea Pellegrino, Kersti Kangro, Anna Joelle Greife, Lodovica Panizza, François Steinmetz, Joel Kuusk, Claudia Giardino and Krista Alikas
Appl. Sci. 2025, 15(15), 8357; https://doi.org/10.3390/app15158357 - 27 Jul 2025
Viewed by 290
Abstract
This study investigates the potential of spaceborne imaging spectroscopy to support the analysis of the status of two major Estonian lakes, i.e., Lake Peipsi and Lake Võrtsjärv, using data from the PRISMA and EnMAP missions. The study encompasses nine specific applications across 12 [...] Read more.
This study investigates the potential of spaceborne imaging spectroscopy to support the analysis of the status of two major Estonian lakes, i.e., Lake Peipsi and Lake Võrtsjärv, using data from the PRISMA and EnMAP missions. The study encompasses nine specific applications across 12 satellite scenes, including the validation of remote sensing reflectance (Rrs), optical water type classification, estimation of phycocyanin concentration, detection of macrophytes, and characterization of reflectance for lake ice/snow coverage. Rrs validation, which was performed using in situ measurements and Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 as references, showed a level of agreement with Spectral Angle < 16°. Hyperspectral imagery successfully captured fine-scale spatial and spectral features not detectable by multispectral sensors, in particular it was possible to identify cyanobacterial pigments and optical variations driven by seasonal and meteorological dynamics. Through the combined use of in situ observations, the study can serve as a starting point for the use of hyperspectral data in northern freshwater systems, offering new insights into ecological processes. Given the increasing global concern over freshwater ecosystem health, this work provides a transferable framework for leveraging new-generation hyperspectral missions to enhance water quality monitoring on a global scale. Full article
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36 pages, 3656 KiB  
Review
Current Status of Application of Spaceborne GNSS-R Raw Intermediate-Frequency Signal Measurements: Comprehensive Review
by Qiulan Wang, Jinwei Bu, Yutong Wang, Donglan Huang, Hui Yang and Xiaoqing Zuo
Remote Sens. 2025, 17(13), 2144; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17132144 - 22 Jun 2025
Viewed by 473
Abstract
In recent years, spaceborne Global Navigation Satellite System reflectometry (GNSS-R) technology has made significant progress in the fields of Earth observation and remote sensing, with a wide range of applications, important research value, and broad development prospects. However, despite existing research focusing on [...] Read more.
In recent years, spaceborne Global Navigation Satellite System reflectometry (GNSS-R) technology has made significant progress in the fields of Earth observation and remote sensing, with a wide range of applications, important research value, and broad development prospects. However, despite existing research focusing on the application of spaceborne GNSS-R L1-level data, the potential value of raw intermediate-frequency (IF) signals has not been fully explored for special applications that require a high accuracy and spatiotemporal resolution. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the current status of the measurement of raw IF signals from spaceborne GNSS-R in multiple application fields. Firstly, the development of spaceborne GNSS-R microsatellites launch technology is introduced, including the ability of microsatellites to receive GNSS signals and receiver technique, as well as related frequency bands and technological advancements. Secondly, the key role of coherence detection in spaceborne GNSS-R is discussed. By analyzing the phase and amplitude information of the reflected signals, parameters such as scattering characteristics, roughness, and the shape of surface features are extracted. Then, the application of spaceborne GNSS-R in inland water monitoring is explored, including inland water detection and the measurement of the surface height of inland (or lake) water bodies. In addition, the widespread application of group delay sea surface height measurement and carrier-phase sea surface height measurement technology in the marine field are also discussed. Further research is conducted on the progress of spaceborne GNSS-R in the retrieval of ice height or ice sheet height, as well as tropospheric parameter monitoring and the study of atmospheric parameters. Finally, the existing research results are summarized, and suggestions for future prospects are put forward, including improving the accuracy of signal processing and reflection signal analysis, developing more advanced algorithms and technologies, and so on, to achieve more accurate and reliable Earth observation and remote sensing applications. These research results have important application potential in fields such as environmental monitoring, climate change research, and weather prediction, and are expected to provide new technological means for global geophysical parameter retrieval. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Satellite Observations for Hydrological Modelling)
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22 pages, 9142 KiB  
Article
Downscaling and Gap-Filling GRACE-Based Terrestrial Water Storage Anomalies in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau Using Deep Learning and Multi-Source Data
by Jun Chen, Linsong Wang, Chao Chen and Zhenran Peng
Remote Sens. 2025, 17(8), 1333; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17081333 - 8 Apr 2025
Viewed by 892
Abstract
The Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP), a critical hydrological regulator for Asia through its extensive glacier systems, high-altitude lakes, and intricate network of rivers, exhibits amplified sensitivity to climate-driven alterations in precipitation regimes and ice mass balance. While the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) [...] Read more.
The Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP), a critical hydrological regulator for Asia through its extensive glacier systems, high-altitude lakes, and intricate network of rivers, exhibits amplified sensitivity to climate-driven alterations in precipitation regimes and ice mass balance. While the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and its Follow-On (GRACE-FO) missions have revolutionized monitoring of terrestrial water storage anomalies (TWSAs) across this hydrologically sensitive region, spatial resolution limitations (3°, equivalent to ~300 km) constrain process-scale analysis, compounded by mission temporal discontinuity (data gaps). In this study, we present a novel downscaling framework integrating temporal gap compensation and spatial refinement to a 0.25° resolution through Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) neural networks, an architecture optimized for univariate time series modeling. Through the assimilation of multi-source hydrological parameters (glacier mass flux, cryosphere–precipitation interactions, and land surface processes), the GRU-based result resolves nonlinear storage dynamics while bridging inter-mission observational gaps. Grid-level implementation preserves mass conservation principles across heterogeneous topographies, successfully reconstructing seasonal-to-interannual TWSA variability and also its long-term trends. Comparative validation against GRACE mascon solutions and process-based hydrological models demonstrates enhanced capacity in resolving sub-basin heterogeneity. This GRU-derived high-resolution TWSA is especially valuable for dissecting local variability in areas such as the Brahmaputra Basin, where complex water cycling can affect downstream water security. Our study provides transferable methodologies for mountainous hydrogeodesy analysis under evolving climate regimes. Future enhancements through physics-informed deep learning and next-generation climatology–hydrology–gravimetry synergy (e.g., observations and models) could further constrain uncertainties in extreme elevation zones, advancing the predictive understanding of Asia’s water tower sustainability. Full article
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27 pages, 22277 KiB  
Article
A Novel Photon-Counting Laser Point Cloud Denoising Method Based on Spatial Distribution Hierarchical Clustering for Inland Lake Water Level Monitoring
by Xin Lv, Xiao Wang, Xiaomeng Yang, Junfeng Xie, Fan Mo, Chaopeng Xu and Fangxv Zhang
Remote Sens. 2025, 17(5), 902; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17050902 - 4 Mar 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 762
Abstract
Inland lakes and reservoirs are critical components of global freshwater resources. However, traditional water level monitoring stations are costly to establish and maintain, particularly in remote areas. As an alternative, satellite altimetry has become a key tool for lake water level monitoring. Nevertheless, [...] Read more.
Inland lakes and reservoirs are critical components of global freshwater resources. However, traditional water level monitoring stations are costly to establish and maintain, particularly in remote areas. As an alternative, satellite altimetry has become a key tool for lake water level monitoring. Nevertheless, conventional radar altimetry techniques face accuracy limitations when monitoring small water bodies. The Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), equipped with a single-photon counting lidar system, offers enhanced precision and a smaller ground footprint, making it more suitable for small-scale water body monitoring. However, the water level data obtained from the ICESat-2 ATL13 inland water surface height product are limited in quantity, while the lake water level accuracy derived from the ATL08 product is relatively low. To overcome these challenges, this study proposes a Spatial Distribution-Based Hierarchical Clustering for Photon-Counting Laser altimeter (SD-HCPLA) for enhanced water level extraction, validated through experiments conducted at the Danjiangkou Reservoir. The proposed method first employs Landsat 8/9 imagery and the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) to generate a water mask, which is then used to filter ATL03 photon data within the water body boundaries. Subsequently, a Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) is constructed by traversing all photon points, where the vertical distance between adjacent photons replaces the traditional Euclidean distance as the edge length, thereby facilitating the clustering and denoising of the point cloud data. The SD-HCPLA algorithm successfully obtained 41 days of valid water level data for the Danjiangkou Reservoir, achieving a correlation coefficient of 0.99 and an average error of 0.14 m. Compared with ATL08 and ATL13, the SD-HCPLA method yields higher data availability and improved accuracy in water level estimation. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm was applied to extract water level data for five lakes and reservoirs in Hubei Province from 2018 to 2023. The temporal variations and inter-correlations of water levels were analyzed, providing valuable insights for regional ecological environment monitoring and water resource management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Remote Sensing in Geology, Geomorphology and Hydrology)
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26 pages, 7065 KiB  
Article
Water Surface Temperature Dynamics of the Three Largest Ice-Contact Lakes in the Patagonia Icefield over the Last 20 Years
by Shaochun Zhao, Hongyan Sun, Jie Cheng and Guoqing Zhang
Water 2025, 17(3), 385; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17030385 - 30 Jan 2025
Viewed by 937
Abstract
The Patagonia Icefield, the largest ice mass in the Southern Hemisphere outside Antarctica, has experienced significant growth and expansion of ice-contact lakes in recent decades, with lake surface water temperature (LSWT) being one of the key influencing factors. LSWT affects glacier melting at [...] Read more.
The Patagonia Icefield, the largest ice mass in the Southern Hemisphere outside Antarctica, has experienced significant growth and expansion of ice-contact lakes in recent decades, with lake surface water temperature (LSWT) being one of the key influencing factors. LSWT affects glacier melting at the waterline and accelerates glacier mass loss. However, the observations of ice-contact LSWT are often limited to short-term, site-based field measurements, which hinders long-term, whole-lake monitoring. This study examines LSWT for the three largest ice-contact lakes in the Patagonia Icefield—Lake Argentino, Lake Viedma, and Lake O’Higgins, each exceeding 1000 km2—and the three largest nearby non-ice-contact lakes for comparison using MODIS data between 2002 and 2022. In 2022, the mean LSWTs for Lake Argentino, Lake Viedma, and Lake O’Higgins were 7.2, 7.0, and 6.4 °C, respectively. In summer, ice-contact lakes exhibited wider LSWT ranges and more pronounced cooling near glacier termini and warming farther away compared to other seasons, demonstrating glacier melt cooling and its seasonal variability. Over the past 20 years, both Lake Viedma and Lake O’Higgins showed a warming rate of +0.20 °C dec−1, p > 0.1, with slower warming near the glacier, reflecting glacier contact suppression on the LSWT trend. Conversely, Lake Argentino displayed a significant warming rate of +0.43 °C dec−1 (p < 0.05), with faster rates near the glacier terminus, possibly linked to a prolonged and large (>64 km2) iceberg accumulation event from March 2010 to October 2011 in Glacier Upsala’s fjord. Iceberg mapping shows that larger events caused more pronounced short-term (24 days) LSWT cooling in Lake Argentino’s ice-proximal region. This study highlights the role of glacier–lake interactions including calving events in regulating ice-contact lake water temperature. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Hydrology)
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10 pages, 2010 KiB  
Proceeding Paper
Learnable Weight Graph Neural Network for River Ice Classification
by Yifan Qu, Armina Soleymani, Denise Sudom and Katharine Andrea Scott
Proceedings 2024, 110(1), 30; https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2024110030 - 13 Jan 2025
Viewed by 696
Abstract
Monitoring river ice is crucial for planning safe navigation routes, with ice–water classification being one of the most important tasks in ice mapping. While high-resolutions satellite imagery, such as synthetic aperture radar (SAR), is well-suited to this task, manual interpretation of these data [...] Read more.
Monitoring river ice is crucial for planning safe navigation routes, with ice–water classification being one of the most important tasks in ice mapping. While high-resolutions satellite imagery, such as synthetic aperture radar (SAR), is well-suited to this task, manual interpretation of these data is challenging due to the large data volume. Machine learning approaches are suitable methods to overcome this; however, training the models might not be time-effective when the desired result is a narrow structure, such as a river, within a large image. To address this issue, we proposed a model incorporating a graph neural network (GNN), called learnable weights graph convolution network (LWGCN). Focusing on the winters of 2017–2021 with emphasis on the Beauharnois Canal and Lake St Lawrence regions of the Saint Lawrence River. The model first converts the SAR image into graph-structured data using simple linear iterative clustering (SLIC) to segment the SAR image, then connecting the centers of each superpixel to form graph-structured data. For the training model, the LWGCN learns the weights on each edge to determine the relationship between ice and water. By using the graph-structured data as input, the proposed model training time is eight times faster, compared to a convolution neural network (CNN) model. Our findings also indicate that the LWGCN model can significantly enhance the accuracy of ice and water classification in SAR imagery. Full article
(This article belongs to the Proceedings of The 31st International Conference on Geoinformatics)
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23 pages, 16666 KiB  
Review
Requirements for the Development and Operation of a Freeze-Up Ice-Jam Flood Forecasting System
by Karl-Erich Lindenschmidt, Robert Briggs, Amir Ali Khan and Thomas Puestow
Water 2024, 16(18), 2648; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16182648 - 18 Sep 2024
Viewed by 1248
Abstract
This article provides a comprehensive overview of ice-jam flood forecasting methodologies applicable to rivers during freezing. It emphasizes the importance of understanding river ice processes and fluvial geomorphology for developing a freeze-up ice-jam flood forecasting system. The article showcases a stochastic modelling approach, [...] Read more.
This article provides a comprehensive overview of ice-jam flood forecasting methodologies applicable to rivers during freezing. It emphasizes the importance of understanding river ice processes and fluvial geomorphology for developing a freeze-up ice-jam flood forecasting system. The article showcases a stochastic modelling approach, which involves simulating a deterministic river ice model multiple times with varying parameters and boundary conditions. This approach has been applied to the Exploits River at Badger in Newfoundland, Canada, a river that has experienced several freeze-up ice-jam floods. The forecasting involves two approaches: predicting the extent of the ice cover during river freezing and using an ensemble method to determine backwater flood level elevations. Other examples of current ice-jam flood forecasting systems for the Kokemäenjoki River (Pori, Finland), Saint John River (Edmundston, NB, Canada), and Churchill River (Mud Lake, NL, Canada) that are operational are also presented. The text provides a detailed explanation of the processes involved in river freeze-up and ice-jam formation, as well as the methodologies used for freeze-up ice-jam flood forecasting. Ice-jam flood forecasting systems used for freeze-up were compared to those employed for spring breakup. Spring breakup and freeze-up ice-jam flood forecasting systems differ in their driving factors and methodologies. Spring breakup, driven by snowmelt runoff, typically relies on deterministic and probabilistic approaches to predict peak flows. Freeze-up, driven by cold temperatures, focuses on the complex interactions between atmospheric conditions, river flow, and ice dynamics. Both systems require air temperature forecasts, but snowpack data are more crucial for spring breakup forecasting. To account for uncertainty, both approaches may employ ensemble forecasting techniques, generating multiple forecasts using slightly different initial conditions or model parameters. The objective of this review is to provide an overview of the current state-of-the-art in ice-jam flood forecasting systems and to identify gaps and areas for improvement in existing ice-jam flood forecasting approaches, with a focus on enhancing their accuracy, reliability, and decision-making potential. In conclusion, an effective freeze-up ice-jam flood forecasting system requires real-time data collection and analysis, historical data analysis, ice jam modeling, user interface design, alert systems, and integration with other relevant systems. This combination allows operators to better understand ice jam behavior and make informed decisions about potential risks or mitigation measures to protect people and property along rivers. The key findings of this review are as follows: (i) Ice-jam flood forecasting systems are often based on simple, empirical models that rely heavily on historical data and limited real-time monitoring information. (ii) There is a need for more sophisticated modeling techniques that can better capture the complex interactions between ice cover, water levels, and channel geometry. (iii) Combining data from multiple sources such as satellite imagery, ground-based sensors, numerical models, and machine learning algorithms can significantly improve the accuracy and reliability of ice-jam flood forecasts. (iv) Effective decision-support tools are crucial for integrating ice-jam flood forecasts into emergency response and mitigation strategies. Full article
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23 pages, 9348 KiB  
Review
Mass Balance of Maritime Glaciers in the Southeastern Tibetan Plateau during Recent Decades
by Xiaowei Lyu, Yong Zhang, Huanhuan Wang and Xin Wang
Sustainability 2024, 16(16), 7118; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16167118 - 19 Aug 2024
Viewed by 1159
Abstract
Maritime glaciers in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau (SETP) are particularly sensitive to changes in climate, and their changes directly and severely affect regional water security and glacier-related hazards. Given their large societal importance, a better understanding of the mass balance of maritime glaciers [...] Read more.
Maritime glaciers in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau (SETP) are particularly sensitive to changes in climate, and their changes directly and severely affect regional water security and glacier-related hazards. Given their large societal importance, a better understanding of the mass balance of maritime glaciers in the SETP, a key variable for characterizing the state of glacier health, is of great scientific interest. In this review, we synthesize in situ, satellite-based observations and simulations that present an overall accelerating negative mass balance of maritime glaciers in the SETP in recent decades. We hereby highlight a significant spatiotemporal difference in the mass balance of maritime glaciers across the SETP and investigate the drivers of the accelerated mass loss of these glaciers in recent years. We find that accelerated glacier mass loss agrees with the variabilities in temperatures rising and precipitation decreasing at regional scales, as well as the spatial patterns of widespread melt hotspots (e.g., thin debris, ice cliffs, supraglacial ponds, and surface streams), the expansion of glacial lakes, enlarged ice crevasses, and frequent ice avalanches. Finally, the challenges of the mass balance study of maritime glaciers and future perspectives are proposed. Our review confirms the urgent need to improve the existing glacier inventory and establish comprehensive monitoring networks in data-scarce glacierized catchments, and it suggests paying particular attention to the development of glacier mass-balance models that coupe multiple physical processes at different interfaces to predict the status of maritime glaciers and their responses to climate change. This study can inform the sustainable management of water resources and the assessment of socio-economic vulnerability due to glacier-related hazards in the SETP and its surroundings in the context of marked atmospheric warming. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Impacts on Water Resources: From the Glacier to the Lake)
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19 pages, 5497 KiB  
Review
Earth Observation—An Essential Tool towards Effective Aquatic Ecosystems’ Management under a Climate in Change
by Filipe Lisboa, Vanda Brotas and Filipe Duarte Santos
Remote Sens. 2024, 16(14), 2597; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16142597 - 16 Jul 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1831
Abstract
Numerous policies have been proposed by international and supranational institutions, such as the European Union, to surveil Earth from space and furnish indicators of environmental conditions across diverse scenarios. In tandem with these policies, different initiatives, particularly on both sides of the Atlantic, [...] Read more.
Numerous policies have been proposed by international and supranational institutions, such as the European Union, to surveil Earth from space and furnish indicators of environmental conditions across diverse scenarios. In tandem with these policies, different initiatives, particularly on both sides of the Atlantic, have emerged to provide valuable data for environmental management such as the concept of essential climate variables. However, a key question arises: do the available data align with the monitoring requirements outlined in these policies? In this paper, we concentrate on Earth Observation (EO) optical data applications for environmental monitoring, with a specific emphasis on ocean colour. In a rapidly changing climate, it becomes imperative to consider data requirements for upcoming space missions. We place particular significance on the application of these data when monitoring lakes and marine protected areas (MPAs). These two use cases, albeit very different in nature, underscore the necessity for higher-spatial-resolution imagery to effectively study these vital habitats. Limnological ecosystems, sensitive to ice melting and temperature fluctuations, serve as crucial indicators of a climate in change. Simultaneously, MPAs, although generally small in size, play a crucial role in safeguarding marine biodiversity and supporting sustainable marine resource management. They are increasingly acknowledged as a critical component of global efforts to conserve and manage marine ecosystems, as exemplified by Target 3 of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), which aims to effectively conserve 30% of terrestrial, inland water, coastal, and marine areas by 2030 through protected areas and other conservation measures. In this paper, we analysed different policies concerning EO data and their application to environmental-based monitoring. We also reviewed and analysed the existing relevant literature in order to find gaps that need to be bridged to effectively monitor these habitats in an ecosystem-based approach, making data more accessible, leading to the generation of water quality indicators derived from new high- and very high-resolution satellite monitoring focusing especially on Chlorophyll-a concentrations. Such data are pivotal for comprehending, at small and local scales, how these habitats are responding to climate change and various stressors. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Biogeosciences Remote Sensing)
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24 pages, 22139 KiB  
Article
Improving the Estimation of Lake Ice Thickness with High-Resolution Radar Altimetry Data
by Anna Mangilli, Claude R. Duguay, Justin Murfitt, Thomas Moreau, Samira Amraoui, Jaya Sree Mugunthan, Pierre Thibaut and Craig Donlon
Remote Sens. 2024, 16(14), 2510; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16142510 - 9 Jul 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2269
Abstract
Lake ice thickness (LIT) is a sensitive indicator of climate change, identified as a thematic variable of Lakes as an Essential Climate Variable (ECV) by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS). Here, we present a novel and efficient analytically based retracking approach for [...] Read more.
Lake ice thickness (LIT) is a sensitive indicator of climate change, identified as a thematic variable of Lakes as an Essential Climate Variable (ECV) by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS). Here, we present a novel and efficient analytically based retracking approach for estimating LIT from high-resolution Ku-band (13.6 GHz) synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) altimetry data. The retracker method is based on the analytical modeling of the SAR radar echoes over ice-covered lakes that show a characteristic double-peak feature attributed to the reflection of the Ku-band radar waves at the snow–ice and ice–water interfaces. The method is applied to Sentinel-6 Unfocused SAR (UFSAR) and Fully Focused SAR (FFSAR) data, with their corresponding tailored waveform model, referred to as the SAR_LIT and FFSAR_LIT retracker, respectively. We found that LIT retrievals from Sentinel-6 high-resolution SAR data at different posting rates are fully consistent with the LIT estimations obtained from thermodynamic lake ice model simulations and from low-resolution mode (LRM) Sentinel-6 and Jason-3 data over two ice seasons during the tandem phase of the two satellites, demonstrating the continuity between LRM and SAR LIT retrievals. By comparing the Sentinel-6 SAR LIT estimates to optical/radar images, we found that the Sentinel-6 LIT measurements are fully consistent with the evolution of the lake surface conditions, accurately capturing the seasonal transitions of ice formation and melt. The uncertainty in the LIT estimates obtained with Sentinel-6 UFSAR data at 20 Hz is in the order of 5 cm, meeting the GCOS requirements for LIT measurements. This uncertainty is significantly smaller, by a factor of 2 to 3 times, than the uncertainty obtained with LRM data. The FFSAR processing at 140 Hz provides even better LIT estimates, with 20% smaller uncertainties. The LIT retracker analysis performed on data at the higher posting rate (140 Hz) shows increased performance in comparison to the 20 Hz data, especially during the melt transition period, due to the increased statistics. The LIT analysis has been performed over two representative lakes, Great Slave Lake and Baker Lake (Canada), demonstrating that the results are robust and hold for lake targets that differ in terms of size, bathymetry, snow/ice properties, and seasonal evolution of LIT. The SAR LIT retrackers presented are promising tools for monitoring the inter-annual variability and trends in LIT from current and future SAR altimetry missions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing of the Cryosphere (Second Edition))
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18 pages, 5290 KiB  
Article
Assessing Ice Break-Up Trends in Slave River Delta through Satellite Observations and Random Forest Modeling
by Ida Moalemi, Homa Kheyrollah Pour and K. Andrea Scott
Remote Sens. 2024, 16(12), 2244; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16122244 - 20 Jun 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1647
Abstract
The seasonal temperature trends and ice phenology in the Great Slave Lake (GSL) are significantly influenced by inflow from the Slave River. The river undergoes a sequence of mechanical break-ups all the way to the GSL, initiating the GSL break-up process. Additionally, upstream [...] Read more.
The seasonal temperature trends and ice phenology in the Great Slave Lake (GSL) are significantly influenced by inflow from the Slave River. The river undergoes a sequence of mechanical break-ups all the way to the GSL, initiating the GSL break-up process. Additionally, upstream water management practices impact the discharge of the Slave River and, consequently, the ice break-up of the GSL. Therefore, monitoring the break-up process at the Slave River Delta (SRD), where the river meets the lake, is crucial for understanding the cascading effects of upstream activities on GSL ice break-up. This research aimed to use Random Forest (RF) models to monitor the ice break-up processes at the SRD using a combination of satellite images with relatively high spatial resolution, including Landsat-5, Landsat-8, Sentinel-2a, and Sentinel-2b. The RF models were trained using selected training pixels to classify ice, open water, and cloud. The onset of break-up was determined by data-driven thresholds on the ice fraction in images with less than 20% cloud coverage. Analysis of break-up timing from 1984 to 2023 revealed a significant earlier trend using the Mann–Kendall test with a p-value of 0.05. Furthermore, break-up data in recent years show a high degree of variability in the break-up rate using images in recent years with better temporal resolution. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances of Remote Sensing and GIS Technology in Surface Water Bodies)
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19 pages, 4005 KiB  
Article
Changes in Freeze-Thaw Environments in a Cold Lake: Eliciting New Insights into the Activity and Composition of Bacterial Communities
by Chen Feng, Junping Lu, Yongqin Jia, Zhiqiang Tian, Zixuan Zhang, Yaxin Hu and Yinghui Liu
Diversity 2024, 16(6), 311; https://doi.org/10.3390/d16060311 - 22 May 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1521
Abstract
This study explored the dynamics of bacterial community composition, response to environmental factors, and co-occurrence network models across different habitats of Wuliangsuhai Lake during the glacial period. Water quality analysis and high-throughput sequencing were performed at 14 monitoring sites within the lake. Additionally, [...] Read more.
This study explored the dynamics of bacterial community composition, response to environmental factors, and co-occurrence network models across different habitats of Wuliangsuhai Lake during the glacial period. Water quality analysis and high-throughput sequencing were performed at 14 monitoring sites within the lake. Additionally, a co-occurrence network between the two bacterial operational taxonomic unit (OTU)-OTUs was established. The results indicated significant differences in water quality indices, namely total nitrogen (TN), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total dissolved solids (TDS), salinity (SAL), chlorophyll-a (Chl.a), and electrical conductivity (EC), between the ice bodies of Wuliangsuhai Lake and subglacial water. Although there were no significant differences in α diversity across various media, substantial differences were observed in β diversity. The VIF and RDA analyses revealed that lake water quality factors significantly affected the microbial community structure and COD and TDS had the highest explanation for the community composition change. Network analysis demonstrated that competition dominated the bacterial community in water bodies with higher complexity and stability and ice body bacteria exhibited more reciprocal relationships and weaker resistance to external environmental disturbances. The co-occurrence network demonstrated a modular structure in the external environment, with g_Flavobacterium, f_Arcobacteraceae, and g_Sphingobacteriaceae being the main keystone species. Investigating the habitat heterogeneity of lake bacterial communities and identifying major groups and key species using molecular ecological network models and their topological effects can provide a theoretical foundation for monitoring and assessing the structural stability of lake ecosystems in cold regions. Full article
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44 pages, 25578 KiB  
Review
Remote Sensing and Modeling of the Cryosphere in High Mountain Asia: A Multidisciplinary Review
by Qinghua Ye, Yuzhe Wang, Lin Liu, Linan Guo, Xueqin Zhang, Liyun Dai, Limin Zhai, Yafan Hu, Nauman Ali, Xinhui Ji, Youhua Ran, Yubao Qiu, Lijuan Shi, Tao Che, Ninglian Wang, Xin Li and Liping Zhu
Remote Sens. 2024, 16(10), 1709; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16101709 - 11 May 2024
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4869
Abstract
Over the past decades, the cryosphere has changed significantly in High Mountain Asia (HMA), leading to multiple natural hazards such as rock–ice avalanches, glacier collapse, debris flows, landslides, and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). Monitoring cryosphere change and evaluating its hydrological effects are [...] Read more.
Over the past decades, the cryosphere has changed significantly in High Mountain Asia (HMA), leading to multiple natural hazards such as rock–ice avalanches, glacier collapse, debris flows, landslides, and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). Monitoring cryosphere change and evaluating its hydrological effects are essential for studying climate change, the hydrological cycle, water resource management, and natural disaster mitigation and prevention. However, knowledge gaps, data uncertainties, and other substantial challenges limit comprehensive research in climate–cryosphere–hydrology–hazard systems. To address this, we provide an up-to-date, comprehensive, multidisciplinary review of remote sensing techniques in cryosphere studies, demonstrating primary methodologies for delineating glaciers and measuring geodetic glacier mass balance change, glacier thickness, glacier motion or ice velocity, snow extent and water equivalent, frozen ground or frozen soil, lake ice, and glacier-related hazards. The principal results and data achievements are summarized, including URL links for available products and related data platforms. We then describe the main challenges for cryosphere monitoring using satellite-based datasets. Among these challenges, the most significant limitations in accurate data inversion from remotely sensed data are attributed to the high uncertainties and inconsistent estimations due to rough terrain, the various techniques employed, data variability across the same regions (e.g., glacier mass balance change, snow depth retrieval, and the active layer thickness of frozen ground), and poor-quality optical images due to cloudy weather. The paucity of ground observations and validations with few long-term, continuous datasets also limits the utilization of satellite-based cryosphere studies and large-scale hydrological models. Lastly, we address potential breakthroughs in future studies, i.e., (1) outlining debris-covered glacier margins explicitly involving glacier areas in rough mountain shadows, (2) developing highly accurate snow depth retrieval methods by establishing a microwave emission model of snowpack in mountainous regions, (3) advancing techniques for subsurface complex freeze–thaw process observations from space, (4) filling knowledge gaps on scattering mechanisms varying with surface features (e.g., lake ice thickness and varying snow features on lake ice), and (5) improving and cross-verifying the data retrieval accuracy by combining different remote sensing techniques and physical models using machine learning methods and assimilation of multiple high-temporal-resolution datasets from multiple platforms. This comprehensive, multidisciplinary review highlights cryospheric studies incorporating spaceborne observations and hydrological models from diversified techniques/methodologies (e.g., multi-spectral optical data with thermal bands, SAR, InSAR, passive microwave, and altimetry), providing a valuable reference for what scientists have achieved in cryosphere change research and its hydrological effects on the Third Pole. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Remote Sensing in Geology, Geomorphology and Hydrology)
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21 pages, 11741 KiB  
Article
A Google Earth Engine Platform to Integrate Multi-Satellite and Citizen Science Data for the Monitoring of River Ice Dynamics
by Mohamed Abdelkader, Jorge Humberto Bravo Mendez, Marouane Temimi, Dana R. N. Brown, Katie V. Spellman, Christopher D. Arp, Allen Bondurant and Holli Kohl
Remote Sens. 2024, 16(8), 1368; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16081368 - 12 Apr 2024
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 4818
Abstract
This study introduces a new automated system that blends multi-satellite information and citizen science data for reliable and timely observations of lake and river ice in under-observed northern regions. The system leverages the Google Earth Engine resources to facilitate the analysis and visualization [...] Read more.
This study introduces a new automated system that blends multi-satellite information and citizen science data for reliable and timely observations of lake and river ice in under-observed northern regions. The system leverages the Google Earth Engine resources to facilitate the analysis and visualization of ice conditions. The adopted approach utilizes a combination of moderate and high-resolution optical data, along with radar observations. The results demonstrate the system’s capability to accurately detect and monitor river ice, particularly during key periods, such as the freeze-up and the breakup. The integration citizen science data showed added values in the validation of remote sensing products, as well as filling gaps whenever satellite observations cannot be collected due to cloud obstruction. Moreover, it was shown that citizen science data can be converted to valuable quantitative information, such as the case of ice thickness, which is very useful when combined with ice extent derived from remote sensing. In this study, citizen science data were employed for the quantitative assessment of the remote sensing product. Obtained results showed a good agreement between the product and observed river status, with a Critical Success Index of 0.82. Notably, the system has shown effectiveness in capturing the spatial and temporal evolution of snow and ice conditions, as evidenced by its application in analyzing specific ice jam events in 2023. The study concludes that the developed system marks a significant advancement in river ice monitoring, combining technological innovation with community engagement. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Insights in Remote Sensing of Snow and Glaciers)
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16 pages, 4205 KiB  
Article
Ice Thickness Assessment of Non-Freshwater Lakes in the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau Based on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-Borne Ice-Penetrating Radar: A Case Study of Qinghai Lake and Gahai Lake
by Huian Jin, Xiaojun Yao, Qixin Wei, Sugang Zhou, Yuan Zhang, Jie Chen and Zhipeng Yu
Remote Sens. 2024, 16(6), 959; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16060959 - 9 Mar 2024
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1557
Abstract
Ice thickness has a significant effect on the physical and biogeochemical processes of a lake, and it is an integral focus of research in the field of ice engineering. The Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, known as the Third Pole of the world, contains numerous lakes. [...] Read more.
Ice thickness has a significant effect on the physical and biogeochemical processes of a lake, and it is an integral focus of research in the field of ice engineering. The Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, known as the Third Pole of the world, contains numerous lakes. Compared with some information, such as the area, water level, and ice phenology of its lakes, the ice thickness of these lakes remains poorly understood. In this study, we used an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with a 400/900 MHz ice-penetrating radar to detect the ice thickness of Qinghai Lake and Gahai Lake. Two observation fields were established on the western side of Qinghai Lake and Gahai Lake in January 2019 and January 2021, respectively. Based on the in situ ice thickness and the propagation time of the radar, the accuracy of the ice thickness measurements of these two non-freshwater lakes was comprehensively assessed. The results indicate that pre-processed echo images from the UAV-borne ice-penetrating radar identified non-freshwater lake ice, and we were thus able to accurately calculate the propagation time of radar waves through the ice. The average dielectric constants of Qinghai Lake and Gahai Lake were 4.3 and 4.6, respectively. This means that the speed of the radar waves that propagated through the ice of the non-freshwater lake was lower than that of the radio waves that propagated through the freshwater lake. The antenna frequency of the radar also had an impact on the accuracy of ice thickness modeling. The RMSEs were 0.034 m using the 400 MHz radar and 0.010 m using the 900 MHz radar. The radar with a higher antenna frequency was shown to provide greater accuracy in ice thickness monitoring, but the control of the UAV’s altitude and speed should be addressed. Full article
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