Observation of wetness and freeze/thaw state of the surface from air-craft and satellite observations made during The Carbon in the Arctic Vulnerability Experiment (CARVE)

Nicholas Steiner, The City College of New York, NY USA, nsteiner@ccny.cuny.edu (Presenter)
Kyle McDonald, The City College of New York, kmcdonald2@ccny.cuny.edu
Dinardo Steve, NASA JPL, steven.j.dinardo@jpl.nasa.gov
Charles Miller, NASA JPL, charles.e.miller@jpl.nasa.gov

The magnitude and rates of carbon release from Arctic soils to the atmosphere are large uncertainties when modeling future climate. Surface to air greenhouse gas fluxes are largely dependent on surface controls like temperature, vegetation type, soil moisture and the presence or absence of surface water. These surface state properties and their dynamics are controlled by landscape micro-topography that have a large degree of spatial heterogeneity and are difficult to observe directly using remote sensing instruments due to inadequate sensor spatio-temporal resolution. High resolution thermal infrared images over the Alaskan Arctic tundra and boreal forest are collected from an aircraft-platform during the NASA Earth Venture (EV-1) mission, Carbon in the Arctic Vulnerability Experiment (CARVE). During CARVE flights, a nadir-pointed, forward looking infrared (FLIR) imager measures upwelling mid-infrared spectral radiance at a rate of 1 frame per second. The instantaneous field of view (IFOV) of the FLIR instrument allows for a resolution approaching 1 m from a flight altitude of 1 km. At this resolution individual landscape components such as soil, vegetation and surface water features are resolved in the image footprint. Thermal observations collected during the CARVE experiment will be used to produce estimates of surface properties like temperature, surface wetness and open water at full resolution. We observe how these individual components scale using coarse resolution satellite observations of land surface temperature (LST) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and are related to freeze/thaw estimates derived from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR2) and the Special Sensor Multifrequency The Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I). These comparison are done to define relationships of scale between thermal observations and surface properties to increase the ability to downscale regional-scale landscape properties important to greenhouse gas flux from the surface from coarse resolution satellite observations.

Presentation Type:  Poster

Session:  Theme 1: Tracking habitat change through new integrative approaches and products   (Mon 1:30 PM)

Associated Project(s): 

• Related Activity: Related Activity or Previously Funded CC&E Activity not listed ...details

Poster Location ID: 51