Hyperspectral remote sensing of polar regions using EnMAP

• Applicant: Dr. Alexander Kokhanovsky
• Subject Area: Geodesy, Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, Geoinformatics, Cartography
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 562569824

The polar regions and their properties are essential for regulating global heat distribution. The rapid changes in this region play a central role for global warming and the associated severe global socioeconomic impacts. Therefore, assessing and monitoring changes on the ground is an essential task that, due to the remoteness of the areas and its extreme environmental conditions, can only be solved on a large scale through spaceborne remote sensing. The theoretical foundations and derivation algorithms for determining the physical properties of the snow surface and the overlying atmosphere, which are relevant for the radiation budget, are here of central importance. This project aims to develop the theoretical foundations, and prepare and apply algorithms for the Earth's polar regions based on hyperspectral satellite measurements. In particular, the total atmospheric ozone and water vapor columns, the aerosol optical thickness, and the properties of the underlying snow and glacier ice including spectral albedo of clean and polluted snow and ice will be determined using EnMAP nadir spaceborne hyperspectral observations over vast polar regions. The properties of polar ice and water clouds (the cloud top height, the size of ice crystals and water droplets at the top of clouds, the cloud thermodynamic state and albedo) will be studied as well. The derived geophysical parameters are determined with a high spatial resolution (30 m) and tested against ground measurements as well as results from other satellite missions. Important snow parameters for the Arctic and Antarctic regions are thus derived on a large scale and form an important basis for further analyses and modeling.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants