scholarly journals Ice extent in sub-arctic fjords and coastal areas from 2001 to 2019 analyzed from MODIS imagery

2020 ◽  
Vol 61 (82) ◽  
pp. 210-226
Author(s):  
Megan O'Sadnick ◽  
Chris Petrich ◽  
Camilla Brekke ◽  
Jofrid Skarðhamar

AbstractResults examining variations in the ice extent along the Norwegian coastline based on the analysis of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) images from 2001 to 2019, February through May, are presented. A total of 386 fjords and coastal areas were outlined and grouped into ten regions to assess seasonal and long-term trends in ice extent. In addition, three fjords were examined to investigate how ice extent may vary over short distances (<100 km). Of the 386 outlined, 47 fjords/coastal areas held >5 km2 of ice at least once between 2001 and 2019. Over this span of time, no statistically significant trend in ice extent is found for all ten regions; however, variations between regions and years are evident. Ice extent is assessed through comparison to three weather variables – freezing degree days (FDD), daily new snowfall and daily freshwater supply from rainfall plus snowmelt. Six out of ten regions are significantly positively correlated (p < 0.05) to FDD. In addition, ice in two regions is significantly positively correlated to daily new snowfall, and in one region negatively correlated to rainfall plus snowmelt. The importance of fjord geometry and bathymetry as well as other weather variables including wind is discussed.

2004 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 223-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian C. Brown ◽  
Ted A. Scambos

AbstractWe use satellite images to track seasonal and interannual variations in blue-ice extent over the past 30 years near Byrd Glacier on the East Antarctic plateau. The study areas have low slope and few nearby nunataks, which may increase their climate sensitivity. A threshold-based algorithm sensitive to snow grain-size is used to analyze 56 Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) images over three recent summer seasons. Seasonal blue-ice exposure grows rapidly in late spring, and peaks by late December. Exposure is relatively constant between late December and mid-January, then declines in February. We interpret this cycle as due to removal and re-accumulation of patchy snow. Interannual changes in blue-ice area may be estimated by tracking the near-constant summer maximum extent period. Fifteen mid-summer Landsat images, spanning 1974–2002, were analyzed to determine long-term variations. Interannual area changes are 10–30%; however, the MODIS data revealed that the exposed blue-ice area can be sharply reduced for up to 2 weeks after a snowfall event; and in the 2001/02 season, patchy snow cover persisted for the entire summer. The combination of MODIS seasonal and Landsat interannual data indicates that blue-ice areas can be climate-sensitive. The strong feedback between snow cover and surface energy balance implies that blue-ice areas could rapidly decrease due to climate-related increases in snowfall or reduced ablation.


2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (12) ◽  
pp. 1545-1554 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Guindon ◽  
P.Y. Bernier ◽  
A. Beaudoin ◽  
D. Pouliot ◽  
P. Villemaire ◽  
...  

Disturbances such as fire and harvesting shape forest dynamics and must be accounted for when modelling forest properties. However, acquiring timely disturbance information for all of Canada’s large forest area has always been challenging. Therefore, we developed an approach to detect annual forest change resulting from fire, harvesting, or flooding using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) imagery at 250 m spatial resolution across Canada and to estimate the within-pixel fractional change (FC). When this approach was applied to the period from 2000 to 2011, the accuracy of detection of burnt, harvested, or flooded areas against our validation dataset was 82%, 80%, and 85%, respectively. With FC, 77% of the area burnt and 82% of the area harvested within the validation dataset were correctly identified. The methodology was optimized to reduce the commission error but tended to omit smaller disturbances as a result. For example, the omitted area for harvest blocks greater than 80 ha was less than 14% but increased to between 38% and 50% for harvest blocks of 20 to 30 ha. Detection of burnt and harvested areas in some regions was hindered by persistent haze or cloud cover or by insect outbreaks. All resulting data layers are available as supplementary material.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noh-Hun Seong ◽  
Sungwon Choi ◽  
Donghyun Jin ◽  
Daeseong Jung ◽  
Kyung-soo Han

&lt;p&gt;Surface broadband albedo&amp;#160;is one of the climate variables that understand Earth&amp;#8217;s radiation budget. Currently, the polar-orbit satellite-derived surface broadband albedo products are retrieved by several organizations. As there are many kinds, it is necessary to identify the characteristics of each products. In this study, we were to compare representative products for long-term that the albedo products based on polar-obit satellite such as moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Copernicus Global Land Service (CGLS). We studied the Northeast Asia region where the land type remains unchanged from 2000 to 2018. The overall trend of the two products was similar. However, differences occurred depending on the land types and season. The relatively high value of MODIS albedo was calculated in winter because it was sensitive to the snow. In other seasons, the CGLS albedo was higher than the MODIS albedo. The MODIS albedo was calculated higher than CGLS albedo for all land types except forest. The comparison results showed that caution should be given before operational use of the albedo data sets in these regions.&lt;/p&gt;


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David P. Duda ◽  
Sarah T. Bedka ◽  
Patrick Minnis ◽  
Douglas Spangenberg ◽  
Konstantin Khlopenkov ◽  
...  

Abstract. Linear contrail coverage, optical property, and radiative forcing data over the Northern Hemisphere (NH) are derived from a year (2012) of Terra and Aqua Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) imagery, and are compared with previously published 2006 results (Duda et al., 2013; Bedka et al., 2013; Spangenberg et al., 2013) using a consistent retrieval methodology. Differences in the observed Terra-minus-Aqua screened contrail coverage and patterns in the 2012 annual-mean air traffic estimated with respect to satellite overpass time suggest that most contrails detected by the contrail detection algorithm (CDA) form approximately 2 h before overpass time. The 2012 screened NH contrail coverage (Mask B) shows a relative 3 % increase (from 0.136 % to 0.140 %) compared to 2006 data for Terra and increased by almost 7 % (0.134 % to 0.143 %) for Aqua. A new post-processing algorithm added to the contrail mask processing estimated that the total contrail cirrus coverage visible in the MODIS imagery may be three to four times larger than the linear contrail coverage detected by the CDA. This estimate is similar in magnitude to the spreading factor estimated by Minnis et al. (2013). Contrail property retrievals of the 2012 data indicate that both contrail optical depth and contrail effective diameter decreased approximately 10 % between 2006 and 2012. The decreases may be attributed to better background cloudiness characterization, changes in the waypoint screening, or changes in contrail temperature. The total mean contrail radiative forcing (TCRF) for all 2012 Terra observations were −6.3, 14.3, and 8.0 mW m−2 for the shortwave (SWCRF), longwave (LWCRF), and net forcings, respectively. These values are approximately 20 % less than the corresponding 2006 Terra estimates. The decline in TCRF results from the decrease in normalized CRF, partially offset by the 3 % increase in overall contrail coverage in 2012. The TCRFs for 2012 Aqua are similar, −6.4, 15.5, and 9.0 mW m−2 for shortwave, longwave, and net radiative forcing. The strong correlation between the relative changes in both total SWCRF and LWCRF between 2006 and 2012 and the corresponding relative changes in screened contrail coverage over each air traffic region suggests that regional changes in TCRF from year to year are dominated by interannual changes in contrail coverage over each area.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 2521-2554 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Limbacher ◽  
R. A. Kahn

Abstract. We diagnose the potential causes for the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer's (MISR) persistent high aerosol optical depth (AOD) bias at low AOD with the aid of coincident MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) imagery from NASA's Terra satellite. Internal reflections within the MISR instrument are responsible for a large portion of the high AOD bias in high-contrast scenes, which are especially common as broken-cloud situations over ocean. Discrepancies between MODIS and MISR nadir-viewing near-infrared (NIR) images are used to optimize nine parameters, along with a background reflectance modulation term (that was modeled separately), to represent the observed features. Independent, surface-based AOD measurements from the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) and the Marine Aerosol Network (MAN) are compared with MISR Research Algorithm (RA) AOD retrievals for 1118 coincidences to validate the corrections when applied to the nadir and off-nadir cameras. Additionally, the calibration coefficients for the red and NIR channels used for MISR over-water aerosol retrievals were reassessed with the RA to be consistent on a camera-by-camera basis. With these corrections, plus the baseline RA corrections applied (except enhanced cloud screening), the median AOD bias in the mid-visible (green) band decreases from 0.010 to 0.002, the RMSE decreases by ~ 10%, and the slope and correlation of the MISR vs. sun photometer Ångström Exponent improves. For AOD558 nm < 0.10 and with additional cloud screening, the median bias for the RA-retrieved AOD in the green band decreases from 0.011 to 0.003, compared to ~ 0.023 for the Standard Algorithm (SA). RMSE decreases by ~ 20% compared to the baseline (uncorrected) RA and by 17–53% compared to the SA. After all corrections and cloud screening are implemented, for AOD558 nm < 0.10, which includes about half the validation data, 68% absolute AOD errors for the RA have dropped to < 0.02 (~ 0.018).


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-92

Climatology of aerosols, their trends and classification based on the long-term Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) measurements (from February 2000 to July 2015) of aerosol optical depths at 550 nm (τ550) and Angstrom exponent (α470-660) using the wavelengths of 470 and 660nm in Nairobi, Skukuza and Ilorin AERONET stations were analyzed in this work. The level-2 collection-6 Deep Blue (L2 C006 DB) of the parameters listed above from the aqua- (MYD04) and terra- (MOD04) MODIS of the study area were statistically analyzed using SPSS. To be able to understand the temporal variation in the characteristics of aerosols in the three stations and during each season separately, MODIS measurements of τ, retrieved for the study area, were compared with AERONET τ. Overall, aqua-MODIS τ corroborate the AERONET measurements well in Nairobi and Ilorin stations with underestimation of 29.80 % and overestimation of 2.90 % respectively, whereas Skukuza station has terra-MODIS τ as the best representation of the AERONET measurements with underestimation of 1.90 %. ....


2010 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 463-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Painemal ◽  
René Garreaud ◽  
José Rutllant ◽  
Paquita Zuidema

Abstract Stratocumulus cloud cover patterns and their relationship to drizzle were characterized at San Felix Island (SFI; 26.5°S, 80°W) in the southeast Pacific Ocean. Small closed, large closed, and open cells were identified in about 65% of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite images during 2003. The MODIS imagery was combined with ceilometer and surface meteorological measurements, human observations of cloud types and drizzle, and large-scale meteorological analyses for January through June. The authors identified two drizzle regimes: a synoptically quiescent summer (January–March) regime characterized by a strong anticyclone, large closed cells, and frequent drizzle, and an autumn (April–June) regime characterized by a weaker anticyclone, small closed cells and open cells, and precipitation that was mainly associated with synoptic activity. The large closed cells had higher mean cloud bases and tops than the small closed cells and accounted for 45% of the cumulus-under-stratocumulus reports and 29% of the total drizzle and rain reports. Large closed cells occupied more intermittently coupled boundary layers than did the small closed cells. Open cells also occurred in more decoupled conditions but only accounted for 18% of the total reports of drizzle and rain. The atmospheric stability of large and small closed cells was similar, but large closed cells were more commonly associated with a strong anticyclone, and small closed cells with wave activity superimposed upon a weakened anticyclone. The increased drizzle and occurrence of cumulus-under-stratocumulus in the summer rather than autumn is consistent with higher nighttime liquid water paths. A contribution of this study is the documentation of the ways in which synoptic activity can affect stratocumulus decks.


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