Journal
FRONTIERS IN EARTH SCIENCE
Volume 5, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
DOI: 10.3389/feart.2017.00040
Keywords
albedo; digital camera; unmanned aerial vehicle; remote sensing; Greenland Ice Sheet; energy balance modeling
Categories
Funding
- Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation
- Aberystwyth University Research Fund
- Aberystwyth University Doctoral Career Development Scholarship (DCDS)
- Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate - Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence [223259]
- NASA [NNX14AH93G]
- NERC [NE/M020991/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Natural Environment Research Council [NE/M020991/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- NASA [681568, NNX14AH93G] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER
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Measurements of albedo are a prerequisite for modeling surface melt across the Earth's cryosphere, yet available satellite products are limited in spatial and/or temporal resolution. Here, we present a practical methodology to obtain centimeter resolution albedo products with accuracies of +/- 5% using consumer-grade digital camera and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technologies. Our method comprises a workflow for processing, correcting and calibrating raw digital images using a white reference target, and upward and downward shortwave radiation measurements from broadband silicon pyranometers. We demonstrate the method with a set of UAV sorties over the western, K-sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet. The resulting albedo product, UAV10A1, covers 280 km(2), at a resolution of 20 cm per pixel and has a root-mean-square difference of 3.7% compared to MOD10A1 and 4.9% compared to ground-based broadband pyranometer measurements. By continuously measuring downward solar irradiance, the technique overcomes previous limitations due to variable illumination conditions during and between surveys over glaciated terrain. The current miniaturization of multispectral sensors and incorporation of upward facing radiation sensors on UAV packages means that this technique could become increasingly common in field studies and used for a wide range of applications. These include the mapping of debris, dust, cryoconite and bioalbedo, and directly constraining surface energy balance models.
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