Research Group Bartsch

Research Topic

Land Surface Remote Sensing

Research Interest

Permafrost is an essential climate variable. It is a subsurface phenomenon, which cannot be directly measured with remotely sensed data. However, many parameters, which influence the ground thermal regime and surface indicators, can be captured with satellite data. We focus on changes of landscape hydrology and their impact in the Arctic. This includes monitoring of thaw lakes, snow conditions and surface moisture with satellite data.

Team

• Elin Högström (MSc), PhD student (Vienna University of Technology)
  Remote sensing of land surface hydrology (EU FP7 + INTERACT)
• Barbara Widhalm  (DI), PhD student (Vienna University of Technology, Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik) Remote sensing of landsurface hydrology (FWF + ESA GlobPermafrost)
• Helena Bergstedt (MSc), PhD student (FWF Doctoral college GIScience, University of Salzburg)
• Georg Pointner (BSc), Master student (FWF, Vienna University of Technology)

Selected Publications

• Bartsch, A., Pointer, G., Leibman, M.O., Dvornikov, Y., Khomutov, A., Trofaier, A.M. (2017) Circumpolar mapping of ground-fast lake ice. Frontiers in Earth Science 5. doi:10.3389/feart.2017.00012
• Bartsch, A., Höfler, A., Kroisleitner, C., Trofaier, A.M. (2016) Land Cover Mapping in Northern High Latitude Permafrost Regions with Satellite Data: Achievements and Remaining Challenges. Remote Sens. 8, 979. doi:10.3390/rs8120979
• Bartsch, A., Widhalm, B., Kuhry, P., Hugelius, G., Palmtag, J., and Siewert, M. B. (2016) Can C-band synthetic aperture radar be used to estimate soil organic carbon storage in tundra? Biogeosciences 13, 5453-5470, doi:10.5194/bg-13-5453-2016
• Zwieback, S., Liu, X., Antonova, S., Heim, B., Bartsch, A., Boike, J., Hajnsek, I. (2016) A Statistical Test of Phase Closure to Detect Influences on DInSAR Deformation Estimates Besides Displacements and Decorrelation Noise: Two Case Studies in High-Latitude Regions. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing,  DOI:10.1109/TGRS.2016.2569435.
• Dvornikov, Y., Leibmann, M., Heim, B., Bartsch, A., Haas, A., Khomutov, A., Gubarkov, A., Mikhaylova, M., Mullanurov, D., Widhalm, B., Skorospekhova, T., Fedorova, I. (2016) Geodatabase and WebGIS project for long-term permafrost monitoring at the Vaskiny Dachi research station, Yamal, Russia. Polarforschung 85(2). DOI:10.2312/polfor.2016.007
• Widhalm, B.; Bartsch, A.; Heim, B. (2015) A novel approach for the characterization of tundra wetland regions with C-band SAR satellite data. Int. J. Remote Sens. 36, 5537–5556. doi: 10.1080/01431161.2015.1101505
• Bartsch, A., Kumpula, T., Forbes, B., Stammler, F. (2010) Detection of snow surface thawing and refreezing in the Eurasian Arctic using QuikSCAT: implications for reindeer herding. Ecological Applications 20(8): 2346-2358. DOI: 10.1890/09-1927
• Bartsch, A., Trofaier, A., Hayman, G., Sabel, D., Schlaffer, S., Clark D. & E. Blyth (2012) Detection of open water dynamics with ENVISAT ASAR in support of land surface modelling at high latitudes; Biogeosciences, 9, 703-714. DOI:10.5194/bg-9-703-2012.
• Wilson, R.R., Bartsch A, Joly, K., Reynolds, J.H., Orlando, A., Loya, W.M. (2013) Frequency, timing, extent, and size of winter thaw-refreeze events in Alaska 2001–2008 detected by remotely sensed microwave backscatter data. Polar Biology, DOI 10.1007/s00300-012-1272-6

 Projects

• GlobPermafrost – a service for Permafrost monitoring (ESA DUE program)
• PAGE21 – Changing Permafrost in the Arctic and its global effects in the 21st century
  EU FP7, Coordinator: Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research
• Data User Element Permafrost
  European Space Agency, Coordinator: Vienna University of Technology
• Support to Science Element ALANIS-Methane
  European Space Agency, Coordinator: Centre of Ecology and Hydrology, UK
• COLD Yamal – Combining remote sensing and field studies for assessment of Landform Dynamics and permafrost state on Yamal
  Austrian Science Fund, Joint Russian-Austrian project (University of Salzburg, Vienna University of Technology, Earth Cryosphere Institute)

Pictures

Seward peninsula, Alaska

Yamal, Russia