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The nonhydrostatic regional climate model CCLM was used for a long-term hindcast run (2002–2016) for the Weddell Sea region with resolutions of 15 and 5 km and two different turbulence parametrizations. CCLM was nested in ERA-Interim data and used in forecast mode (suite of consecutive 30 h long simulations with 6 h spin-up). We prescribed the sea ice concentration from satellite data and used a thermodynamic sea ice model. The performance of the model was evaluated in terms of temperature and wind using data from Antarctic stations, automatic weather stations (AWSs), an operational forecast model and reanalyses data, and lidar wind profiles. For the reference run we found a warm bias for the near-surface temperature over the Antarctic Plateau. This bias was removed in the second run by adjusting the turbulence parametrization, which results in a more realistic representation of the surface inversion over the plateau but resulted in a negative bias for some coastal regions. A comparison with measurements over the sea ice of the Weddell Sea by three AWS buoys for 1 year showed small biases for temperature around ±1 K and for wind speed of 1 m s−1. Comparisons of radio soundings showed a model bias around 0 and a RMSE of 1–2 K for temperature and 3–4 m s−1 for wind speed. The comparison of CCLM simulations at resolutions down to 1 km with wind data from Doppler lidar measurements during December 2015 and January 2016 yielded almost no bias in wind speed and a RMSE of ca. 2 m s−1. Overall CCLM shows a good representation of temperature and wind for the Weddell Sea region. Based on these encouraging results, CCLM at high resolution will be used for the investigation of the regional climate in the Antarctic and atmosphere–ice–ocean interactions processes in a forthcoming study.
We use a novel sea-ice lead climatology for the winters of 2002/03 to 2020/21 based on satellite observations with 1 km2 spatial resolution to identify predominant patterns in Arctic wintertime sea-ice leads. The causes for the observed spatial and temporal variabilities are investigated using ocean surface current velocities and eddy kinetic energies from an ocean model (Finite Element Sea Ice–Ice-Shelf–Ocean Model, FESOM) and winds from a regional climate model (CCLM) and ERA5 reanalysis, respectively. The presented investigation provides evidence for an influence of ocean bathymetry and associated currents on the mechanic weakening of sea ice and the accompanying occurrence of sea-ice leads with their characteristic spatial patterns. While the driving mechanisms for this observation are not yet understood in detail, the presented results can contribute to opening new hypotheses on ocean–sea-ice interactions. The individual contribution of ocean and atmosphere to regional lead dynamics is complex, and a deeper insight requires detailed mechanistic investigations in combination with considerations of coastal geometries. While the ocean influence on lead dynamics seems to act on a rather long-term scale (seasonal to interannual), the influence of wind appears to trigger sea-ice lead dynamics on shorter timescales of weeks to months and is largely controlled by individual events causing increased divergence. No significant pan-Arctic trends in wintertime leads can be observed.
This paper describes the concept of the hyperspectral Earth-observing thermal infrared (TIR) satellite mission HiTeSEM (High-resolution Temperature and Spectral Emissivity Mapping). The scientific goal is to measure specific key variables from the biosphere, hydrosphere, pedosphere, and geosphere related to two global problems of significant societal relevance: food security and human health. The key variables comprise land and sea surface radiation temperature and emissivity, surface moisture, thermal inertia, evapotranspiration, soil minerals and grain size components, soil organic carbon, plant physiological variables, and heat fluxes. The retrieval of this information requires a TIR imaging system with adequate spatial and spectral resolutions and with day-night following observation capability. Another challenge is the monitoring of temporally high dynamic features like energy fluxes, which require adequate revisit time. The suggested solution is a sensor pointing concept to allow high revisit times for selected target regions (1"5 days at off-nadir). At the same time, global observations in the nadir direction are guaranteed with a lower temporal repeat cycle (>1 month). To account for the demand of a high spatial resolution for complex targets, it is suggested to combine in one optic (1) a hyperspectral TIR system with ~75 bands at 7.2"12.5 -µm (instrument NEDT 0.05 K"0.1 K) and a ground sampling distance (GSD) of 60 m, and (2) a panchromatic high-resolution TIR-imager with two channels (8.0"10.25 -µm and 10.25"12.5 -µm) and a GSD of 20 m. The identified science case requires a good correlation of the instrument orbit with Sentinel-2 (maximum delay of 1"3 days) to combine data from the visible and near infrared (VNIR), the shortwave infrared (SWIR) and TIR spectral regions and to refine parameter retrieval.
Dry tropical forests undergo massive conversion and degradation processes. This also holds true for the extensive Miombo forests that cover large parts of Southern Africa. While the largest proportional area can be found in Angola, the country still struggles with food shortages, insufficient medical and educational supplies, as well as the ongoing reconstruction of infrastructure after 27 years of civil war. Especially in rural areas, the local population is therefore still heavily dependent on the consumption of natural resources, as well as subsistence agriculture. This leads, on one hand, to large areas of Miombo forests being converted for cultivation purposes, but on the other hand, to degradation processes due to the selective use of forest resources. While forest conversion in south-central rural Angola has already been quantitatively described, information about forest degradation is not yet available. This is due to the history of conflicts and the therewith connected research difficulties, as well as the remote location of this area. We apply an annual time series approach using Landsat data in south-central Angola not only to assess the current degradation status of the Miombo forests, but also to derive past developments reaching back to times of armed conflicts. We use the Disturbance Index based on tasseled cap transformation to exclude external influences like inter-annual variation of rainfall. Based on this time series, linear regression is calculated for forest areas unaffected by conversion, but also for the pre-conversion period of those areas that were used for cultivation purposes during the observation time. Metrics derived from linear regression are used to classify the study area according to their dominant modification processes.rnWe compare our results to MODIS latent integral trends and to further products to derive information on underlying drivers. Around 13% of the Miombo forests are affected by degradation processes, especially along streets, in villages, and close to existing agriculture. However, areas in presumably remote and dense forest areas are also affected to a significant extent. A comparison with MODIS derived fire ignition data shows that they are most likely affected by recurring fires and less by selective timber extraction. We confirm that areas that are used for agriculture are more heavily disturbed by selective use beforehand than those that remain unaffected by conversion. The results can be substantiated by the MODIS latent integral trends and we also show that due to extent and location, the assessment of forest conversion is most likely not sufficient to provide good estimates for the loss of natural resources.
The presence of sea ice leads in the sea ice cover represents a key feature in polar regions by controlling the heat exchange between the relatively warm ocean and cold atmosphere due to increased fluxes of turbulent sensible and latent heat. Sea ice leads contribute to the sea ice production and are sources for the formation of dense water which affects the ocean circulation. Atmospheric and ocean models strongly rely on observational data to describe the respective state of the sea ice since numerical models are not able to produce sea ice leads explicitly. For the Arctic, some lead datasets are available, but for the Antarctic, no such data yet exist. Our study presents a new algorithm with which leads are automatically identified in satellite thermal infrared images. A variety of lead metrics is used to distinguish between true leads and detection artefacts with the use of fuzzy logic. We evaluate the outputs and provide pixel-wise uncertainties. Our data yield daily sea ice lead maps at a resolution of 1 km2 for the winter months November– April 2002/03–2018/19 (Arctic) and April–September 2003–2019 (Antarctic), respectively. The long-term average of the lead frequency distributions show distinct features related to bathymetric structures in both hemispheres.
Die Polargebiete sind geprägt von harschen Umweltbedingungen mit extrem kalten Temperaturen und Winden. Besonders während der polaren Nacht werden Temperaturen von bis zu -89.2°C}$ auf dem Antarktischen Plateau beobachtet. Infolge der starken Abkühlung beginnt das Ozeanwasser zu gefrieren und die Eisproduktion beginnt. Der Antarktische Ozean ist dabei von einer ausgeprägten zwischen- und innerjährlichen Variabilität geprägt und die Eisbedeckung variiert zwischen 2.07 * 10^6 km^2 im Sommer und 20.14 * 10^6 km^2 im Winter. Die Eisproduktion und Eisschmelze beeinflussen die atmosphärische und ozeanische Zirkulation. Dynamische Prozesse führen zur Bildung von Rissen im Eis und letztlich zum Entstehen von Eisrinnen (leads). Leads sind langgestreckte Risse die mindestens einige Meter breit und hunderte Meter bis hunderte Kilometer lang sein können. In diesen Eisrinnen ist das warme Ozeanwasser in Kontakt mit der kalten Atmosphäre, wodurch die Austauschraten fühlbarer und latenter Wärme, Feuchtigkeit und von Gasen stark erhöht sind. Eisrinnen tragen zur Eisproduktion in den Polargebieten bei und sind Habitat für zahlreiche Tiere. Eisrinnen, zentraler Bestandteil der präsentierten Studie, sind bis heute nur unzureichend im Südpolarmeer erforscht und beobachtet. Daher ist es Ziel einen Algorithmus zu entwickeln, um Eisrinnen in Fernerkundungsdaten automatisiert zu identifizieren. Dabei kommen thermal-Infrarot Satellitendaten des Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) zum Einsatz, welches auf den beiden Satelliten Aqua und Terra montiert ist und seit 2000 (Terra) bzw. 2002 (Aqua) Satellitenbilder bereitstellt. Die einzelnen Satellitenbilder beinhalten die Eisoberflächentemperatur des MOD/MYD 29 Produktes, welche in einem zweistufigen Algorithmus für den Zeitraum April bis September 2003 bis 2019 prozessiert werden.
Im ersten Schritt werden potentielle Eisrinnen anhand der lokalen positiven Temperaturanomalie identifiziert. Aufgrund von Artefakten werden weitere temperatur- und texturbasierte Parameter abgeleitet und zu täglichen Kompositen zusammengefügt. Diese werden in der zweiten Prozessierungsstufe verwendet, um Wolkenartefakte von echten Eisrinnen-Observationen zu trennen. Hier wird Fuzzy Logic genutzt und eine Antarktis-spezifische Konfiguration wird definiert. In diesem werden ausgewählte Eingabedaten aus dem ersten Prozessierungslevel genutzt, um einen finalen Proxy, den Lead Score (LS), zu berechnen. Der LS wird abschließend mittels manueller Qualitätskontrolle in eine Unsicherheit überführt. Die darüber identifizierten Artefakte können so zusätzlich zur MODIS-Wolkenmaske genutzt werden.
Auf Basis der Eisrinnenbeobachtungen wird ein klimatologischer Referenzdatensatz erstellt, der die repräsentative Eisrinnenverteilung im Antarktischen Ozean für die Wintermonate April bis September, 2003 bis 2019 zeigt. In diesem ist sichtbar, dass Eisrinnen in manchen Gegenden systematischer auftreten als in anderen. Das sind vor allem die Regionen entlang der Küstenregion, des kontinentalen Schelfabhangs und einigen Erhebungen und Kanälen in der Tiefsee. Dabei sind die erhöhten Frequenzen entlang des Schelfabhangs besonders interessant und der Einfluss von atmosphärischen und ozeanischen Einflüssen wird untersucht. Ein regionales Eis-Ozeanmodell wird genutzt, um ozeanische Einflüsse in Zusammenhang mit erhöhten Eisrinnenfrequenzen zu setzen.
In der vorliegenden Studie wird außerdem ein umfangreicher Überblick über die großskalige Variabilität von Antarktischem Meereis gegeben. Tägliche Eiskonzentrationsdaten, abgeleitet aus passiven Mikrowellendaten, werden aus dem Zeitraum 1979 bis 2018 für die Klassifikation genutzt. Der dk-means Algorithmus wird verwendet, um zehn repräsentative Eisklassen zu identifizieren. Die geographische Verteilung dieser Klassen wird als Karte dargestellt, in der der typische jährliche Eiszyklus je Klasse sichtbar ist.
Veränderungen in dem räumlichen Auftreten von Eisklassen werden identifiziert und qualitativ interpretiert. Positive Abweichungen hin zu höheren Eisklassen werden im Weddell- und dem Ross-Meer und einigen Regionen in der Ostantarktis identifiziert. Negative Abweichungen sind im Amundsen-Bellingshausen-Meer vorhanden. Der neu entwickelte (Climatological Sea Ice Anomaly Index) wird genutzt, um Klassenabweichungen in der Zeitreihe zu identifizieren. Damit werden drei Jahre (1986, 2007, 2014) für eine Fallstudie ausgewählt und in Relation zu atmosphärischen Daten aus ERA-Interim und Eisdrift-Daten untersucht. Für die beiden Jahre 1986 und 2007 können bestimmte atmosphärische Zirkulationsmuster identifiziert werden, die die entsprechende Eisklassifikation beeinflusst haben. Für das Jahr 2014 können keine besonders ausgeprägten atmosphärischen Anomalien ausgemacht werden.
Der Eisklassen-Datensatz kann in Zukunft als Ergänzung zu vorhandenen Studien und für die Validierung von Meereismodellen genutzt werden. Dabei sind vor allem Anwendungen in Bezug auf den Eisrinnen-Datensatz möglich.
A model-based temperature adjustment scheme for wintertime sea-ice production retrievals from MODIS
(2022)
Knowledge of the wintertime sea-ice production in Arctic polynyas is an important requirement for estimations of the dense water formation, which drives vertical mixing in the upper ocean. Satellite-based techniques incorporating relatively high resolution thermal-infrared data from MODIS in combination with atmospheric reanalysis data have proven to be a strong tool to monitor large and regularly forming polynyas and to resolve narrow thin-ice areas (i.e., leads) along the shelf-breaks and across the entire Arctic Ocean. However, the selection of the atmospheric data sets has a large influence on derived polynya characteristics due to their impact on the calculation of the heat loss to the atmosphere, which is determined by the local thin-ice thickness. In order to overcome this methodical ambiguity, we present a MODIS-assisted temperature adjustment (MATA) algorithm that yields corrections of the 2 m air temperature and hence decreases differences between the atmospheric input data sets. The adjustment algorithm is based on atmospheric model simulations. We focus on the Laptev Sea region for detailed case studies on the developed algorithm and present time series of polynya characteristics in the winter season 2019/2020. It shows that the application of the empirically derived correction decreases the difference between different utilized atmospheric products significantly from 49% to 23%. Additional filter strategies are applied that aim at increasing the capability to include leads in the quasi-daily and persistence-filtered thin-ice thickness composites. More generally, the winter of 2019/2020 features high polynya activity in the eastern Arctic and less activity in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, presumably as a result of the particularly strong polar vortex in early 2020.
The process of land degradation needs to be understood at various spatial and temporal scales in order to protect ecosystem services and communities directly dependent on it. This is especially true for regions in sub-Saharan Africa, where socio economic and political factors exacerbate ecological degradation. This study identifies spatially explicit land change dynamics in the Copperbelt province of Zambia in a local context using satellite vegetation index time series derived from the MODIS sensor. Three sets of parameters, namely, monthly series, annual peaking magnitude, and annual mean growing season were developed for the period 2000 to 2019. Trend was estimated by applying harmonic regression on monthly series and linear least square regression on annually aggregated series. Estimated spatial trends were further used as a basis to map endemic land change processes. Our observations were as follows: (a) 15% of the study area dominant in the east showed positive trends, (b) 3% of the study area dominant in the west showed negative trends, (c) natural regeneration in mosaic landscapes (post shifting cultivation) and land management in forest reserves were chiefly responsible for positive trends, and (d) degradation over intact miombo woodland and cultivation areas contributed to negative trends. Additionally, lower productivity over areas with semi-permanent agriculture and shift of new encroachment into woodlands from east to west of Copperbelt was observed. Pivot agriculture was not a main driver in land change. Although overall greening trends prevailed across the study site, the risk of intact woodlands being exposed to various disturbances remains high. The outcome of this study can provide insights about natural and assisted landscape restoration specifically addressing the miombo ecoregion.
Forest inventories provide significant monitoring information on forest health, biodiversity,
resilience against disturbance, as well as its biomass and timber harvesting potential. For this
purpose, modern inventories increasingly exploit the advantages of airborne laser scanning (ALS)
and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS).
Although tree crown detection and delineation using ALS can be seen as a mature discipline, the
identification of individual stems is a rarely addressed task. In particular, the informative value of
the stem attributes—especially the inclination characteristics—is hardly known. In addition, a lack
of tools for the processing and fusion of forest-related data sources can be identified. The given
thesis addresses these research gaps in four peer-reviewed papers, while a focus is set on the
suitability of ALS data for the detection and analysis of tree stems.
In addition to providing a novel post-processing strategy for geo-referencing forest inventory plots,
the thesis could show that ALS-based stem detections are very reliable and their positions are
accurate. In particular, the stems have shown to be suited to study prevailing trunk inclination
angles and orientations, while a species-specific down-slope inclination of the tree stems and a
leeward orientation of conifers could be observed.
The argan woodlands of South Morocco represent an open-canopy dryland forest with traditional silvopastoral usage that includes browsing by goats, sheep and camels, oil production as well as agricultural use. In the past, these forests have undergone extensive clearing, but are now protected by the state. However, the remaining argan woodlands are still under pressure from intensive grazing and illegal firewood collection. Although the argan-forest area seems to be overall decreasing due to large forest clearings for intensive agriculture, little quantitative data is available on the dynamics and overall state of the remaining argan forest. To determine how the argan woodlands in the High Atlas and the Anti-Atlas had changed in tree-crown cover from 1972 to 2018 we used historical black and white HEXAGON satellite images as well as recent WorldView satellite images (see Part A of our study). Because tree shadows can oftentimes not be separated from the tree crown on panchromatic satellite images, individual trees were mapped in three size categories to determine if trees were unchanged, had decreased/increased in crown size or had disappeared or newly grown. The current state of the argan trees was evaluated by mapping tree architectures in the field. Tree-cover changes varied highly between the test sites. Trees that remained unchanged between 1972 and 2018 were in the majority, while tree mortality and tree establishment were nearly even. Small unchanged trees made up 48.4% of all remaining trees, of these 51% showed degraded tree architectures. 40% of small (re-) grown trees were so overbrowsed that they only appeared as bushes, while medium (3–7 m crown diameter) and large trees (>7 m) showed less degraded trees regardless if they had changed or not. Approaches like grazing exclusion or cereal cultivation lead to a positive influence on tree architecture and less tree-cover decrease. Although the woodland was found to be mostly unchanged 1972–2018, the analysis of tree architecture reveals that a lot of (mostly small) trees remained stable but in a degraded state. This stability might be the result of the small trees’ high degradation status and shows the heavy pressure on the argan forest.