Sovremennye problemy distantsionnogo zondirovaniya Zemli iz kosmosa, 2023, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 205-213
Thermokarst lakes of the Chukchi tundra as observed in Sentinel-2 images
Yu.M. Polishchuk
1 , I.N. Muratov
1 1 Ugra Research Institute of Information Technologies, Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia
Accepted: 05.07.2023
DOI: 10.21046/2070-7401-2023-20-4-205-213
The article is devoted to remote studies of the characteristics of Arctic thermokarst lakes in the Chukchi tundra. Space images from Sentinel-2 satellites obtained during the summer months of 2017–2021 were used in the research. The lakes were interpreted on the Sentinel-2 satellite image mosaic with the aim to determine the number of lakes and their areas in the study area. The density of lakes and lake coverage on the territory of Chukotka tundra were determined and the values were 0.29 km-2 and 0.014, respectively. Histograms of lake distribution in the range of their sizes from 2x103 to 2x107 m2 in the studied Arctic territory of Chukotka were obtained. The histogram of size distribution of the lakes shows a tendency for the number of lakes to increase as their size decreases, which is evident in similar studies in other regions as well. The histogram of the distribution of total lake areas by intervals of their sizes shows that the main contribution to the total area of lakes is made by large lakes whose contribution reaches 90% of the total area of lakes, while the contribution of small lakes to the total area of Arctic lakes in Chukotka is quite small and does not exceed 10 %. The results obtained can be used to assess the volume of greenhouse gas emissions in the territory of Chukotka.
Keywords: permafrost, geographic information systems, satellite images, Arctic tundra, thermokarst lakes, histograms of lake size distribution, Chukchi tundra
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