Satellite Remote Sensing of a Melting Glacier Albedo: Examples from EnMAP and an Intercomparison with Other Satellite and Ground Measurements

Here, we study melting glacier surface albedo using satellite hyperspectral imagery from the Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMAP). The proposed broadband albedo (BBA) retrieval algorithm is based on radiative transfer theory and includes atmospheric and topography corrections. The comparison with ground and other satellite snow and ice albedo products is presented. Ways to improve current satellite snow and ice albedo retrieval algorithms are discussed. While the EnMAP-derived BBA is highly correlated with BBA retrieved from other spaceborne instrumentation and algorithms, the various modern snow and ice satellite BBA products can differ by more than 5–10% for snow and, especially, bare ice. Bare ice optical heterogeneity is high from variable roughness conditions and impurity content. Bare ice BBA uncertainties exceed requirements needed for highly accurate assessment of glacier climatic effects.

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Publication Details

Journal
Remote Sensing
Published
2026-09-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs18172929
Primary Topic
Cryospheric studies and observations
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Satellite Remote Sensing of a Melting Glacier Albedo: Examples from EnMAP and an Intercomparison with Other Satellite and Ground Measurements

Jörg Bendix, Alexander Kokhanovsky, Pablo Fuchs, Karl Segl et al.
Remote Sensing
Cryospheric studies and observations
article

Satellite Remote Sensing of a Melting Glacier Albedo: Examples from EnMAP and an Intercomparison with Other Satellite and Ground Measurements

Jörg Bendix, Alexander Kokhanovsky, Pablo Fuchs, Karl Segl, Rasmus Bahbah Nielsen, Adrien Wehrlé, Knut Stamnes, Shunan Feng, Jason E. Box, Nan Chen, Wei Li
article en

Abstract

Here, we study melting glacier surface albedo using satellite hyperspectral imagery from the Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMAP). The proposed broadband albedo (BBA) retrieval algorithm is based on radiative transfer theory and includes atmospheric and topography corrections. The comparison with ground and other satellite snow and ice albedo products is presented. Ways to improve current satellite snow and ice albedo retrieval algorithms are discussed. While the EnMAP-derived BBA is highly correlated with BBA retrieved from other spaceborne instrumentation and algorithms, the various modern snow and ice satellite BBA products can differ by more than 5–10% for snow and, especially, bare ice. Bare ice optical heterogeneity is high from variable roughness conditions and impurity content. Bare ice BBA uncertainties exceed requirements needed for highly accurate assessment of glacier climatic effects.

Remote SensingVol. 18(17)
Stevens Institute of Technology (US), Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (BO), Langley Research Center (US), Philipps University of Marburg (DE), University of Canterbury (NZ), Aarhus University (DK), Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (DK), Environment Canterbury (NZ), Danish Meteorological Institute (DK), GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences (DE)
University of Canterbury, European Space Agency, Novo Nordisk Fonden
Climate action
Openalex Percentile: Top 15%
Cryospheric studies and observations
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