Permafrost, sea ice, snow, and ice masses ranging from continental ice sheets to mountain glaciers, are key components of the global environment, intersecting both physical and human systems. The study of the cryosphere is central to issues such as global climate change, regional water resources, and sea level change, and is at the forefront of research across a wide spectrum of disciplines, including glaciology, climatology, geology, environmental science, geography and planning.
The Wiley-Blackwell Cryosphere Science Series comprises volumes that are at the cutting edge of new research, or provide a focused interdisciplinary reviews of key aspects of the science.
Series Editor Peter G Knight, Senior Lecturer in geography, Keele University
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Remote sensing of the cryosphere / edited by M. Tedesco.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-118-36885-5 (cloth)
1. Cryosphere–Remote sensing–Textbooks. I. Tedesco, M., 1971- editor of compilation.
GB2401.72.R42R47 2015
551.31–dc23
2014019575
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.
Cover image: The Matusevich Glacier, East Antarctica. Courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory.
To my daughters, Olivia and Francesca and my wife, Luisa
List of contributors
Waleed Abdalati University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
Waleed.abdalati@colorado.edu
Liss M. Andreassen Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate, Oslo, Norway
lma@nve.no
A.A. Arendt University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK, USA
Prasad Gogineni Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KA, USA
pgogineni@ku.edu
Guido Grosse University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK, USA
ggrosse@gi.alaska.edu
Dorothy K. Hall NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
dorothy.k.hall@nasa.gov
Robert L. Hawley Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
Robert.L.Hawley@dartmouth.edu
M. Horwath Technische Universitat Munchen, Munich, Germany
martin.horwath@bv.tum.de
Andreas Kääb University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
kaeaeb@geo.uio.no
Alexander A. Khokanovsky Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
alexk@iup.physik.uni-bremen.de
Lora Koenig NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Lora.s.koenig@nasa.gov
Alexei Kouraev Laboratoire d'Etudes en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiales (LEGOS), 31401, Toulouse Cedex 9, France
kouraev@notos.cst.cnes.fr
B.D. Loomis SGT Inc., Science Division, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Bloomis@sgt-inc.com
Scott B. Luthcke NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
scott.b.luthcke@nasa.gov
Thorsten Markus NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Thorsten.markus@nasa.gov
Hans-Peter Marshall Boise State University, ID, USA
hpmarshall@boisestate.edu
Walter N. Meier NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
walt.meier@nasa.gov
Julie Miller University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
jjaimoe@gmail.com
Thomas Mote University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
tmote@uga.edu
Tommaso Parrinello European Space Agency, ESRIN, Frascati, Italy
tommaso.parrinello@esa.int
Bruce H. Raup NSIDC, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
braup@nsidc.edu
D.D. Rowlands NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
david.d.rowlands@nasa.gov
T.J. Sabaka NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
terence.j.sabaka@nasa.gov
Konrad Steffen Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Lausanne, Switzerland
Konrad.steffen@colorado.edu
Marco Tedesco The City College of New York, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA
mtedesco@ccny.cuny.edu
Charles Webb NASA Headquarters, Washington DC, USA
charles.webb@nasa.gov
Sebastian Westermann University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
sebastian.westermann@geo.uio.no
Jie-Bang Yan Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KA, USA
syan@ku.edu
Cryosphere Science: Series Preface
Permafrost, sea ice, snow, and ice masses, ranging from continental ice sheets to mountain glaciers, are key components of the global environment, intersecting both physical and human systems. The scientific study of the cryosphere is central to issues such as global climate change, regional water resources, and sea-level change. The cryosphere is at the forefront of research across a wide spectrum of disciplinary interests, including glaciology, climatology, geology, environmental science, geography and planning.
The Wiley-Blackwell Cryosphere Science series serves as a framework for the publication of specialist volumes that are at the cutting edge of new research, or provide a benchmark statement in aspects of cryosphere science, where readers from a range of disciplines require a short, focused state-of-the-art text. These books lie at the boundary between research monographs and advanced text books, contributing to the development of the discipline, incorporating new approaches and ideas, but also providing a summary of the current state of knowledge in tightly focused topic areas. The books in this series are, therefore, intended to be suitable both as case studies for advanced undergraduates, and as specialist texts for postgraduate students, researchers and professionals.
Cryosphere science is in a period of rapid development, driven in part by an increasing urgency in our efforts to understand the global environmental system and the ways in which human activity impacts it. This rapid development is marked by the emergence of new techniques, concepts, approaches and attitudes.
Remote Sensing of the Cryosphere is an appropriate first volume in the series, as it clearly demonstrates this convergence of technological and theoretical developments in interdisciplinary efforts to address fundamental questions about the cryosphere.
Peter G Knight February 2014.
Preface
The cryosphere, the region of the Earth where water is temporarily or permanently frozen, plays a key role on the climatological, hydrological, and energy cycles of our planet. Components of the cryosphere are snow on ground, terrestrial ice, such as glaciers and ice sheets, sea ice, river and lake ice, permafrost, and frozen soil. The harsh conditions, as well as the distribution and extent, characterizing the geographic areas where cryospheric components occur, are major impediments to data collection from the ground. In this context, remote sensing has provided a powerful and versatile tool to study the Earth's cryosphere, making “accessible” places that were otherwise inaccessible, or even unknown. It has been used to study, for example, the seasonal variability of snow cover, the advance and retreat of glaciers, the surface and internal properties of ice sheets, and the freezing and thawing of soil, to name a few examples. Because of the possibility of acquiring data over large areas, of the high number of observations available at high latitudes and, in some cases, of the independency of data acquisition from solar illumination or atmospheric conditions, remote sensing has been, and still is, among the major drivers (if not the major driver) for advancing our knowledge of the cryosphere.
The interdisciplinary nature of remote sensing, requiring people with engineering, science, geophysics, mathematics, physics and computer science background, is one of its characterizing aspects. This book is also the outcome of an interdisciplinary and collaborative effort (with 40 contributing authors over the 15 Chapters), stemming from several sessions that I co-organized and co-convened with many colleagues at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) society in San Francisco and at the European Geophysical Union (EGU) meeting society in Vienna. The material submitted to the sessions led me to realize how much progress was being made, and how fast the community of researchers dealing with remote sensing of the cryosphere was expanding.
The scope of the book is to provide an overview of the methods, techniques and recent advances in applications of remote sensing of the cryosphere as well as a bibliographic source for those interested in deepening their understanding of the topics covered in the different chapters. These are: remote sensing and the cryosphere (Chapters 1 and 2); snow extent (Chapter 3); snow grain size and impurities (Chapter 4); snow depth and snow water equivalent (Chapter 5); surface and subsurface melting (Chapter 6); glaciers (Chapter 7); accumulation over the Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets (Chapter 8); ice thickness and velocities (Chapter 9); gravimetric measurements from space (Chapter 10); sea ice (Chapter 11); lake and river ice (Chapter 12); frozen ground and permafrost (Chapter 13); fieldwork activities (Chapter 14); and, lastly, recent and future cryosphere-oriented missions and experiments (Chapter 15).
Given the different styles adopted by the authors, and the broad spectrum of topics covered, the treatment throughout the book is technical in some places and more descriptive in others. The book is oriented towards readers with a limited or basic knowledge of the cryosphere and remote sensing methods, and who are willing to have an overview of the methods and techniques, such as senior undergraduate and master students. However, doctoral students can also use it as introductory textbook. For readers who are interested in specific topics, we have tried to keep the different chapters as self-contained as possible. Lastly, although it was never my intention to provide a complete anthology of recent results (sincere apologies for the unintentional omission of important works), I hope researchers will also find it helpful as a work of reference.
M. Tedesco New York City September, 2013
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Wiley Publishing for providing me with the opportunity of publishing this book. Special thanks to the faculty, the chair, Dr. Jeff Steiner, and the students of the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the City College of New York for understanding when my office door was locked from the inside. A special thanks goes also to the National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs (where I was serving as Program Director during the period when the book was finalized) for allowing me to work on the book within the framework of the Independent Research/Development Program.
My most sincere gratitude goes to the chapter leading authors and co-authors, for their contribution and the invaluable commitment to the publication of the book.
Special thanks to Dorothy Hall and W. Gareth Rees for their inspiring books Remote Sensing of Ice and Snow (University Press, Cambridge, 1985), by Dorothy Hall and Jaroslav Martinec and Remote Sensing of Snow and Ice (CRC Press, 2005) by W. Gareth Rees.
About the companion website
This book is accompanied by a companion website:
www.wiley.com/go/tedesco/cryosphere
The website includes:
Powerpoints of all figures from the book for downloading
