SAR Measurement of Ice Dynamics of Lake El'gygytgyn, Siberia

Mathematics – Logic

Scientific paper

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1645 Solid Earth, 1845 Limnology, 3344 Paleoclimatology, 5420 Impact Phenomena (Includes Cratering), 5464 Remote Sensing

Scientific paper

We analyzed a time-series of more than 400 ERS-2, Radarsat-1, and Landsat-7 scenes acquired over the past three years to develop a fairly complete picture of lake ice dynamics on Lake El'gygytgyn, Siberia (67.5ºN, 107ºE). Lake El'gygytgyn sits inside of a meteorite impact crater formed 3.5 million years ago. A 300,000 year climate record has been extracted from this lake - the longest yet recovered from a terrestrial Arctic source; potentially over 3 million more years of record remain to be cored. The duration of lake ice cover and the onset of lake ice breakup are important to interpretations of these core records because ice cover controls the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water as well as the lake's mixing dynamics. We established baseline records for the dates of ice formation, snow melt, and ice breakup, as well as discovered a number of physical processes related to them. Perhaps more importantly, we also found that certain variations in SAR backscatter on the lake ice likely mimic the level of biological productivity in the sediments directly beneath the ice. Higher productivity leads to increased bubble production and entrainment in the ice, creating a higher SAR backscatter. For example, the shallow underwater shelves extending from much of the shoreline are the warmest and most biologically productive areas of the lake, and also show the highest backscatter. Curiously, a small region of high backscatter exists over the deepest part of the lake, surrounded by a ring of very low backscatter. We propose several processes that explain these variations, all of which may be in operation. Further field research is required to determine the dominant process, but regardless of cause, the fact that large differences exist in biological productivity in the center of the lake has serious implications for selecting the locations of future sediment cores because of spatial variations in biological productivity.

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