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Abstract:
The ESA Data User Element (DUE) Permafrost
(2009-2012) created an Earth Observation service for
permafrost-related applications with extensive involvement
from the permafrost research community. The
DUE Permafrost consortium produced time series
on regional and circum-arctic scales of‘Land Surface
Temperature’(LST), ‘Surface Soil Moisture’ (SSM),
‘Frozen/Thawed Surface Status’ (Freeze/Thaw), and
static products of ‘Terrain’, ‘Land Cover’ (LC), and
‘Surface Waters’.
Most of the DUE Permafrost services are based
on operationally available remote sensing products.
However, permafrost landscapes are a challenge for
qualitative and quantitative remote sensing. The land
surface is highly heterogeneous characterized by patterned
ground, disturbances, abundant small water
bodies, and sharp moisture gradients. Only few error
estimates or standard evaluation methods exist for
remote sensing products from high-latitude terrestrial
landscapes. An additional significant challenge in the
evaluation of remote sensing products in high-latitude
permafrost landscapes is the very sparse availability
of ground data.
Ground-based evaluation of the operationally available
remote sensing products is needed. International
programs, such as the Global Terrestrial Network for
Permafrost (GTN-P) initiated by the International
Permafrost Association (IPA) as well as national programs
such as the scientific preparation programs for
two national satellite missions (hyperspectral EnMAP
satellite mission, Tandem-L radar satellite mission
(Helmholtz Alliance Remote Sensing and Earth System
Dynamics HGF-EDA) provide ground data and
evaluation experiments.
We will show examples of:
• Evaluation experiments of remote sensing
products of ‘Land surface temperature’
(LST) and ‘Frozen/ Thawed Surface Status’
(Freeze/Thaw) using GTN-P data (ESA DUE
Permafrost).
• Evaluation experiments of optical and microwave
remote sensing products using the
method of ‘homogeneous measurement fields’
(HGF-EDA, PAGE21, EnMAP).
• field-based spectral and BRDF measurements of
vegetation at different scales collected in Alaska,
Yamal (Western Siberia) and the Lena Delta
(Arctic Siberia) (EnMAP).
