New Tools for Analyzing Glacier Changes From Space
Abstract
Efforts to compile a comprehensive global glacier inventory, such as that being undertaken by the Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) project, require ready access to high-resolution satellite imagery as well as tools for performing analyses on these data. In this paper we describe a study of ice extent and volume changes for the Petrov glacier system of the Akshiyrak Range in the interior Tien Shan of Central Asia. Glacier outlines were digitized from an orthorectified ASTER imagery using a freeware tool, GLIMSView. A digital elevation model (DEM) was extracted from an ASTER scene acquired in October 2002. From these results we determine ice area as a function of elevation using GIS tools. The resulting hypsography is then used in conjunction with field measurements of mass balance for another glacier in the same range to estimate the mass balance for the Petrov glacier as a function of observed equilibrium line altitude, and thus to predict how climate change will impact the hydrology of the region.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2003
- Bibcode:
- 2003AGUFM.C11C0838K
- Keywords:
-
- 1640 Remote sensing;
- 1863 Snow and ice (1827)