Remote sensing of mining impacts in the Arctic

This project aims to develop a methodology to quantify the deposition of mineral dust in high-latitude seasonal snow using spaceborne optical data.

Mineral dust contains iron (Fe) minerals that strongly absorb light in the visible to near-infrared (Vis-NIR) spectrum and can therefore reduce the reflectance of snow at these wavelengths and hasten spring snow melt and snow cover retreat, with local consequences for aquifer recharge and, more broadly, for the surface radiative balance.

In subarctic and arctic regions, open-pit mining for Fe ores is a large localized source of light-absorbing fugitive dust, which is also a common source of concern from nearby community residents.

With the growing global demands for critical resources such as Fe, arctic mining will increase, and there is therefore a strong incentive and potential benefits to develop methods for monitoring, by remote sensing, mine dust dispersion in the sensitive arctic environment.

In this international collaborative project, we will develop and test such methods near Fe-ore mines in subarctic Sweden and Canada, using a combination of ground-based, airborne and spaceborne techniques.

We will take advantage of recent theoretical and methodological research developments, and access to high-resolution, multispectral satellite images, to establish a methodology that will allow the content of specific dust mineral components in snow, and their properties, to be retrieved from space, and we will model the impact that the dust has on snow melt rates and snowpack depletion near the mine sites.

Our project will help to meet impact assessment needs for mines in the arctic, while also benefiting the broader climate-cryosphere science community.

The 4-year project will be a collaboration between experts in the cryosphere sciences, remote sensing, and environmental geochemistry from Sweden, Canada and Italy, and will also support a PhD student.