Author(s): Christopher J. Crawford; Petya K. Campbell; Elizabeth M. Middleton; Dorothy K. Hall; Milton G. Hom; Fred F. Huemmrich; David R. Landis
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Abstract: Inland lake ice cover is a sensitive indicator of local to regional temperature variability and change, and its physical properties can be routinely measured with satellites. In this study, we mapped Lake Superior ice surfaces on February 24,27, and 28,2015 using Earth Observer-1 (EO-1) Hyperion, Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), and Landsat Operational Land Imager (OLI) Earth observation instruments. We combined ground-based spectroscopic measurements of accumulated snow, snow ice, clear lake ice, and shallow water with a linear unmixing model to retrieve sub-pixel ice surface endmember fractions. Lake Superior ice surface retrievals over Chequamegon Bay, the Apostle Islands, and deep-water were skillful and consistent with expectations. We evaluated associated errors, which were seemingly attributable to instrument differences, atmospheric correction uncertainty, and endmember selection. We found that EO-1 Hyperion’s higher spectral resolution improves discrimination between snow ice, clear lake ice, and open water when compared to Landsat OLI and ETM+. We identified several technical areas where lake ice mapping requires more work to answer questions around instrument capabilities, atmospheric correction, and algorithm performance. Our analysis supports the concept that Earth observations from EO-1 and Landsat missions hold tremendous potential to augment ice mapping on large inland water bodies.
Year: 2016