Lakes4Antarctica

Understanding supraglacial lake dynamics on Antarctica’s ice shelves and glaciers using remote sensing and Artificial Intelligence.

Introduction

The main objectives of “Lakes4Antarctica” are the development of advanced mapping methods for an automated, largescale monitoring of Antarctic supraglacial lake extents using spaceborne remote sensing data. Furthermore, an enhanced understanding of supraglacial lake impacts, e.g. on ice shelf stability and ice sheet surface mass balance will be established. The monitoring of Antarctic supraglacial lake dynamics is particularly important because supraglacial meltwater accumulation on ice sheets and ice shelves can be a main driver for accelerated ice discharge. This is caused through processes such as surface runoff causing ice thinning, basal meltwater injection leading to basal sliding as well as hydrofracture triggering ice shelf collapse and subsequent glacier speedup. Further, an increased presence of supraglacial lakes around the margin of Antarctica can trigger enhanced melting due to the low albedo of surface lakes leading to an increased absorption of solar radiation. With further increasing air temperatures, these processes will cumulate and directly affect Antarctica’s future contribution to global sea-level-rise, being one of the largest uncertainties in current projections.

Innovation

“Lakes4Antarctica” will utilize the latest remote sensing products provided by the Copernicus Earth Observation (EO) programme and innovative artificial intelligence (AI) methods to map supraglacial lakes in Antarctica at unprecedented accuracy and spatial coverage. The project will fuse data from spaceborne multispectral and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors to monitor the long-term and seasonal dynamics of supraglacial lakes in one of the least accessible regions of the world. The resulting dataset will be used to improve surface mass modelling in Antarctica to facilitate future estimations about the impact of the melting of Antarctica’s ice sheets on the global sea level in the context of climate change.

Contact

For further information, please contact:

Dr. Andreas Dietz (Project Leader)
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Earth Observation Center (EOC), German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD)
D - 82234 Weßling (Oberpfaffenhofen )
Germany
Email: Dr. Andreas Dietz