Global mapping of surface flow velocity and re-evaluation of the volume of the world's glaciers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romain Millan ◽  
Jérémie Mouginot ◽  
Antoine Rabatel ◽  
Mathieu Morlighem
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Flow Velocity ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Surface Flow ◽  
Glacier Surface ◽  
Ice Flow ◽  
Ice Volume ◽  
The World ◽  
Global Mapping ◽  
Flow Velocities

<p><span>The effects of climate change on water resources and sea level are largely determined by the size of the ice reservoirs around the world, which still remains largely uncertain. Ice flow defines the transfer of ice within a glacier and therefore largely governs the spatial distribution of the ice volume. Although some individual regions have been mapped, there is to date no global and complete view of glacier flow. In this study, we present a global mapping of surface ice flow velocity and use it to revise the ice thickness distribution and volume of glaciers around the world. Glacier surface flow velocities were calculated using Sentinel-2/ESA, Landsat-8/USGS, <span><span>Ven</span></span></span>μ<span>s/CNES-ISA, Pléiades/AirbusD&S and radar data from Sentinel-1/ESA. We designed an automated workflow that (i) downloads the data from institutional or commercial servers, (ii) prepares the images, (iii) launches the feature tracking algorithm, (iv) calibrate the glacier surface velocities, and (v) mosaics the results to obtain filtered and averaged velocity maps. For years 2017 and 2018, glacier surface flow velocities are quantified for every possible repeat cycles from the nominal cycle of the sensor (2-16 days) up to more than one year. This new database of glacier surface flow velocity is used to construct an updated global ice volume based on the well known Shallow Ice Approximation approach. We discuss the quality of our global glacier surface flow velocity product and of our new ice volume reconstruction with respect to existing state of the art estimates and quantify the impact of our results in terms of sea level rise and water resources. <br></span></p>

scholarly journals Changes in ice thickness and flow velocity of Yala Glacier, Langtang Himal, Nepal, from 1982 to 2009

2013 ◽  
Vol 54 (64) ◽  
pp. 157-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shin Sugiyama ◽  
Kotaro Fukui ◽  
Koji Fujita ◽  
Kenta Tone ◽  
Satoru Yamaguchi
Keyword(s):  
Flow Velocity ◽  
Surface Elevation ◽  
Ice Thickness ◽  
Glacier Surface ◽  
Ice Flow ◽  
Ice Volume ◽  
Glacier Changes ◽  
Ice Velocity ◽  
Ground Penetrating ◽  
Thinning Rate

Abstract To investigate recent glacier changes in the Himalayan region, we carried out GPS and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) measurements at Yala Glacier, a benchmark glacier in Nepal. Glacier surface elevation and ice thickness were surveyed along a 1.5 km profile from the glacier top to the terminus. Ice flow velocity was measured at five locations by surveying stakes for either 1 year or 4 day periods. Obtained surface elevation and ice velocity were compared with those measured in 1982 and 1996. The mean ice thickness along the radar profile was 36 m in 2009 and the ice has been thinning at rates of-0.69 ±0.25 and -0.75 ± 0.24 m a-1 during the periods 1982-96 and 1996-2009, respectively. The thinning rate increases down-glacier, reaching a magnitude up to -1.8 m a-1 near the terminus from 1996 to 2009. The ice velocity has reduced by >70% from 1982 to 2009 in the lower half of the glacier. By assuming a constant driving stress over the glacier, the total ice volume in 2009 was estimated as 0.061 km3. Our results indicate that Yala Glacier has lost ∼40% of its ice volume over the last 27 years and that the rate of the mass loss has accelerated over the last decade.

scholarly journals Ice flow velocities over Vostok Subglacial Lake, East Antarctica, determined by 10 years of GNSS observations

2013 ◽  
Vol 59 (214) ◽  
pp. 315-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Richter ◽  
D.V. Fedorov ◽  
M. Fritsche ◽  
S.V. Popov ◽  
V.Ya. Lipenkov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Flow Velocity ◽  
East Antarctica ◽  
Global Navigation Satellite Systems ◽  
Steady Increase ◽  
Lake Area ◽  
Ice Flow ◽  
Satellite Systems ◽  
Subglacial Lake ◽  
Gnss Observations ◽  
Flow Velocities

AbstractRepeated Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) observations were carried out at 50 surface markers in the Vostok Subglacial Lake (East Antarctica) region between 2001 and 2011. The horizontal ice flow velocity vectors were derived with accuracies of 1 cm a−1 and 0.5°, representing the first reliable information on ice flow kinematics in the northern part of the lake. Within the lake area, ice flow velocities do not exceed 2 m a−1. The ice flow azimuth is southeast in the southern part of the lake and turns gradually to east-northeast in the northern part. In the northern part, as the ice flow enters the lake at the western shore, the velocity decreases towards the central lake axis, then increases slightly past the central axis. In the southern part, a continued acceleration is observed from the central lake axis across the downstream grounding line. Based on the observed flow velocity vectors and ice thickness data, mean surface accumulation rates are inferred for four surface segments between Ridge B and Vostok Subglacial Lake and show a steady increase towards the north.

Remote sensing flow velocity of debris-covered glaciers using Landsat 8 data

2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lydia Sam ◽  
Anshuman Bhardwaj ◽  
Shaktiman Singh ◽  
Rajesh Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Flow Velocity ◽  
Accuracy Assessment ◽  
Geographical Area ◽  
Surface Flow ◽  
Velocity Estimation ◽  
Surface Velocity ◽  
Landsat 8 ◽  
Glacier Surface ◽  
Glacier Velocity

Changes in ice velocity of a glacier regulate its mass balance and dynamics. The estimation of glacier flow velocity is therefore an important aspect of temporal glacier monitoring. The utilisation of conventional ground-based techniques for detecting glacier surface flow velocity in the rugged and alpine Himalayan terrain is extremely difficult. Remote sensing-based techniques can provide such observations on a regular basis for a large geographical area. Obtaining freely available high quality remote sensing data for the Himalayan regions is challenging. In the present work, we adopted a differential band composite approach, for the first time, in order to estimate glacier surface velocity for non-debris and supraglacial debris covered areas of a glacier, separately. We employed various bandwidths of the Landsat 8 data for velocity estimation using the COSI-Corr (co-registration of optically sensed images and correlation) tool. We performed the accuracy assessment with respect to field measurements for two glaciers in the Indian Himalaya. The panchromatic band worked best for non-debris parts of the glaciers while band 6 (SWIR – short wave infrared) performed best in case of debris cover. We correlated six temporal Landsat 8 scenes in order to ensure the performance of the proposed algorithm on monthly as well as yearly timescales. We identified sources of error and generated a final velocity map along with the flow lines. Over- and underestimates of the yearly glacier velocity were found to be more in the case of slow moving areas with annual displacements less than 5 m. Landsat 8 has great capabilities for such velocity estimation work for a large geographic extent because of its global coverage, improved spectral and radiometric resolutions, free availability and considerable revisit time.

scholarly journals Long-term records of glacier surface velocities in the Ötztal Alps (Austria)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Stocker-Waldhuber ◽  
Andrea Fischer ◽  
Kay Helfricht ◽  
Michael Kuhn
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
Glacier Mass Balance ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Climatic Forcing ◽  
Glacier Surface ◽  
Ice Flow ◽  
Strong Indicator ◽  
Length Changes ◽  
Flow Velocities

Abstract. Climatic forcing affects glacier mass balance and ice flow dynamics on different time scales, resulting in length changes. Mass Balance and length changes are operationally used for glacier monitoring, whereas only a few time series of glacier dynamics have been recorded. With more than 100 years of measurements of ice flow velocities at stakes and stone lines on Hintereisferner and more than 50 years on Kesselwandferner, annual velocity and glacier fluctuation records have similar lengths. Subseasonal variations of ice flow velocities have been measured on Gepatschferner and Taschachferner for nearly a decade. The ice flow velocities on Hintereisferner and especially on Kesselwandferner show great variations between advancing and retreating periods, with magnitudes increasing from the highest to the lowest stakes, making ice flow records at ablation stakes a very sensitive indicator of glacier state. Since the end of the latest glacier advances from the 1970s to the 1980s, the ice flow velocities have decreased continuously, a strong indicator of the negative mass balances of the glaciers in recent decades. The velocity data sets of the four glaciers are available at https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.896741.

Hydromorphological monitoring of individual river reaches with UAV-data – image-based measurement of bathymetry and flow velocity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anette Eltner ◽  
László Bertalan ◽  
Eliisa Lotsari
Keyword(s):  
Flow Velocity ◽  
Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler ◽  
Surface Flow ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Morphological Data ◽  
Measurement Tool ◽  
River Channels ◽  
Spatiotemporal Resolution ◽  
Morphodynamic Modelling ◽  
Flow Velocities

<p>Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) have become a commonly used measurement tool in geomorphology due to their affordable cost, flexibility, and ease of use. They are regularly used in fluvial geomorphology, among other fields, because the high spatiotemporal resolution of UAV data makes it possible to assess the continuum rather than relying on single samples.</p><p>In this study, UAV data are used to hydro-morphologically describe three different river reaches of lengths between 150 and 1000 m. Specifically, the surface flow velocity and bathymetry of the rivers were reconstructed. The flow velocities were calculated using the Particle Tracking Velocimetry (PTV) method applied to UAV video sequences. In addition, UAV-based imagery was acquired to perform 3D reconstruction above and below the water surface using SfM (Structure from Motion) photogrammetry, taking into account refraction effects as well as frame processing to increase the visibility of underwater features. Reference data for flow velocities were generated at selected positions using current meters as well as ADCP (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler) readings. The image-based calculated bathymetry was compared with RTK-GNSS sampling depth measurements and also ADCP data.</p><p>The developed workflow enables rapid and regular measurement of hydrological and morphological data of river channels. This ultimately enables multi-temporal assessment and significantly improves hydro-morphodynamic modelling, in particular their calibration.</p>

scholarly journals Impact of ice-shelf basal melting on inland ice-sheet thickness: a model study

2012 ◽  
Vol 53 (60) ◽  
pp. 129-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Determann ◽  
Malte Thoma ◽  
Klaus Grosfeld ◽  
Sylvia Massmann
Keyword(s):  
Mass Loss ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Sheet Thickness ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Ice Flow ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
Ice Volume ◽  
Basal Melting ◽  
The Impact

AbstractIce flow from the ice sheets to the ocean contains the maximum potential contributing to future eustatic sea-level rise. In Antarctica most mass fluxes occur via the extended ice-shelf regions covering more than half the Antarctic coastline. The most extended ice shelves are the Filchner–Ronne and Ross Ice Shelves, which contribute ~30% to the total mass loss caused by basal melting. Basal melt rates here show small to moderate average amplitudes of <0.5ma–1. By comparison, the smaller but most vulnerable ice shelves in the Amundsen and Bellinghausen Seas show much higher melt rates (up to 30 ma–1), but overall basal mass loss is comparably small due to the small size of the ice shelves. The pivotal question for both characteristic ice-shelf regions, however, is the impact of ocean melting, and, coevally, change in ice-shelf thickness, on the flow dynamics of the hinterland ice masses. In theory, ice-shelf back-pressure acts to stabilize the ice sheet, and thus the ice volume stored above sea level. We use the three-dimensional (3-D) thermomechanical ice-flow model RIMBAY to investigate the ice flow in a regularly shaped model domain, including ice-sheet, ice-shelf and open-ocean regions. By using melting scenarios for perturbation studies, we find a hysteresis-like behaviour. The experiments show that the system regains its initial state when perturbations are switched off. Average basal melt rates of up to 2 ma–1 as well as spatially variable melting calculated by our 3-D ocean model ROMBAX act as basal boundary conditions in time-dependent model studies. Changes in ice volume and grounding-line position are monitored after 1000 years of modelling and reveal mass losses of up to 40 Gt a–1.

scholarly journals Comparison of direct and geodetic mass balances on an annual time scale

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 565-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Fischer ◽  
H. Schneider ◽  
G. Merkel ◽  
R. Sailer
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
Flow Velocity ◽  
Volume Change ◽  
Glacier Surface ◽  
Ice Flow ◽  
Total Period ◽  
Elevation Data ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Geodetic Mass Balance

Abstract. Very accurate airborne laserscanning (ALS) elevation data was used to calculate the annual volume changes for Hintereisferner and Kesselwandferner in the Ötztal Alps, Austria for 2001/2002–2008/2009. The comparison of the altitude of 51 recently GPS surveyed ground control points showed that the accuracy of the ALS DEMs is better than 0.3 m. The geodetic mass balance was calculated from the volume change using detailed maps of the firn cover and applying corrections for the seasonal snow cover. The maximum snow height at the time of the elevation data flight was 0.5 m averaged over the glacier surface. The volume change data was compared to in situ mass balance data for the total area and at the stakes. For the total period of 8 yr, the difference between the geodetic and the direct mass balance is 2.398 m w.e. on Hintereisferner and 1.380 m w.e. on Kesselwandferner, corresponding to about two times the mean annual mass balance. The vertical ice flow velocity was measured and found to be on the same order of magnitude as the mass balance at KWF. This is an indicator that volume change data does not allow the calculation of ablation or accumulation rates without detailed measurements or models of the vertical ice flow velocity. Therefore, only direct mass balance data allow process studies or investigation of the climatic controls of the resulting mass changes.

The Application of GPS in Glacier Flow Velocity: A Case Study of Qiyi Glacier

2011 ◽  
Vol 130-134 ◽  
pp. 1794-1798 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Liu ◽  
Zhe Fan Jing ◽  
Xiu Juan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Flow Velocity ◽  
Surface Flow ◽  
Optical Remote Sensing ◽  
Remote Sensing Images ◽  
Glacier Surface ◽  
Mountain Glacier ◽  
Glacier Flow ◽  
Motion Mode ◽  
Key Parameter

Surface flow velocity is a key parameter of glacier kinetic theories study. With the help of GPS, glacier surface flow velocity research improved convenient and accurate. Therefore, this paper is committed to acquire the condition of surface flow velocity of Qiyi Glacier during 2009 to 2010 based on GPS data, optical remote sensing images and topographic maps. And it is concluded that during this time, the average surface flow velocity of Qiyi Glacier is decreasing while distributed relatively fast on central and slowly on both sides, and area retreated about 0.06km2 compared with that of 1965, whose value is consistent with motion mode of mountain glacier and the tendency of changes in Qiyi Glacier according to ELA data and Mass balance.

Internal carotid and vertebral arterial flow velocity in men at high altitude

1987 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 395-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Y. Huang ◽  
L. G. Moore ◽  
R. E. McCullough ◽  
R. G. McCullough ◽  
A. J. Micco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Blood Flow ◽  
Cerebral Blood Flow ◽  
High Altitude ◽  
Flow Velocity ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Internal Carotid ◽  
Hemoglobin Concentration ◽  
Subsequent Increase ◽  
O2 Transport ◽  
Flow Velocities

Cerebral blood flow increases at high altitude, but the mechanism of the increase and its role in adaptation to high altitude are unclear. We hypothesized that the hypoxemia at high altitude would increase cerebral blood flow, which would in turn defend O2 delivery to the brain. Noninvasive Doppler ultrasound was used to measure the flow velocities in the internal carotid and the vertebral arteries in six healthy male subjects. Within 2–4 h of arrival on Pikes Peak (4,300 m), velocities in both arteries were slightly and not significantly increased above sea-level values. By 18–44 h a peak increase of 20% was observed (combined P less than 0.025). Subsequently (days 4–12) velocities declined to values similar to those at sea level. At altitude the lowest arterial O2 saturation (SaO2) and the highest end-tidal PCO2 was observed on arrival. By day 4 and thereafter, when the flow velocities had returned toward sea-level values, hemoglobin concentration and SaO2 were increased over initial high-altitude values such that calculated O2 transport values were even higher than those at sea level. Although the cause of the failure for cerebral flow velocity to increase on arrival is not understood, the subsequent increase may act to defend brain O2 transport. With further increase in hemoglobin and SaO2 over time at high altitude, flow velocity returned to sea-level values.

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