Project Funding: 2016 - 2020

NRA: 2016 NASA: Terrestrial Ecology   

Funded by NASA

Abstract:
Nearly ~50% of Canada and ~80% of Alaska are underlain by permafrost (perennially frozen ground), but are precluded from field study owing to logistical difficulty, short field seasons, and high cost. The presence of this permafrost exerts feedbacks on surface water ecosystems and the Arctic-Boreal landscape, most observably in the form of millions of lakes, ponds, wetlands, and saturated soils, with associated impacts on vegetation cover, greenhouse gas emissions, soil carbon sequestration, landscape disturbance, wildlife habitat and traditional subsistence economies. The proposed project will study the resilience of these surface water features in response to thawing permafrost, capitalizing on the long flight lines of the NASA Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) which will span a full spectrum of permafrost conditions (permafrost-free to continuous permafrost, low to high ground ice content), ecosystems, climatic regions, topographic relief, and geological substrates. At the heart of the proposal is acquisition and study of new airborne data from AirSWOT, an experimental radar interferometer specifically designed for surface water studies including precise determination of water surface elevations (WSEs) for thousands of lakes, ponds, rivers and wetlands occurring along planned ABoVE flight lines. The overarching science question to be answered is Can permafrost presence and/or disturbance be identified from remote sensing of surface water lake and wetland ecosystems? Two scientific hypotheses relating water surface elevations and extents to permafrost and associated landscape disturbance will be tested. To isolate the influence of permafrost from regional water balance variations, the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) water balance model will be calibrated along the ABoVE flight paths for use by this and other ABoVE projects. Remotely sensed surface water elevations and areal extents, and mapping of visible manifestations of permafrost (e.g. thermokarst) are key targets of study and will be obtained using the AirSWOT Ka-band interferometric radar and Digital Cirrus Camera (DCC) optical camera imagery, as well as planned ABoVE UAVSAR, AirMOSS and LVIS airborne acquisitions and ancillary data products (permafrost maps, ArcticDEM high-resolution digital elevation model). Anticipated outcomes of the project include 1) fundamentally new scientific understanding of the interaction between permafrost and lake/wetland water surface elevations in the Arctic-Boreal Zone (ABZ); 2) identification of forest/ecosystem disturbance locations attributed to permafrost thaw along ABoVE flight lines; 3) assessment of the potential for using remotely sensed WSE and/or WSE changes to infer the presence/absence of subsurface permafrost and/or attributing ecosystem disturbance to permafrost thaw; 4) new synergies between ABoVE and AirSWOT/SWOT datasets; and 5) new science and data-sharing collaborations among the ABoVE Science Team. PI Larry Smith and Co-I Tamlin Pavelsky have career-long expertise in remote sensing and field studies of Arctic-Boreal hydrology and carbon cycles and in planning airborne campaigns in remote northern environments, including extensive field experience inside the ABoVE Study Domain. Co-Investigator Dennis Lettenmaier developed the VIC water balance model and brings decades of NASA Science Team experience to ABoVE. The proposal is highly responsive to specific priorities of ABoVE, NASA and numerous federal entities, and offers mentorship of graduate and undergraduate students, and offers to interact with community and/or government stakeholders in Alaska and northern Canada.

Publications:

Cooley, S. W., Smith, L. C., Ryan, J. C., Pitcher, L. H., Pavelsky, T. M. 2019. Arctic-Boreal Lake Dynamics Revealed Using CubeSat Imagery. Geophysical Research Letters. 46(4), 2111-2120. DOI: 10.1029/2018GL081584

Cooley, S., Smith, L., Stepan, L., Mascaro, J. 2017. Tracking Dynamic Northern Surface Water Changes with High-Frequency Planet CubeSat Imagery. Remote Sensing. 9(12), 1306. DOI: 10.3390/rs9121306

Huang, C., Smith, L. C., Kyzivat, E. D., Fayne, J. V., Ming, Y., Spence, C. 2022. Tracking transient boreal wetland inundation with Sentinel-1 SAR: Peace-Athabasca Delta, Alberta and Yukon Flats, Alaska. GIScience & Remote Sensing. 59(1), 1767-1792. DOI: 10.1080/15481603.2022.2134620

Kyzivat, E. D., Smith, L. C., Pitcher, L. H., Fayne, J. V., Cooley, S. W., Cooper, M. G., Topp, S. N., Langhorst, T., Harlan, M. E., Horvat, C., Gleason, C. J., Pavelsky, T. M. 2019. A High-Resolution Airborne Color-Infrared Camera Water Mask for the NASA ABoVE Campaign. Remote Sensing. 11(18), 2163. DOI: 10.3390/rs11182163

Pitcher, L. H., Pavelsky, T. M., Smith, L. C., Moller, D. K., Altenau, E. H., Allen, G. H., Lion, C., Butman, D., Cooley, S. W., Fayne, J. V., Bertram, M. 2019. AirSWOT InSAR Mapping of Surface Water Elevations and Hydraulic Gradients Across the Yukon Flats Basin, Alaska. Water Resources Research. 55(2), 937-953. DOI: 10.1029/2018wr023274

Smith, L. C., Fayne, J. V., Wang, B., Kyzivat, E. D., Gleason, C. J., Harlan, M. E., Langhorst, T., Feng, D., Pavelsky, T. M., Peters, D. L. 2023. Peace-Athabasca Delta water surface elevations and slopes mapped from AirSWOT Ka-band InSAR. Remote Sensing Letters. 14(12), 1238-1250. DOI: 10.1080/2150704X.2023.2280464

More details may be found in the following project profile(s):

• NASA Terrestrial Ecology (TE) Project Profile
• NASA Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) Project Profile