GLIMS Update: New WG on ASTER Imaging Priorities

[Jeffrey Kargel]

Fiona et al.:

Thanks!  Good to have this kind of info (your msg below).  Thanks, too, to 
many others who have written on this matter.  (Good to know that GLIMS 
Updates actually are read; maybe this last couple days will increase 
readership!)  For those of you at Fall AGU, please remember that there will 
be a miniworkshop tomorrow (Tuesday) at 5:30-9:30 PM at the Hyatt at 
Fisherman's Wharf in the Kargel conference suite.  This issue at hand will 
be discussed.  Please consider staying afterward for refreshments.

Your synopsis suggests that maybe we can leave imaging open for about July 
10-August 10 for Greenland and get most of what we've been getting that is 
most useful.  The narrower window would reduce the number of images but 
those we get may be better.  If you can suggest other ideas, or take it 
subregion by subregion and suggest imaging windows that way, it would help.  
But I have a better idea than this quick rush to decisions.

We need a working group, "ASTER Himalayan, Alaskan, and Greenland GLacier 
Imaging Negotiations Group" (ASTER HAGGLING), with three teams, one each for 
the Himalaya/central Asia, for Alaska, and Greenland/High Arctic.  It 
doesn't need to be just GLIMS people, as the ASTER imaging is a wider 
community resource.  (This is always true.  We have never yet held a closed 
meeting.) We need solid data on ASTER imaging to date: results, failures, 
coverage, gaps, success-by-month results, success/failure as a function of 
gain settings, coverage by year data, info on other data sources, ideas on 
where we need to be in 3 years.  We need a set of users/advocates for that 
region.  Each teams needs to make a proposal for a revised ASTER imaging 
plan for their team's area; be prepared to haggle and winnow it back. I will 
moderate the whole group.  I need a leader for the Alaska team.  Mike Bishop 
is hereby volunteered for the Himalaya team.  I need a team lead for 
Greenland/High Arctic.  Each team needs team members in addition to the 
leader.  Each team puts their best foot forward with the view of increasing 
image acquisitions for Alaska and the Himalaya area, and maintaining imaging 
for the Greenland/High Arctic area.  I anticipate that eventually Greenland 
and Ellesmere imaging will be halved, and that's what I will push for and 
probably eventually insist on (unless ASTER Mission Ops gives us a higher 
quota.).  But we want that half to have improved quality on average.  And 
the increased Alaska and Himalaya region coverage also has to have improved 
quality over what has been acquired.

I suggest that Bruce Raup, David Gaseau, and John Dwyer should assist the 
entire working group as communal resources.

--Jeff K


>From: Fiona Cawkwell <fiona.cawkwell at ualberta.ca>
>To: luke.copland at uottawa.ca
>CC: msharp at ualberta.ca, jeffreyskargel at hotmail.com,        Jeff 
>Kargel<jkargel1054 at earthlink.net>
>Subject: Re: GLIMS Update: Global ASTER imaging reprioritization
>Date: Mon,  5 Dec 2005 12:22:38 -0700
>
>Martin, Jeff, Luke
>
>Luke's assessment of the northern Ellesmere situation is correct - most of 
>the
>imagery available north of about 82.5N is either cloud covered or 
>relatively
>early in the season (mid-June) when there is still considerable snow cover 
>on
>the ground - there is no Landsat coverage this far north so some ASTER 
>imagery
>is better than nothing, but cloud-free summertime (July) imagery would be
>better still, so I would certainly not advocate a reduction in image
>acquisition of this region.
>
>As far as the rest of the QEI is concerned - there is one-time clear ASTER
>coverage of most of the ice, the exception being parts of Devon which are
>particularly susceptible to cloud cover and also Melville Island (again due 
>to
>cloud coverage). However there is very little (less than 10 good images) 
>level
>1B imagery available from the summers of 2004 and 2005 making detection of
>change problematic, and I would certainly echo Luke's comments on the need 
>for
>a means of processing these data online or ourselves. I appreciate the huge
>demand for images from other regions, but with ASTER being the only
>good source
>for the  northern polar regions and with a substantial baseline of data 
>from
>2000-2002 it would be a shame from a scientific viewpoint if this supply of
>data were to be curtailed, particularly with the upcoming IPY.
>
>Fiona
>
>
>>Hi Jeff & Martin,
>>
>>A quick search of the current ASTER database for northern Ellesmere shows
>>that some images are available, but that many of these are cloud-covered.
>>Hence the overall coverage is patchy - for example, I found clear scenes
>>for Yelverton Inlet and Ayles Ice Shelf (western part of N. Ellesmere),
>>but none for the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf to the east.
>>
>>Jeff - ASTER imagery provides a crucial resource for this region as it is
>>the only available source of high resolution imagery since it is too far
>>north for Landsat 7.
>>
>>Following on from John Dwyer's message, a big help would the ability to
>>process L1A to L1B ourselves - either via an on-demand online interface,
>>or via standalone Windows/DOS software. Of the scenes that are available,
>>most haven't been processed to L1B yet.
>>
>>Cheers,
>>Luke
>>
>>--
>>Dr. Luke Copland
>>Assistant Professor / Professeur Adjoint
>>Department of Geography / Département de Géographie
>>University of Ottawa / Université d'Ottawa
>>60 University
>>Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5, Canada
>>
>>Tel: +1 613 562 5800 x1056
>>Fax: +1 613 562 5145
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>--
>Dr Fiona Cawkwell
>Post Doctoral Research Fellow
>Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
>University of Alberta
>Edmonton
>Alberta, T6G 2E3
>
>tel. 780 492 7821
>fax. 780 492 2030
>fiona.cawkwell at ualberta.ca
>http://www.ualberta.ca/~cawkwell/fiona_cawkwell.html