A presentation by

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Remote Sensing and Monitoring Ice Conditions in
the Great Lakes
A presentation by Craig J. Evanego - U.S.
National Ice Center
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Overview The Use of Remotely Sensed Data for
Great Lakes Ice Analysis

• I. Purpose Importance of monitoring ice
  conditions in the Great Lakes
• II. Present Existing data sources
• III. Future Capabilities/advantages of a new
  data source

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North American Ice Service (NAIS)
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NAIS Mission

• Combine strengths of each Ice Center
• Offer an integrated ice information service for
  North America
• High quality and consistency
• Single point-of-access for users
• Optimize resources of both countries reduce
  duplication of effort
• Data access, system development, research, etc
• Built around a common public suite of products
• Each center maintains ability to provide service
  for individual clients independently

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NAIS Ice Analysis of the Great Lakes
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Typical Ice Conditions in the Great Lakes
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Importance of Monitoring Ice Conditions in the
Great Lakes

• Aid the Safety of Winter Navigation and Coast
  Guard Operations

2) Monitoring Climate Variability and Change
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Monitoring Great Lakes Ice Conditions to Aid
Safety of Navigation
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Monitoring Great Lakes Ice Conditions to Aid
Safety of Navigation

• Special chart, derived from NAIS ice analysis,
  designed specifically for Coast Guard operations
• Shows thickest forms of ice present across the
  Great Lakes

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Monitoring Great Lakes Ice Cover to Monitor
Climate Variability Change
from Assel (2003)
from Assel et al (2003)

• Great Lakes ice cover is a sensitive indicator of
  regional climate and climate change (Assel and
  Rodionov, 1998)

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NAIS Ice Analysis of the Great Lakes
Primary Remote Sensing Data Sources

• Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)
• - RADARSAT
• - ENVISAT

2. Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
(MODIS)
3. DMSP Operational Linescan System (OLS)
4. Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer
(AVHRR)
5. Geostationary Operational Environmental
Satellites (GOES)
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Great Lakes SAR imagery

• Primary data source for the NAIS Great Lakes ice
  analysis
• Currently using data from Radarsat-1 and Envisat

• Advantages
• SAR imagery is all-weather
• Excellent spatial resolution (ScanSAR Wide Mode
  100 m)
• Using ScanSAR Wide mode, can get complete
  coverage of Lakes 2-3 times per week.

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Great Lakes SAR imagery - Annotated
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Explanation of the WMO Egg Code
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Explanation of Coding for Lake Ice
Ice Type Code Thickness New Ice 1
0-10 cm Thin Lake Ice 4 10-15 cm Medium
Lake Ice 5 15-30 cm Thick Lake Ice 7
30-70 cm Very Thick Lake Ice 1 gt70 cm
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Great Lakes SAR imagery - Annotated
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Great Lakes SAR imagery - Annotated
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Great Lakes MODIS imagery

• Along with SAR, an important data source for the
  NAIS Great Lakes ice analysis.

• Advantages
• Good spatial resolution (up to 250 m)
• Available in true color
• Data available over entire Lakes region each day
• Available, in GeoTiff format, from sites on WWW

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Great Lakes MODIS imagery
March 12, 2006
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Great Lakes MODIS imagery NOAA Coastwatch
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Great Lakes MODIS imagery

• True color
• Visible imagery
• High spatial resolution at 250 m.
• GeoTiff format ideal for use in NIC analysis.

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Great Lakes MODIS imagery
Visible MODIS image from December 2, 2005 (Note
new ice forming along western shore of southern
Green Bay.)
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Great Lakes MODIS imagery - Annotated
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Great Lakes DMSP OLS imagery

• Another commonly used data source, used in
  conjunction with SAR and MODIS data, for the NAIS
  Great Lakes ice analysis.

• Advantages
• Good spatial resolution (up to 550 m)
• Data available over entire Lakes region each day

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Great Lakes DMSP OLS imagery - Annotated
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NAIS Analysis Software

• Based on ESRIs ArcGIS software
• Allows for editing of lines and egg code
  attributes, as well as chart generation

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Ice Analysis in the Future

• RADARSAT-2
• Expected launch in December of 2006.
• RADARSAT-2 will have the capability to send and
  receive both H and V in four states HH, HV, VH,
  and VV
• 1st commercial spaceborne SAR to offer
  quadrature-polarimetry ("quad-pol") capability
• Polarimetric data could be used to locate
  regions of severe ice deformation, which is a
  primary concern for winter navigation in the
  Great Lakes

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Multiple Polarization RADARSAT-2 vs. its
Predecessors

• Polarimetric data available on RADARSAT-2 will
  enable analysts to better interpret regions of
  ice deformation.

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Use of Polarimetric Data to Identify Region of
Severe Ice Deformation
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Multiple Polarization Cross-Polarization
HH- polarized
HV- polarized
(from Van der Sanden and Ross, 2001)
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Questions / Comments?