This project will develop a new international collaboration between a UK-based research team, with expertise in both volcanic processes and Earth Observation Science, the Nordic Volcanological Centre at the University of Iceland (UoI) and the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS). The main goal is to establish the potential of thermal wavelength hyperspectral emissivity data to map volcanic surfaces and lava types, and advance our knowledge of the processes that influence the location, nature and severity of volcanic activity. Thermal wavelength hyperspectral data offers the potential to overcome the limitations of both traditional field-based mapping and current (spectral reflectance based) remote-sensing methods and provide a step-change in the range and quality of mineralogical, lithological and morphological datasets retrieved over volcanic terrains. Thermal hyperspectral data also has the potential to resolve key physical parameters and processes detectable at the surface, such as temperature and the type and concentration of gas emissions. The principal scientific aim of this project is to resolve the capability of thermal wavelength hyperspectral emissivity data to map volcanic surfaces and lava types. We also seek to place robust constraints on the movement of lava flows and how this can help with hazard mitigation. This project would enable the skills and experience of the UK and UoI research teams to be integrated and assist the development of spectral emissivity and thermal inertia mapping into robust, operational observational methodologies. The specific objectives of this project are to: 1. Create a database of spectral emissivity and reflectance measurements from a representative range of volcanic samples and sites using laboratory and field-based measurements. 2. Quantify the capability of an integrated spectral emissivity and reflectance dataset to resolve the diagnostic mineralogical information required to classify the key lithologies in volcanic terrains. 3. Quantify the spatial variability in the effect of (i) surface roughness, (ii) compositional heterogeneity, (iii) grain size, (iv) topography, (v) downwelling longwave radiation and (vi) viewing angle on emissivity spectra received at-sensor from the sample-to-site-to-landscape scales at a variety of volcanic terrains. 4. Resolve the optimum sampling, spectral and temporal resolutions and capabilities of thermal inertia mapping at a representative range of volcanic terrains. 5. Integrate field and UAV hyperspectral thermal datasets with (i) the airborne hyperspectral datasets acquired over the field sites in Iceland by the NERC ARF and (ii) the recent acquisition of NERC ARF thermal wave range data over a number of volcanic study sites in Iceland. 6. Determine the optimum spatial and spectral resolutions for ground, airborne and satellite-based thermal hyperspectral instruments by retrieving the greatest amount of mineralogical and lithological analysis at the highest possible signal-to-noise ratio. This proposal provides an outstanding opportunity to integrate the research outputs from recent NERC funded research by the research team with significant investment by NERC in airborne and ground Earth Observation Instrumentation and data processing (Field Spectroscopy Facility; Airborne Research Facility & ARF-Data Analysis Node). This will develop a robust, operational methodology that will enable the remote mapping of lithological, mineralogical and petrological information of igneous rocks, at site-to-landscapes scales, that is not currently possible using remote sensing based approaches. The capabilities of the Imaging FTIR developed by Ferrier to acquire ultra-high spatial, spectral and temporal hyperspectral thermal waverange datasets from both the ground and a UAV will provide a means of accurately quantifying the capabilities of the OWL instrument to identify volcanic rocks compositions and structures.

Subglacial hydrology is a critical control on mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet via its impact on ice motion in the ablation zone and frontal ablation of marine terminating glaciers. Subglacial lakes are a key component of this subglacial hydrological system. Sediments that accumulate on lake beds are potential archives of past ice sheet configurations, paleoenvironmental and palaeoclimate change, and the presence of life. Subglacial lake water provides a habitat for microbial communities and an analogue for life on other planetary bodies. The localised storage and downstream drainage of large volumes of water modulates basal hydrology and biogeochemical cycles/processes, and can trigger calving at the ice margin and transient (weeks to months) and long-term ice-flow variations. Drainage events can also form channels, cut up into the ice or down into the bed, and transport large volumes of water and sediment downstream. Finally, outburst floods onto the glacier foreland present a major hazard to downstream life and infrastructure. Although it is well documented that hundreds of subglacial lakes exist beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet, in Greenland, subglacial lakes have until recently received little attention because the geometry of the ice sheet led to the assumption that they were scarce. However, recent work from members of our team demonstrate that lakes are widespread beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet and moreover, can be highly dynamic features that, in contrast to Antarctica, are fed by melt from the ice surface and can drain rapidly in a matter of weeks. They therefore represent an important end-member for how subglacial lakes in both Greenland and Antarctica will behave in a warmer world as surface melting becomes more prevalent, accesses a wider portion of the bed, and lake drainage becomes more vigorous. Yet the key processes controlling subglacial lake formation and dynamics, and their impact on basal hydrology and ice flow in Greenland have yet to be identified. What is needed therefore is detailed field data integrated with numerical modelling to accurately determine the properties of these environments and assess their influence on ice sheet subglacial hydrology and ice dynamics. The project will assemble a world-leading multidisciplinary team to undertake the first field-based characterisation and monitoring of multiple fast-draining subglacial lakes in Greenland, which will be used to constrain and test a state-of-the-art subglacial hydrological model. It benefits from the confirmed discovery of three fast-draining subglacial lakes beneath Isunnguata Sermia, which are the most accessible on the planet and therefore provide an opportunity to conduct high-reward discovery science with logistical economy and low risk. The aim is to quantify the role of fast-draining subglacial lakes on the hydrology and dynamics of the Greenland Ice Sheet to: (i) improve our understanding of the role of subglacial lakes in modulating subglacial hydrology and dynamics in Greenland; (ii) provide insight into their future impact in both Greenland and Antarctica, (iii) generate data to enable ice sheet and hydrological modellers to improve their predictions of the future contribution of the GrIS to sea level rise, and (iv) develop the scientific basis for future subglacial lake exploration in Greenland for investigating past ice and climate change and exploring subglacial biology and biogeochemical fluxes.