Quantifying Tidewater Glacier Surface Displacements Using Autonomous Multi-Temporal Terrestrial LiDAR Scanning; Helheim Glacier Greenland

Tidewater terminating glaciers exhibit dynamic behavior across a variety of scales that are often hard to capture utilizing traditional ground, airborne and satellite-based remote sensing methodologies. Rapid changes in horizontal and vertical displacement are often missed by conventional remote sensing methods which lack the temporal (hourly) and spatial (cm to km) coverage. To bridge the gap between conventional and ground-based in-situ methods, we have developed and installed a pair of autonomous long-range (6-10 km) Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) systems along the north and south margin of the terminus of Helheim Glacier southeast, Greenland. These systems are designed to operate autonomously year-round while capturing dense (cm) high-resolution (mm) 3D topography of the terminus and mélange every 6 hours. The system is designed to utilize renewable power resources and onsite liquid methanol fuels cells which can operate independently through the course of the year. The systems are a substantial leap forward in building autonomous field observation networks that will help ground validate other sensing modalities while providing a snapshot of realtime processes at the tidewater margin.