APPLICATION OF REMOTE SENSING TO STUDY THE POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF 2020 WILDFIRE EVENTS ON THE GLACIERS OF MOUNT BAKER, WASHINGTON

Abstract. Wildfire activity across the globe has been on the rise in recent years, as climate change continues to warm global temperatures. Wildfires generate ash, soot, and other light-absorbing particles (LAPs) that can be deposited on glacial surfaces. However, understanding the true effects of wildfires on glaciers is difficult to assess, because in situ field measurements can be difficult to obtain. Catastrophic wildfires plagued the Western United States in 2020 and emitted large amounts of LAPs into the atmosphere. LAPs make their way to the surfaces of glaciers through long-range transport through the atmosphere and through wet and dry deposition. Satellite imagery shows that LAPs cause significant snow-darkening of glaciers on large glacial surfaces, like polar ice sheets. However, the methods for using remote sensing technology on smaller, more regional surfaces is less understood. This study uses a time series of 3 Sentinel-2 multispectral images to assess the changes on the glacier surfaces of Mount Baker, Washington in response to the record-breaking 2020 wildfire season in the Western US. This is ongoing research. Preliminary results suggest that the use of NDSII2 calculations is a viable method for visualizing and understanding LAPs on glaciers. Increased wildfire activity in response to climate change will have a significant impact on glaciers across the world and utilizing remote sensing technology to assess those effects will be crucial to monitoring future changes in the cryosphere.