Automatic Delineation of Grounding Lines from Differential InSAR along
the Getz Ice Shelf, Antarctica, using a Machine Learning Algorithm
Abstract
The position of the grounding line of marine terminating glaciers, the
boundary where glacier ice is no longer supported by the ground and
starts floating, is a key parameter for a better understanding of
glacier dynamics and better quantification of glacier mass balance.
Grounding lines have so far been delineated by human interpreters from
Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (D-InSAR)
products. This is an arduous and time-consuming process that is not
scalable for large-scale delineation from the ever-larger amount of
remote-sensing data becoming available, which is necessary for a better
understanding of glaciological processes. In order to solve this issue,
we present a deep learning approach using a convolutional neural network
with parallel atrous convolutions and an asymmetric encoding/decoding
structure to successfully delineate thousands of grounding lines rapidly
and accurately. Furthermore, the neural network outputs uncertainty
estimates, which have so far been missing from grounding line
delineations. Over the Getz Ice Shelf in West Antarctica, we find a mean
difference of 232 meters, or 2.3 pixels, between automatic delineations
and manual delineations on test data not used during training. The
spread of differences is given by a median absolute deviation of 101
meters. The performance of the neural network is comparable to that of
human interpreters, with manual delineations falling within the
uncertainty range of automatic delineations. Similar differences exist
between multiple manual delineations, with a slightly higher mean
difference (268 meters) and a lower spread (median absolute deviation of
52 meters). We show our deep learning pipeline is easily generalizable
and scalable to the entire ice sheet, revolutionizing the availability
of grounding line delineations for glaciological studies.