Radiation balance of wetland tundra at northern treeline estimated from remotely sensed data

Abstract

Traditional methods of measuring surface net radiation involve point measurements that represent only a small area surrounding the instrumented sites. Remotely sensed spaceborne data offer the means by which to obtain estimates of the outgoing fluxes at the regional scale. The objective of this study was to estimate surface albedo, surface thermal exitance, and net radiation using Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data over wetland tundra at northern treeline near Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. Ground-based measurements of each component of the radiation balance were acquired at 5 locations coincident with 2 TM overpasses during summer 1991. Each location was representative of 1 of the major terrain types found in the Hudson Bay Lowlands (i.e. sedge-dominated wetland, upland lichenheath, tundra lakes and ponds, willow/birch wetland, and open spruce-tamarack forest). The mean absolute differences between remote sensing estimates and field measurements (all sites combined) are 0.01 for albedo, 25.7 W m -2 for thermal exitance, and 14.1 W m -2 for net radiation. The 2 summer 1991 TM images (June and August) were then used to examine within and between terrain type variations in surface net radiation during the growing season. TM imagery from August 1984 and August 1991 were also utilised to investigate differences in surface fluxes between a dry year (1984) and a wet year (1991). Results indicate that surface wetness and, to a lesser extent, phenology are the 2 main factors controlling the radiation balance during the summer period in this subarctic tundra-forest landscape.

The energy and water balance of high‐latitude wetlands: controls and extrapolation

“…This is exacerbated in high latitudes because of large solar zenith angles and a high frequency of stratiform clouds. Although remote sensing techniques show considerable promise (see, for example, Duguay et al 1999a;Leighton 1998), their application is very limited temporally. It appears that reliable radiation determinations, for the near future, will involve direct measurement.…”

Remote sensing and spectroscopy of lichens

“…While model‐based studies have been extensively used to investigate the land–climate interactions (e.g., Feddema et al., 2005 ), the representation of many biophysical properties (such as lichen cover) in land surface models is still incomplete (e.g., de Noblet‐Ducoudré et al., 2012 ) even though lichens cover extensive areas in the high latitudes. Furthermore, the radiation balance of ecosystems, which have an abundant lichen or biocrust cover, such as subarctic tundra‐forests (Duguay et al., 1999 ) and drylands (Rodriguez‐Caballero et al., 2015 ), depends highly on surface wetness and phenology.…”