POSTER SESSION 2
10:30–12:30, Tuesday, September 15
Poster Session | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Schedule at a Glance
ABSTRACT 1301 | POSTER 102
RESOLVING THE RHYTHM OF ARCTIC RIVERS FROM SPACE THROUGH HIGH-FREQUENCY MONITORING OF TERRESTRIAL FLUXES WITH SENTINEL-3 OLCI
Arctic rivers play a critical role in transporting carbon, sediments, and nutrients from rapidly changing terrestrial systems to the coastal ocean. These rivers are highly dynamic: their temporal variability demands high-frequency observations to resolve the “rhythm” of Arctic River systems as they respond to high frequency events such as spring melt, permafrost lumping, forest fires and increasingly variable summer precipitation. While satellite remote sensing has been widely applied in large water bodies, its use in rivers remains limited, primarily due to the mismatch between narrow channel widths and satellite resolution. This has left substantial observational potential largely untapped, although many large Arctic rivers span several hundred meters to kilometers in width.
Here, we develop approaches to extract biogeochemical information from Sentinel-3 OLCI data, processing thousands of scenes annually to generate multi-year records along thousands of kilometers of river channels in two large Arctic rivers (Mackenzie, Lena).
We reveal distinct pulses of terrestrial material propagating through river networks, enabling tracking of transport pathways and downstream fate at basin scales. Riverine transport is dominated by short-lived, high-intensity mobilization events that contribute disproportionately to total export. This dominance of episodic events underscores the need for high-frequency monitoring.
Beyond terrestrial matter fluxes from land to ocean, these dynamics directly affect water clarity, light availability, and aquatic ecosystems, with implications for fish habitats and northern communities. Our results demonstrate that OLCI enables consistent, scalable monitoring of Arctic rivers, advancing understanding of land–ocean fluxes in a rapidly changing Arctic.
Bennet Juhls, Alfred-Wegener-Institute, [email protected], https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5844-6318
Pier Paul Overduin, Alfred-Wegener-Institute, [email protected]
Jonas Küpper, Alfred-Wegener-Institute, [email protected]
Felica Gehde, Alfred-Wegener-Institute, [email protected]
Annabeth McCall, Alfred-Wegener-Institute, [email protected]
Guido Grosse, Alfred-Wegener-Institute, [email protected]
Poster Session | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Schedule at a Glance
