Brief communication: Detection of glacier surge activity using cloud computing of Sentinel-1 radar data

Leclercq, Paul Willem; Kääb, Andreas; Altena, Bas

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-4901-2021

Articles | Volume 15, issue 10

The Cryosphere, 15, 4901–4907, 2021

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-4901-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

The Cryosphere, 15, 4901–4907, 2021

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-4901-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 15, issue 10

Brief communication 21 Oct 2021

Brief communication | 21 Oct 2021

Brief communication: Detection of glacier surge activity using cloud computing of Sentinel-1 radar data

Paul Willem Leclercq et al.

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-4901-2021-supplement

Model code and software

surge_detection_Sentinel1-v1.0 Paul Willem Leclercq, Andreas Kääb, and Bas Altena https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5285712

Short summary

In this study we present a novel method to detect glacier surge activity. Surges are relevant as they disturb the link between glacier change and climate, and studying surges can also increase understanding of glacier flow. We use variations in Sentinel-1 radar backscatter strength, calculated with the use of Google Earth Engine, to detect surge activity. In our case study for the year 2018–2019 we find 69 cases of surging glaciers globally. Many of these were not previously known to be surging.