GLIMS ASTER image acquisition planning

[Jeffrey Kargel]

Slawek,
I offer this letter as an open message to the GLIMS community (responding to your message below) in a bid to enlist the GLIMS community's further help in evaluating the successes and failures of the GLIMS STAR in the Southern Hemisphere in 2009, with recognition that what elapsed there (successes and failures) is apt to be a model of what will happen this year in the Northern Hemisphere over the next few months.  This is needed, while also recognizing that we need good Greenland coverage, as you are shooting for.  Perhaps what we need is a one-year Greenland DAR that supplements the coverage expected from the GLIMS STAR by targeting possibly one-fifth of the Greenland coastline for multiple repeat imaging (that's in addition to the current plan to get one image on average of each part of the coastline over the course of the summer).  I would need to know what one-fifth to cover with greater frequency, and then we could see how this idea fares with ASTER MIssion Operations.  
So far as what has actually been achieved for GLIMS STARs of non-Greenland/non-Antarctic glaciers, I can say we're still suffering.  I don't know what it is, but there just seems to be a very minimum priority given to GLIMS, or there's some technical reason (the "exclusion zones" or whatever) that makes certain areas very difficult to image.  There are lots of images of glaciers from 2008-2009, but the majority are global map or other images that have saturated snow.  (Those work well for debris covered areas, so we don't discount the fact that we have those.)  The Southern Hemisphere GLIMS STAR has completed its summer season a couple months ago, and the received images are fairly hit and miss according to a random assessment of a few areas done in Tucson and by some other GLIMS people; some really great images were received in Jan-Feb-Mar 2009, but many areas have had no coverage this year (or were attempted but were clouded out).  So I am fairly apprehensive about this summer's northern hemisphere GLIMS STARs.  
Greenland was one big area where GLIMS was going really well, and of course that was a great thing.  I just wish something like the Greenland coverage we had year after year (several received low-cloud scenes of most parts of the coast each year) would happen just once in the lifetime of GLIMS for nonpolar glaciers; or even just one good image per season (with GLIMS gains) of most glaciers would be a great improvement.  It just has not been achieved so far in 9 years of ASTER.  I realize that we have acquired lots of GLIMS scenes over the life of ASTER, so I am not issuing an all-out complaint, but certainly there remain serious inadequacies.  I have not done the analysis to see whether on average the Southern Hemisphere did significantly better in 2009 than in other years under the old STAR.  I just know that there are quite a few significant glaciers that were not imaged, and some that were imaged had saturated snow (gains indicative of the global map program).
Let me know whether you think the "one-fifth plan" will work acceptably (plus an expected average of one summer image of the other areas under the newly implemented STAR).  We will need to do something similar for Antarctica next austral summer.
--Jeff


> Date: Wed, 20 May 2009 13:26:45 -0700
> Subject: Re: US Mtg agenda
> From: tulaczyk at pmc.ucsc.edu
> To: Michael.J.Abrams at jpl.nasa.gov
> CC: kargel at hwr.arizona.edu
> 
> Jeff,
> 
> Let's talk about this.  If at all possible, I would love to see more
> coverage of Greenland/Antarctica without subtracting from your focus
> on the smaller glacier systems.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Slawek
> 
> On 5/20/09, Michael Abrams <Michael.J.Abrams at jpl.nasa.gov> wrote:
>> Slawek,
>>
>> Could you also discuss this with Jeff Kargel before the meeting (He is
>> not attending). The GLIMS STAR was changed to reduce Greenaland
>> coverage. Not sure about antarctica.
>>
>> Michael Abrams
>> ASTER Science Team Leader
>> Group Supervisor, Land Surface Processes
>> NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory
>> Mail Stop 183-501
>> 4800 Oak Grove Dr.
>> Pasadena, CA 91109
>> 818-354-0937  FAX: 818-354-5148
>> michael.j.abrams at jpl.nasa.gov
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Slawek Tulaczyk wrote:
>>> Dear Mike,
>>>
>>> Could we reserve time for a discussion on increased data acquisition
>>> over margins of Antarctica and Greenland?
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>>
>>> Slawek
>>>
>>> On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 10:29 AM, Michael Abrams
>>> <Michael.J.Abrams at jpl.nasa.gov> wrote:
>>>
>>>> attached is US Team meeting agenda for monday morning. let me know of any
>>>> changes/additions/etc.
>>>>
>>>> mike
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Michael Abrams
>>>> ASTER Science Team Leader
>>>> Group Supervisor, Land Surface Processes
>>>> NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory
>>>> Mail Stop 183-501
>>>> 4800 Oak Grove Dr.
>>>> Pasadena, CA 91109
>>>> 818-354-0937  FAX: 818-354-5148
>>>> michael.j.abrams at jpl.nasa.gov
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
> 
> 
> -- 
> Professor Slawek Tulaczyk, Ph.D.
> Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
> University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
> phone: 831-459-5207, fax: 831-459-3074, tulaczyk at pmc.ucsc.edu

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