THE ARCTIC OCEAN HAS THE LONGEST COASTLINE OF ANY OCEAN ON EARTH AND IS RECOGNIZED AS ONE OF THE MOST CLIMATE-CHANGE VULNERABLE ECOSYSTEMS ON THE PLANET. SEA ICE EXTENT AND THICKNESSES IS DECLINING THEREBY LENGTHENING THE OPEN WATER SEASON AND INCREASING FETCH AND WAVE HEIGHT. THE MAJORITY OF THE ARCTIC COASTLINE CONSISTS OF ICE-RICH PERMAFROST, IS CLOSE TO SEA LEVEL, AND APPEARS TO BE DEGRADING AND SUBSIDING IN RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANGE AND DISTURBANCE. THESE CHANGES ARE IMPACTING WILDERNESS, NUMEROUS NATIVE ALASKAN COMMUNITIES, DEFENSE AND ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE, FOOD SECURITY, AND MANY OTHER ECOSYSTEM PROPERTIES AND PROCESSES. ALTHOUGH ARCTIC COASTAL EROSION IS LARGELY DRIVEN BY SHORT-TERM EPISODIC EVENTS, RATES OF CHANGE HAVE INCREASED OVER THE PAST 70 YEARS, THOUGH THE SPATIAL EXTENT OF THESE TRENDS REMAINS UNKNOWN. RECOGNIZING THE LIKELY IMPACTS OF ARCTIC COASTAL CHANGE TO ALTER A RANGE OF EARTH SYSTEM COMPONENTS GLOBALLY, EFFORTS SPONSORED OR PLANNED BY NASA, NOAA, NSF, DOE, AND OTHER AGENCIES AIM TO ADVANCE KNOWLEDGE OF THESE DYNAMICS IN THE ARCTIC. IMPORTANTLY, NONE APPEAR TO BE DOCUMENTING LARGE-SCALE, FINE SPATIOTEMPORAL RESOLUTION CHANGE IN COASTLINE POSITION, ARGUABLY ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BASELINE DATASETS NEEDED FOR SUCH ACTIVITIES. MOREOVER, THESE EFFORTS ARE CHALLENGED BY THE NEED FOR SMALL SCALE MEASUREMENTS THAT PROVIDE DETAIL AT SHORT TIME INTERVALS THAT CAPTURE SPECIFIC STORM EVENTS, OVER LINEAR AREAS OF INTEREST SPANNING THOUSANDS OF KILOMETERS OF COAST. THIS REQUIRES THE USE OF HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING (HPC), ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) APPROACHES FOR AUTOMATED FEATURE EXTRACTION ROUTINES AND HIGH SPATIOTEMPORAL RESOLUTION SATELLITE REMOTE SENSING SOLUTIONS, SUCH AS THOSE PROVIDED BY PLANET AND MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES. DUE TO THE HIGH TEMPORAL FREQUENCIES OF PLANET IMAGERY AND THE HIGH SPATIAL RESOLUTIONS AND ACCURATE CALIBRATIONS OF MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES DATA, BOTH DATA SOURCES HAVE PROVEN USEFUL FOR ADVANCING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND APPLICATIONS. HOWEVER, LIMITATIONS RELATED TO GEOLOCATION ACCURACIES OF PLANET DATA AND LIMITED DATA AVAILABILITY FOR TIME SERIES ANALYSIS FOR MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES DATA, AS DOCUMENTED IN THE LITERATURE AS WELL AS IN THE COMMERCIAL SMALLSAT DATA ACQUISITION PROGRAM PILOT EVALUATION REPORT, DIRECTLY IMPACTS ITS IMMEDIATE APPLICATION IN COASTAL CHANGE MONITORING EFFORTS. THE MAIN GOAL OF THIS STUDY IS TO ADDRESS A WELL-RECOGNIZED URGENCY FOR IMPROVED HIGH SPATIOTEMPORAL DELINEATION OF ARCTIC COASTLINES AND FEATURES USING HPC AND AI. WE WILL BEGIN BY EXPLORING AND LEVERAGING THE RELATIVE STRENGTHS OF EACH DATA SOURCE BY ASSESSING AND CORRECTING THE GEOLOCATION ACCURACIES OF PLANET IMAGERY FOR ENHANCING THE MAPPING OF NORTHERN ALASKAN COASTAL DYNAMICS AT HIGH TEMPORAL FREQUENCIES WITH A MINDSET FOR ASSESSING THE FEASIBILITY OF SCALING TO THE CIRCUMARCTIC IN THE FUTURE. FOLLOWING GEO-CORRECTIONS OF PLANET SCENES WE WILL THEN DEVELOP AND REFINE EXISTING ALGORITHMS FOR DERIVING A RANGE OF FEATURES (E.G. WATERLINE, BLUFF EDGE, BEACH WIDTH AND SLOPE, TOPOBATHY) AND VARIOUS NEARSHORE BIOGEOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES. WE THEN PROPOSE TO RUN GEO-CORRECTED PLANET TIME SERIES FOR VARIOUS CASE STUDY SITES ACROSS NORTHERN ALASKA (INFILLED WITH MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES DATA WHERE NEEDED) THROUGH A SERIES OF ANALYTICAL AND IMAGE PROCESSING WORKFLOWS TO CONDUCT CHANGE ANALYSIS FROM TIME SERIES DATA FOR COASTAL FEATURES. THIS PROJECT HAS THE POTENTIAL TO DIRECTLY INFORM STATE AND FEDERAL ACTORS AS DESCRIBED IN THE PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM ISSUED DECEMBER 3, 2019 WHICH ESTABLISHES THAT THE DIVISION OF GEOLOGICAL AND GEOPHYSICAL SURVEYS WILL INCREASE COASTAL MAPPING EFFORTS, HIGHLIGHTING ITS IMPORTANCE AND VALUE NATIONWIDE. ADDITIONALLY, THIS RESEARCH CAN ADVANCE A RANGE OF BIOPHYSICAL (NASA S TERRESTRIAL ECOLOGY PROGRAM, COASTAL SCIENCE, REMOTE SENSING) AND SOCIAL (CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION, SOCIAL JUSTICE MIGRATION) SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING FIELDS.

Description

THE ARCTIC OCEAN HAS THE LONGEST COASTLINE OF ANY OCEAN ON EARTH AND IS RECOGNIZED AS ONE OF THE MOST CLIMATE-CHANGE VULNERABLE ECOSYSTEMS ON THE PLANET. SEA ICE EXTENT AND THICKNESSES IS DECLINING THEREBY LENGTHENING THE OPEN WATER SEASON AND INCREASING FETCH AND WAVE HEIGHT. THE MAJORITY OF THE ARCTIC COASTLINE CONSISTS OF ICE-RICH PERMAFROST, IS CLOSE TO SEA LEVEL, AND APPEARS TO BE DEGRADING AND SUBSIDING IN RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANGE AND DISTURBANCE. THESE CHANGES ARE IMPACTING WILDERNESS, NUMEROUS NATIVE ALASKAN COMMUNITIES, DEFENSE AND ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE, FOOD SECURITY, AND MANY OTHER ECOSYSTEM PROPERTIES AND PROCESSES. ALTHOUGH ARCTIC COASTAL EROSION IS LARGELY DRIVEN BY SHORT-TERM EPISODIC EVENTS, RATES OF CHANGE HAVE INCREASED OVER THE PAST 70 YEARS, THOUGH THE SPATIAL EXTENT OF THESE TRENDS REMAINS UNKNOWN. RECOGNIZING THE LIKELY IMPACTS OF ARCTIC COASTAL CHANGE TO ALTER A RANGE OF EARTH SYSTEM COMPONENTS GLOBALLY, EFFORTS SPONSORED OR PLANNED BY NASA, NOAA, NSF, DOE, AND OTHER AGENCIES AIM TO ADVANCE KNOWLEDGE OF THESE DYNAMICS IN THE ARCTIC. IMPORTANTLY, NONE APPEAR TO BE DOCUMENTING LARGE-SCALE, FINE SPATIOTEMPORAL RESOLUTION CHANGE IN COASTLINE POSITION, ARGUABLY ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BASELINE DATASETS NEEDED FOR SUCH ACTIVITIES. MOREOVER, THESE EFFORTS ARE CHALLENGED BY THE NEED FOR SMALL SCALE MEASUREMENTS THAT PROVIDE DETAIL AT SHORT TIME INTERVALS THAT CAPTURE SPECIFIC STORM EVENTS, OVER LINEAR AREAS OF INTEREST SPANNING THOUSANDS OF KILOMETERS OF COAST. THIS REQUIRES THE USE OF HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING (HPC), ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) APPROACHES FOR AUTOMATED FEATURE EXTRACTION ROUTINES AND HIGH SPATIOTEMPORAL RESOLUTION SATELLITE REMOTE SENSING SOLUTIONS, SUCH AS THOSE PROVIDED BY PLANET AND MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES. DUE TO THE HIGH TEMPORAL FREQUENCIES OF PLANET IMAGERY AND THE HIGH SPATIAL RESOLUTIONS AND ACCURATE CALIBRATIONS OF MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES DATA, BOTH DATA SOURCES HAVE PROVEN USEFUL FOR ADVANCING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND APPLICATIONS. HOWEVER, LIMITATIONS RELATED TO GEOLOCATION ACCURACIES OF PLANET DATA AND LIMITED DATA AVAILABILITY FOR TIME SERIES ANALYSIS FOR MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES DATA, AS DOCUMENTED IN THE LITERATURE AS WELL AS IN THE COMMERCIAL SMALLSAT DATA ACQUISITION PROGRAM PILOT EVALUATION REPORT, DIRECTLY IMPACTS ITS IMMEDIATE APPLICATION IN COASTAL CHANGE MONITORING EFFORTS. THE MAIN GOAL OF THIS STUDY IS TO ADDRESS A WELL-RECOGNIZED URGENCY FOR IMPROVED HIGH SPATIOTEMPORAL DELINEATION OF ARCTIC COASTLINES AND FEATURES USING HPC AND AI. WE WILL BEGIN BY EXPLORING AND LEVERAGING THE RELATIVE STRENGTHS OF EACH DATA SOURCE BY ASSESSING AND CORRECTING THE GEOLOCATION ACCURACIES OF PLANET IMAGERY FOR ENHANCING THE MAPPING OF NORTHERN ALASKAN COASTAL DYNAMICS AT HIGH TEMPORAL FREQUENCIES WITH A MINDSET FOR ASSESSING THE FEASIBILITY OF SCALING TO THE CIRCUMARCTIC IN THE FUTURE. FOLLOWING GEO-CORRECTIONS OF PLANET SCENES WE WILL THEN DEVELOP AND REFINE EXISTING ALGORITHMS FOR DERIVING A RANGE OF FEATURES (E.G. WATERLINE, BLUFF EDGE, BEACH WIDTH AND SLOPE, TOPOBATHY) AND VARIOUS NEARSHORE BIOGEOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES. WE THEN PROPOSE TO RUN GEO-CORRECTED PLANET TIME SERIES FOR VARIOUS CASE STUDY SITES ACROSS NORTHERN ALASKA (INFILLED WITH MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES DATA WHERE NEEDED) THROUGH A SERIES OF ANALYTICAL AND IMAGE PROCESSING WORKFLOWS TO CONDUCT CHANGE ANALYSIS FROM TIME SERIES DATA FOR COASTAL FEATURES. THIS PROJECT HAS THE POTENTIAL TO DIRECTLY INFORM STATE AND FEDERAL ACTORS AS DESCRIBED IN THE PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM ISSUED DECEMBER 3, 2019 WHICH ESTABLISHES THAT THE DIVISION OF GEOLOGICAL AND GEOPHYSICAL SURVEYS WILL INCREASE COASTAL MAPPING EFFORTS, HIGHLIGHTING ITS IMPORTANCE AND VALUE NATIONWIDE. ADDITIONALLY, THIS RESEARCH CAN ADVANCE A RANGE OF BIOPHYSICAL (NASA S TERRESTRIAL ECOLOGY PROGRAM, COASTAL SCIENCE, REMOTE SENSING) AND SOCIAL (CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION, SOCIAL JUSTICE MIGRATION) SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING FIELDS.