Multiangular Reflectance of a Glacier Surface
Abstract
The worldwide retreat of glaciers provides one of the clearest signals of a change in global climate. In order to monitor the temporal behaviour of glacier surfaces and volumes, remote sensing techniques have proved to be extremely useful. Conventional classification techniques like supervised classifications on Landsat ETM+ images allow us to classify glacier surfaces and to monitor their change. These classifications are based upon the conversion of spectral radiance in nadir direction into surface reflectance and require extensive atmospheric and topographic modelling. Currently the Landsat ETM+ sensor shows anomalies. For most of these reasons, we try an experimental classification procedure to classify a glacier surface. We use the multiangular reflectance properties of the glacier Hintereisferner (Austria) to calculate its albedo for glacier surface patches like snow, firn and ice. On the 12th of August 2003, a time-synchronous acquisition of in situ multi-angular spectrometer measurements and digital camera data acquisition was accomplished. Furthermore, four local mode data acquisitions were done in the same month by the MISR instrument, which is onboard of the Terra satellite. After analysis of the various datasets, we attempt to derive BRDFs (Bi-directional Reflectance Distribution Functions) for the different glacier surfaces. Calculations are performed in those areas were digital camera frames overlap and can be validated by the in situ spectrometer measurements. The albedos derived from the MISR data were compared to the other datasets in order to investigate MISR's possibilities in the future for glacier classification schemes. Manual delineations of specific glacier zones help to improve the classification scheme and serve as validation data.
- Publication:
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AGU Spring Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004AGUSMGC51A..12H
- Keywords:
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- 1640 Remote sensing