Remotely-Sensed Glacial Velocities: Mt. Shasta Advance vs. Sierra Nevada Retreat

Monitoring changes in alpine glaciers is crucial to understanding the impacts of global climate change because alpine glacier systems respond quickly to changes in the earth´s climate. The glaciers of the Sierra Nevada and southern Cascades are of particular interest because they provide a major water reservoir to the state of California. Oddly, while most glaciers worldwide (including in the Sierra Nevada) are retreating, glaciers in northern California are advancing, and examining differences between these two locations will help resolve this paradox. Whereas previous studies have mapped the spatial extents of glaciers from aerial and satellite imagery, this study utilizes glacial velocities as a monitoring tool to examine the differences of the glaciers in the Sierra Nevada and on Mount Shasta. Using the program COSI-Corr in ENVI, horizontal surface ice flow velocities are calculated at the subpixel level from a time-series of co-registered, orthorectified, and correlated, late-summer satellite imagery. Through a combination of 15-meter Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission Radiometer (ASTER) and 5-meter SPOT imagery, orthorectified using a 15-meter resampled Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) digital elevation model (DEM), glacial velocities are derived on major glaciers on Mount Shasta and in the Palisades of the Sierra Nevada for 2000-2008. This study demonstrates the utility of combining various types of remote sensing imagery to create a complete time record, and from this record derive glacial velocities for use in monitoring climate change effectively.