Elevation Change of CookE2 Subglacial Lake in East Antarctica Observed by DInSAR and Time-Segmented PSInSAR

Abstract

In this study, elevation change and surface morphology of CookE2, one of the most active subglacial lakes in East Antarctica, were analyzed by using Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) and a newly adapted Time-Segmented Persistent Scatterer Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (TS-PSInSAR) techniques. Firstly, several DInSAR pairs were used to study the surface morphology of the subglacial lake during the rapid discharge event in 2007 and the subsequent recharge in 2010 by using ALOS PALSAR data and the continuous recharge from 2018 to 2020 by using Sentinel-1 SAR data. For time-series observation from 2018 to 2020, however, simple integration of DInSAR deviates largely from the satellite altimeter data because errors from the horizontal flow of the surrounding ice field or atmospheric phase accumulate. Conventional PSInSAR deviates from the altimeter data if the LOS displacement exceeds 300 mm, i.e., approximately 1/4 of the slant range resolution of the Sentinel-1 SAR in Interferometric Wide-swath (IW) mode, during the time window. Therefore, a series of Time-Segmented PSInSAR with a 4-month time window could accurately distinguish 1.10 ± 0.01 m/year of highly linear (R2 = 0.99) surface rise rate of CookE2 and 0.63 m/year of horizontal deformation rate of the surrounding ice field from 2018 to 2020.

Keywords

• active subglacial lake
• CookE2
• DInSAR
• PSInSAR
• TS-PSInSAR