Expansion of supraglacial lake area, volume and extent on the Greenland ice sheet from 1985 to 2023
Supraglacial lakes (SGLs) are widespread across the Greenland ice sheet and cause transient changes in ice flow. Here, we produce the first annual ice-sheet wide database of maximum summer SGL extents spanning 1985 to 2023 using all July and August Landsat images. Lake visibility percentages were ca...
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Cambridge University Press
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Glaciology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S002214302400087X/type/journal_article |
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| author | Yubin Fan Chang-Qing Ke Lanhua Luo Xiaoyi Shen Stephen John Livingstone James M. Lea |
| author_facet | Yubin Fan Chang-Qing Ke Lanhua Luo Xiaoyi Shen Stephen John Livingstone James M. Lea |
| author_sort | Yubin Fan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Supraglacial lakes (SGLs) are widespread across the Greenland ice sheet and cause transient changes in ice flow. Here, we produce the first annual ice-sheet wide database of maximum summer SGL extents spanning 1985 to 2023 using all July and August Landsat images. Lake visibility percentages were calculated to estimate the uncertainty induced by variable image data coverage. SGLs were mainly distributed between 1000 and 1600 m elevation, with large lake area observed in northwestern, northeastern and southwestern basins. Lake area increased at a rate of 50.5 km2 a−1 across the entire Greenland, and lakes advanced to higher elevations at an average rate of 10.2 m a−1 during 1985–2023. We leveraged spatiotemporally matched ICESat-2 and Landsat 8 reflectance data to develop a deep learning model for lake depth inversion for the period 2014–23. This model demonstrates the highest accuracy among all image-based methods, albeit with an underestimation of ~15% when compared to ICESat-2 data. A significant positive correlation between lake volume and area is used to up-scale the approach to the entire time period, indicating a lake volume increase of 221.9 ± 63.6 × 106 m3 a−1. Increasing air/land surface temperature, surface pressure and decreasing snowfall were the most important contributing factors in driving lake variability. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-32a2745141c1410a9373ba2fc714df07 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0022-1430 1727-5652 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
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| series | Journal of Glaciology |
| spelling | doaj-art-32a2745141c1410a9373ba2fc714df072025-01-16T21:51:35ZengCambridge University PressJournal of Glaciology0022-14301727-56522025-01-017110.1017/jog.2024.87Expansion of supraglacial lake area, volume and extent on the Greenland ice sheet from 1985 to 2023Yubin Fan0Chang-Qing Ke1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0212-4069Lanhua Luo2Xiaoyi Shen3Stephen John Livingstone4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7240-5037James M. Lea5School of Geography and Planning, Chizhou University, Chizhou, Anhui, China Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science and Technology, Key Laboratory for Land Satellite Remote Sensing Applications of Ministry of Natural Resources, School of Geography and Ocean Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, ChinaJiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science and Technology, Key Laboratory for Land Satellite Remote Sensing Applications of Ministry of Natural Resources, School of Geography and Ocean Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, ChinaJiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science and Technology, Key Laboratory for Land Satellite Remote Sensing Applications of Ministry of Natural Resources, School of Geography and Ocean Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, ChinaSchool of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, ChinaSchool of Geography and Planning, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UKDepartment of Geography and Planning, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UKSupraglacial lakes (SGLs) are widespread across the Greenland ice sheet and cause transient changes in ice flow. Here, we produce the first annual ice-sheet wide database of maximum summer SGL extents spanning 1985 to 2023 using all July and August Landsat images. Lake visibility percentages were calculated to estimate the uncertainty induced by variable image data coverage. SGLs were mainly distributed between 1000 and 1600 m elevation, with large lake area observed in northwestern, northeastern and southwestern basins. Lake area increased at a rate of 50.5 km2 a−1 across the entire Greenland, and lakes advanced to higher elevations at an average rate of 10.2 m a−1 during 1985–2023. We leveraged spatiotemporally matched ICESat-2 and Landsat 8 reflectance data to develop a deep learning model for lake depth inversion for the period 2014–23. This model demonstrates the highest accuracy among all image-based methods, albeit with an underestimation of ~15% when compared to ICESat-2 data. A significant positive correlation between lake volume and area is used to up-scale the approach to the entire time period, indicating a lake volume increase of 221.9 ± 63.6 × 106 m3 a−1. Increasing air/land surface temperature, surface pressure and decreasing snowfall were the most important contributing factors in driving lake variability.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S002214302400087X/type/journal_articleGreenland ice sheetlake area changelake depth inversionsupraglacial lake |
| spellingShingle | Yubin Fan Chang-Qing Ke Lanhua Luo Xiaoyi Shen Stephen John Livingstone James M. Lea Expansion of supraglacial lake area, volume and extent on the Greenland ice sheet from 1985 to 2023 Journal of Glaciology Greenland ice sheet lake area change lake depth inversion supraglacial lake |
| title | Expansion of supraglacial lake area, volume and extent on the Greenland ice sheet from 1985 to 2023 |
| title_full | Expansion of supraglacial lake area, volume and extent on the Greenland ice sheet from 1985 to 2023 |
| title_fullStr | Expansion of supraglacial lake area, volume and extent on the Greenland ice sheet from 1985 to 2023 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Expansion of supraglacial lake area, volume and extent on the Greenland ice sheet from 1985 to 2023 |
| title_short | Expansion of supraglacial lake area, volume and extent on the Greenland ice sheet from 1985 to 2023 |
| title_sort | expansion of supraglacial lake area volume and extent on the greenland ice sheet from 1985 to 2023 |
| topic | Greenland ice sheet lake area change lake depth inversion supraglacial lake |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S002214302400087X/type/journal_article |
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