High-Resolution Tidewater Glacier Monitoring Using Automated Multi-Temporal Terrestrial LiDAR; Year One Results, Helheim Glacier, Southeast Greenland
Abstract
Tidewater glaciers exhibit dynamic behaviors across a range of temporal and spatial scales that are difficult to quantify using traditional methods. In-situ and airborne/space-based remote sensing observations often lack the ability to capture the necessary spatial extent and temporal resolution in order quantify these behaviors at hourly, daily, and seasonal or longer timescales. In recent work, we have shown that long-range Terrestrial LiDAR Scanning (TLS) from fixed locations adjacent to tidewater glaciers is capable of combining the rapid acquisition capabilities of in situ measurements with the broad spatial coverage of traditional remote sensing. LiDAR scanners have typically operated for short-duration campaigns (days to weeks) due to the technical complexity of the instrumentation, which has limited their contribution to tidewater glacier studies to "snapshot" observational datasets. This paper describes the initial results from the first year of operational activities of an autonomous long-range (6-10 km) TLS that was deployed along the margin of the terminus at Helheim Glacier, southeast Greenland in July of 2015. The instrument uses a 1064 nm wavelength laser optimized for snow and ice, and acquires multi-dimensional point-cloud measurements of the lower reaches of the glacier, its terminus and the mélange to distances in excess of 10 km every 6 hours. During its first year of operation, the scanner has observed at least five major km-scale calving events. The high-resolution datasets are providing new insights into the near-terminus and mélange conditions in the periods leading up to iceberg detachment as well as the adjustment of the glacier to km-scale ice loss at the terminus.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFM.C41C0687F
- Keywords:
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- 0720 Glaciers;
- CRYOSPHEREDE: 0738 Ice;
- CRYOSPHEREDE: 0758 Remote sensing;
- CRYOSPHEREDE: 0762 Mass balance 0764 Energy balance;
- CRYOSPHERE