Analysis of Surface Inundation Changes within Arctic Permafrost Zones using AMSR-E Fractional Water Cover Retrievals

Jennifer D Watts, Flathead Lake Biological Station and Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group, University of Montana, Missoula, MT., jennifer.watts@ntsg.umt.edu (Presenter)
John S Kimball, Flathead Lake Biological Station and Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group, University of Montana, Missoula, MT., johnk@ntsg.umt.edu
Lucas Jones, Flathead Lake Biological Station and Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group, University of Montana, Missoula, MT., lucas@ntsg.umt.edu
Ronny Schroeder, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, ronny.schroeder@jpl.nasa.gov
Kyle C McDonald, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The City College of New York, City University of New York, New York, NY, kmcdonald2@ccny.cuny.edu

We examined pan-Arctic surface inundation patterns and changes determined from daily fractional open water (Fw) retrievals from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E). The Fw parameter measures the proportional inundation within each 25 km2 grid cell and was derived using AMSR-E 18.7 and 23.8 GHz horizontal and vertical polarized brightness temperatures. Mean and maximum annual Fw time series were evaluated from 2003-2010 on a per-grid cell basis for the pan-Arctic domain. The Fw patterns and trends were evaluated against regional permafrost zones, including continuous, discontinuous, sporadic and isolated permafrost categories. The Fw data were verified against other static open water classification maps for the region including the UMD Global 250-m Land Water Mask (MOD44W) and Landsat (30-m resolution) derived open water maps for Alaska, North Central Canada, and Northern European sub-regions. The results were also compared against discharge (Q) records for the major Arctic river basins to evaluate linkages between Fw storage and runoff changes, and parameter sensitivity to seasonal and annual wet/dry cycles. The regional mean Fw patterns compare favorably with the MOD44W (R2 = 0.77, RMSE=5%) and Landsat (0.75

Presentation: 2011_Poster_Watts_292_152.pptx (1072k)

Presentation Type:  Poster

Session:  Global Change Impact & Vulnerability   (Tue 11:30 AM)

Associated Project(s): 

• McDonald, Kyle: Satellite Monitoring of Landscape Freeze-Thaw State and Associated Constraints to the North American Carbon Budget ...details

Poster Location ID: 292