Yang, K., Smith, L., Sole, A. et al. (4 more authors) (2019) Supraglacial rivers on the northwest Greenland Ice Sheet, Devon Ice Cap, and Barnes Ice Cap mapped using Sentinel-2 imagery. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 78. pp. 1-13. ISSN 0303-2434
Abstract
Supraglacial rivers set efficacy and time lags by which surface meltwater is routed to the englacial, subglacial, and proglacial portions of ice masses. However, these hydrologic features remain poorly studied mainly because they are too narrow (typically <30 m) to be reliably delineated in conventional moderate-resolution satellite images (e.g., 30 m Landsat-8 imagery). This study demonstrates the utility of 10 m Sentinel-2 Multi-Spectral Instrument images to map supraglacial rivers on the northwest Greenland Ice Sheet, Devon Ice Cap, and Barnes Ice Cap, covering a total area of ∼10,000 km2. Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 both capture overall supraglacial drainage patterns, but Sentinel-2 images are superior to Landsat-8 images for delineating narrow and continuous supraglacial rivers. Sentinel-2 mapping across the three study areas reveals a variety of supraglacial drainage patterns. In northwest Greenland near Inglefield Land, subparallel supraglacial rivers up to 55 km long drain meltwater directly off the ice sheet onto the proglacial zone. On the Devon and the Barnes ice caps, shorter supraglacial rivers (up to 15–30 km long) are commonly interrupted by moulins, which drain internally drained catchments on the ice surface to subglacial systems. We conclude that Sentinel-2 offers strong potential for investigating supraglacial meltwater drainage patterns and improving our understanding of the hydrological conditions of ice masses globally.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 Elsevier. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
Keywords: | River remote sensing; Supraglacial River; Surface hydrology; Sentinel-2; Landsat-8; Greenland Ice Sheet |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Geography (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 29 Jan 2019 15:22 |
Last Modified: | 23 Jan 2020 01:38 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2019.01.008 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.jag.2019.01.008 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:141238 |
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