Topic 2a - Types of satellite measurements of the Greenland ice sheet
Welcome to Week 2 - ‘Working with satellite data and ground-based measurements of the ice sheet’. In this video, Professor Steffen and Dr Anna Hogg provide a brief overview of some of the types of measurements possible using satellites to monitor the Greenland ice sheet. They also provide some historical context of satellite observation of the ice sheet, and the important role of the CryoSat-2 mission from ESA.
There are a number of additional ice monitoring missions planned in coming years. One of these can be explored at the link below.
Optional Mini Task:
Visit the ArcticDEM Explorer and use the search bar at the top of the map to locate Greenland. Use the different tools located on the menu to the left of the screen to check the elevation of various areas around Greenland. If you press on the ruler icon on the left, which is the ‘Measure’ button, you can draw a line or a polygon and see an elevation profile for this area. What do you find?
Featured Educators:
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Professor Konrad Steffen
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Dr Anna Hogg
View featured satellites on the satellite tracking app
Don’t forget you can download the video, transcript and take any quizzes available with the links on the right.
Optional Further Reading
Imagery
An artist’s conception of the Landsat-8, flying over the US Gulf Coast.
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
Hurricane force winds blow off the east coast of Greenland in this Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image captured by NASA´s Terra satellite on September 20, 2003.
Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC
This image of melt ponds on Greenland’s southwest coast, was captured by NASA’s Aqua satellite on June 12, 2016. The grayish-blue band also is indicative of melting at the surface.
NASA EOSDIS
This image the average cumulative melt days for the Greenland Ice Sheet for the period 1979 to 2007. Oranges and reds indicate greater numbers of melt days, while blues and greens indicate no or low numbers of melt days.
National Snow and Ice Data Center
NASAs Moderate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) captured this true-colour image of eastern and northeastern Greenland as a set of images taken in June and July 2002.
Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC
This Envisat radar image features the eastern side of Ellesmere Island (left), the northernmost Canadian island, and portions of the northwest coast of Greenland (right).
ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Radar images acquired by Europe’s Sentinel-1a satellite show icebergs calving from Thwaites Glacier in the Antarctic. Click the CPOM link below to see the moving image.
CPOM
A still image taken from an animation showing the flow of the Baltoro Glacier, taken from data recorded by Landsat satellites.
Frank Paul / Cryosphere / USGS / NASA
