A synchronized remote sensing monitoring approach in the Livingstone island region of Antarctica

Abstract

Data-driven innovations bring significant benefits to societies directly affected by global warming, as they underpin Global and European climate change policy. The application of a synchronous approach and interoperability of data from different sources for environmental monitoring in one of the most vulnerable to climate change regions in the World is the aim of this research. The research was conducted at Hannah Point peninsula, near the Bulgarian Antarctic base "St. Kliment Ohridski" on Livingstone Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. The study area has high ecological importance for tracking the dynamics of processes not only on a local but also on a global scale. Various research sites with different groups of objects serving as environmental benchmarks were selected to be studied. The study objects include snow cover, wet snow, water, ice (including sea ice), herbaceous vegetation, lichens, mosses, soils, and sand. For each of the objects, ground GPS points were defined and in situ spectrometric measurements were performed. Data from an innovative automatic recording weather station (AWG), as well as various indicators and indices based on the spectral reflectance characteristics of the investigated objects in the optical and microwave range, were used. For their generation were used satellite images from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 sensors of European Space Agency. Multiple optical indices were used to demonstrate the changes in the state of the objects for the summer season of 2022-2023. The data obtained and models used will serve the Bulgarian initiative for the construction of the Digital Twins, which is being on pilot developed in the Department of Aerospace Information (SRTI-BAS) and could be used by a wide range of scientists in the field of polar research as well as for climate change education. Open Data were used in this study, to promote the Open science policy and FAIR principles as much as possible.

Polar digital space in Antarctica

“…Since each of the object groups has different research approaches and methods, and these have already been described in a previous study 1,5 , the author will focus on several use cases for the individual objects of interest.…”

“…However, right in the middle of the island and around the BAB for 2022, the highest temperatures are observed and one can speak of local heat island, which definitely favors the presence of new vegetation precisely in these areas if compared with the spectral indices NDWI, MSI and MSAVI2 (fig. 21), with which vegetation has already been studied 1,5,39 .…”