Remotely Sensed Active Layer Thickness (ReSALT) at Barrow, Alaska Using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar

Remote Sensing

Kevin Schaefer³  Lin Liu⁷  Andrew Parsekian⁶  Elchin Jafarov³  Albert Chen¹  Tingjun Zhang³  Alessio Gusmeroli²  Santosh Panda²  Howard A. Zebker¹  Tim Schaefer⁴  Santonu Goswami⁵  Daniel J. Hayes⁵  Guido Grosse⁵  Benjamin Jones⁵ 

[1] Department of Geophysics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; E-Mails:;International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, 99775 AK, USA; E-Mails:;National Snow and Ice Data Center, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA; E-Mails:;Galmont Consulting, Chicago, 60602 IL, USA; E-Mail:National Snow and Ice Data Center, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA;;Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82070, USA; E-Mail:;Earth System Science Programme, Faculty of Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; E-Mail:

关键词: permafrost;    permafrost dynamics;    active layer thickness;    barrow;    interferometric synthetic aperture radar;    ground penetrating radar;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rs70403735

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Active layer thickness (ALT) is a critical parameter for monitoring the status of permafrost that is typically measured at specific locations using probing, in situ temperature sensors, or other ground-based observations. Here we evaluated the Remotely Sensed Active Layer Thickness (ReSALT) product that uses the Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar technique to measure seasonal surface subsidence and infer ALT around Barrow, Alaska. We compared ReSALT with ground-based ALT obtained using probing and calibrated, 500 MHz Ground Penetrating Radar at multiple sites around Barrow. ReSALT accurately reproduced observed ALT within uncertainty of the GPR and probing data in ~76% of the study area. However, ReSALT was less than observed ALT in ~22% of the study area with well-drained soils and in ~1% of the area where soils contained gravel. ReSALT was greater than observed ALT in some drained thermokarst lake basins representing ~1% of the area. These results indicate remote sensing techniques based on InSAR could be an effective way to measure and monitor ALT over large areas on the Arctic coastal plain.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.