HR: 0800h
AN: H31A-0116    [Abstracts]
TI: Remote Sensing of Open Water in Northern High Latitudes for use in Hydrologic Modeling
AU: * Podest, E
EM: erika.podest@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Box 300-233 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, CA 91109, United States
AU: McDonald, K C
EM: kyle.mcdonald@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Box 300-233 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, CA 91109, United States
AU: Kimball, J
EM: johnk@ntsg.umt.edu
AF: University of Montana, Flathead Lake Biological Station 311 Biostation Ln., Polson, MT 59860, United States
AU: Maumenee, N
EM: niels.maumenee@umontana.edu
AF: University of Montana, Flathead Lake Biological Station 311 Biostation Ln., Polson, MT 59860, United States
AU: Bohn, T
EM: tbohn@hydro.washington.edu
AF: University of Washington, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Eng. Box 352700, Seattle, WA 98195, United States
AU: Lettenmaier, D
EM: dennisl@u.washington.edu
AF: University of Washington, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Eng. Box 352700, Seattle, WA 98195, United States
AU: Bowling, L
EM: bowling@purdue.edu
AF: Purdue University, Department of Agronomy 915 W. State St., West Lafayette, IN 47907, United States
AB: In the northern high latitudes open water bodies are common landscape features, having a large influence on hydrologic processes as well as surface-atmosphere carbon exchange and associated impacts on global climate. It is therefore of great importance to assess their spatial extent and temporal character in order to improve hydrologic and ecosystem process modeling. Spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is an effective tool for this purpose since it is particularly sensitive to surface water and it can monitor large inaccessible areas on a temporal basis regardless of atmospheric conditions or solar illumination. We employ multi-temporal L-band SAR data from the Japanese Earth Remote Sensing Satellite (JERS-1) and ALOS PALSAR to map open water bodies across Alaska and Eurasia. A supervised decision tree-based classification approach was used to generate open water maps. For Alaska, we assembled regional-scale monthly JERS-1 SAR mosaics from data acquired during 1998. Digital elevation model (DEM) terrain and slope information were also employed in the decision tree classifier. These supplementary data aided significantly in improving classification performance in topographically complex regions where radar shadowing was prevalent. For study regions in Eurasia, PALSAR data was used in conjunction with JERS-1 imagery to map spatial patterns and seasonal variability in open water characteristics over selected study basins. These results were examined in relation to regional topographic and land cover characteristics. Classification results were also evaluated relative to other open water and land cover classification maps derived from Landsat, AVHRR, MODIS and SRTM. This work was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology; at the University of Montana; at the University of Washington; and at Purdue University under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
DE: 1866 Soil moisture
DE: 1890 Wetlands (0497)
DE: 1895 Instruments and techniques: monitoring
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting