Transcript Polar Remote Sensing Presented by Beth Caissie Remote Sensing • Observing something without being able to physically “see” or touch it http://www.blogut.ca/2007/09/ http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/industry/esa_canada.asp.

Polar Remote Sensing
Presented by Beth Caissie
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Remote Sensing
• Observing something without
being able to physically “see”
or touch it
http://www.blogut.ca/2007/09/
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http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/industry/esa_canada.asp
Muir Glacier
1941, William Field
2004, Bruce Molnia
http://nsidc.org/data/glacier_photo/
repeat_photography.html
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From the Glacier photograph collection. Boulder, Colorado USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology.
McCarty Glacier
1909, Ulysses Sherman Grant
2004, Bruce Molnia
http://nsidc.org/data/glacier_photo/repeat_photography.html
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From the Glacier photograph collection. Boulder, Colorado USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology.
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
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Glaciers
Snow Cover
Lake Ice
Sea Ice
Permafrost
Productivity
Surface
temperature
• Volcanoes
• Aurora Activity
• And more…
Jakobshavn Glacier, Greenland
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003300/a003395/index.html
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.
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Arctic Summer Sea-Ice Extent
1979-2006
September 9, 2007
Data derived from Sea Ice Index data set. Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center.
http://nsidc.org/news/press/2007_seaiceminimum/images/20070917animation.mov
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Arctic Summer Sea-Ice Extent
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
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white > 15% ice coverage
http://www.nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/
Sensing primary productivity
Russia
Alaska
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Quicktime movie compiled by Karen Frey, Clark University
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
Image by Cheryl Cameron, courtesy of AVO/ADGGS
March 15, 2009: Mt
Redoubt erupts in
Alaska (100 mi south of
Anchorage)
Image by Kelly Reeves,
courtesy of Alaska Airlines
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http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Redoubt.php
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’)
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http://geology.com/nasa/redoubt-ash-plume-satellite-images/