scholarly journals Subglacial landforms beneath Rutford Ice Stream, Antarctica: detailed bed topography from ice-penetrating radar

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 913-934
Author(s):  
E. C. King ◽  
H. D. Pritchard ◽  
A. M. Smith

Abstract. We present a digital elevation model of the bed of Rutford Ice Stream, Antarctica derived from radio-echo sounding data. The data cover an 18 km × 40 km area immediately upstream of the grounding line of the ice stream. This area is of particular interest because repeated seismic surveys have shown that rapid erosion and deposition of subglacial sediments has taken place. The bed topography shows a range of different subglacial landforms including mega-scale glacial lineations, drumlins and hummocks. This dataset will form a baseline survey which, when compared to future surveys, should reveal how active subglacial landscapes change over time. These data also allow comparison between subglacial landforms in an active system with those observed in deglaciated areas in both polar regions. The dataset comprises observed ice thickness data, an interpolated bed elevation grid, observed surface elevation data and a surface elevation grid. The dataset is available at http://doi.org/269.

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward C. King ◽  
Hamish D. Pritchard ◽  
Andrew M. Smith

Abstract. We present a digital elevation model of the bed of Rutford Ice Stream, Antarctica, derived from radio-echo sounding data. The data cover an 18  ×  40 km area immediately upstream of the grounding line of the ice stream. This area is of particular interest because repeated seismic surveys have shown that rapid erosion and deposition of subglacial sediments has taken place. The bed topography shows a range of different subglacial landforms including mega-scale glacial lineations, drumlins and hummocks. This data set will form a baseline survey which, when compared to future surveys, should reveal how active subglacial landscapes change over time. These data also allow comparison between subglacial landforms in an active system with those observed in deglaciated areas in both polar regions. The data set comprises observed ice thickness data, an interpolated bed elevation grid, observed surface elevation data and a surface elevation grid. The data set is available at http://doi.org/269.


2011 ◽  
Vol 52 (59) ◽  
pp. 109-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. VanLooy ◽  
Richard R. Forster

AbstractInvestigations into glacial changes, including understanding variations in the rates of glacial volume and surface-elevation changes, have increased over the past decade. This study uses historical glacier elevation data in the form of topographic maps from 1970 and a digital elevation model from the mid-1980s to calculate surface-elevation and volume changes for Ha-Iltzuk Icefield, southwest British Columbia, Canada. Results indicate that the icefield thinned at an average rate of 0.76±0.25 ma–1 during this period. A previous study of Ha-Iltzuk Icefield also using the geodetic method found a thinning rate of 1.0±0.20ma–1 between the mid-1980s and 1999, indicating a slight increase in the amount of icefield thinning. Within the ablation zone, thinning increased with decreasing elevation at a rate of 1.9±0.68 ma–1 km–1 between these two periods (1970 to mid-1980s versus mid-1980s to 1999). Analysis of meteorological data suggests that increases in both temperature and rainfall, as well as decreases in snowfall, likely contributed to the increased thinning rate.


1993 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 93-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.D. Wilson ◽  
K.C. Jezek

The Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SMM/I) instrument provides daily measures of microwave brightness temperatures Tb over the polar regions. Data are available from 1987 to the present and have a demonstrated utility for sea-ice studies. In this paper we investigate applications to polar ice sheets with a view towards correlating patterns of Tb with ice-sheet elevation. We go on to discuss the Tb signature of processes linked to temperature anomalies and accumulation zone boundaries. Our approach consists of combining SSM/I Tb values provided on CD-ROM by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) with a digital elevation model (DEM) of Antarctica derived originally from the Scott Polar Research Institute Antarctic Map Folio. We focused on 37 GHz data which is mapped onto a 316 × 332 polar stereographic grid at 25 km resolution. The DEM consists of a 281 × 281 array of elevation values with a 20 km resolution. The DEM was resampled to be compatible with the SSM/I data by transforming the elevation data from the original projection place to geodetic coordinates. The elevation data were than transformed onto the SSM/I projection plane. Elevation data were interpolated to yield ice-sheet surface heights at 25 km intervals coinciding with SSM/I point Tb assignments. By co-registering the two data sets, it is possible to “drape” the brightness temperature data over the elevation data. The resulting image highlights the relationship (and variations) between ice-sheet topography and brightness temperature.


2009 ◽  
Vol 50 (51) ◽  
pp. 80-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Pattyn ◽  
Charlotte Delcourt ◽  
Denis Samyn ◽  
Bert de Smedt ◽  
Matt Nolan

AbstractDuring three summer field seasons (2003, 2005 and 2006) we carried out radio-echo sounding measurements with a 5MHz (central frequency) ice-penetrating radar on McCall Glacier, Arctic Alaska, USA, along the central flowline and 17 cross-profiles. Two-way travel time was, after migration, converted to ice thickness, which, in combination with a recent digital elevation model of the surface of the glaciated area, resulted in a detailed map of the bed topography. This reveals a complex basal topography in the confluence area of the different glacial cirques. The pattern of subglacial water flow following the hydraulic potential gradient was calculated for the whole glacier area and shows a confluence of subglacial water downstream from the confluence of the glacier cirques. From the ice-thickness map the total ice volume was estimated as slightly less than 0.5 km3. Bed reflection power (BRP) was determined for the glacier after correction for ice-thickness dependence. Results reveal a clear relationship between the BRP pattern and basal sliding anomalies along the central flowline.


1993 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 93-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.D. Wilson ◽  
K.C. Jezek

The Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SMM/I) instrument provides daily measures of microwave brightness temperatures Tb over the polar regions. Data are available from 1987 to the present and have a demonstrated utility for sea-ice studies. In this paper we investigate applications to polar ice sheets with a view towards correlating patterns of Tb with ice-sheet elevation. We go on to discuss the Tb signature of processes linked to temperature anomalies and accumulation zone boundaries.Our approach consists of combining SSM/I Tb values provided on CD-ROM by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) with a digital elevation model (DEM) of Antarctica derived originally from the Scott Polar Research Institute Antarctic Map Folio. We focused on 37 GHz data which is mapped onto a 316 × 332 polar stereographic grid at 25 km resolution. The DEM consists of a 281 × 281 array of elevation values with a 20 km resolution. The DEM was resampled to be compatible with the SSM/I data by transforming the elevation data from the original projection place to geodetic coordinates. The elevation data were than transformed onto the SSM/I projection plane. Elevation data were interpolated to yield ice-sheet surface heights at 25 km intervals coinciding with SSM/I point Tb assignments.By co-registering the two data sets, it is possible to “drape” the brightness temperature data over the elevation data. The resulting image highlights the relationship (and variations) between ice-sheet topography and brightness temperature.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Indra Riyanto ◽  
Lestari Margatama

The recent degradation of environment quality becomes the prime cause of the recent occurrence of natural disasters. It also contributes in the increase of the area that is prone to natural disasters. Flood history data in Jakarta shows that flood occurred mainly during rainy season around January – February each year, but the flood area varies each year. This research is intended to map the flood potential area in DKI Jakarta by segmenting the Digital Elevation Model data. The data used in this research is contour data obtained from DPP–DKI with the resolution of 1 m. The data processing involved in this research is extracting the surface elevation data from the DEM, overlaying the river map of Jakarta with the elevation data. Subsequently, the data is then segmented using watershed segmentation method. The concept of watersheds is based on visualizing an image in three dimensions: two spatial coordinates versus gray levels, in which there are two specific points; that are points belonging to a regional minimum and points at which a drop of water, if placed at the location of any of those points, would fall with certainty to a single minimum. For a particular regional minimum, the set of points satisfying the latter condition is called the catchments basin or watershed of that minimum, while the points satisfying condition form more than one minima are termed divide lines or watershed lines. The objective of this segmentation is to find the watershed lines of the DEM image. The expected result of the research is the flood potential area information, especially along the Ciliwung river in DKI Jakarta.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 2810
Author(s):  
Joanna Gudowicz ◽  
Renata Paluszkiewicz

The rapid development of remote sensing technology for obtaining high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) in recent years has made them more and more widely available and has allowed them to be used for morphometric assessment of concave landforms, such as valleys, gullies, glacial cirques, sinkholes, craters, and others. The aim of this study was to develop a geographic information systems (GIS) toolbox for the automatic extraction of 26 morphometric characteristics, which include the geometry, hypsometry, and volume of concave landforms. The Morphometry Assessment Tools (MAT) toolbox in the ArcGIS software was developed. The required input data are a digital elevation model and the form boundary as a vector layer. The method was successfully tested on an example of 21 erosion-denudation valleys located in the young glacial area of northwest Poland. Calculations were based on elevation data collected in the field and LiDAR data. The results obtained with the tool showed differences in the assessment of the volume parameter at the average level of 12%, when comparing the field data and LiDAR data. The algorithm can also be applied to other types of concave forms, as well as being based on other DEM data sources, which makes it a universal tool for morphometric evaluation.


2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 8865-8901
Author(s):  
P. Noel ◽  
A. N. Rousseau ◽  
C. Paniconi

Abstract. Subdivision of catchment into appropriate hydrological units is essential to represent rainfall-runoff processes in hydrological modelling. The commonest units used for this purpose are hillslopes (e.g. Fan and Bras, 1998; Troch et al., 2003). Hillslope width functions can therefore be utilised as one-dimensional representation of three-dimensional landscapes by introducing profile curvatures and plan shapes. An algorithm was developed to delineate and extract hillslopes and hillslope width functions by introducing a new approach to calculate an average profile curvature and plan shape. This allows the algorithm to be independent of digital elevation model resolution and to associate hillslopes to nine elementary landscapes according to Dikau (1989). This algortihm was tested on two flat and steep catchments of the province of Quebec, Canada. Results showed great area coverage for hillslope width function over individual hillslopes and entire watershed.


Author(s):  
Ivan Kruhlov

Boundaries of 43 administrative units (raions and oblast towns) were digitized and manually rectified using official schemes and satellite images. SRTM digital elevation data were used to calculate mean relative elevation and its standard deviation for each unit, as well as to delineate altitudinal bioclimatic belts and their portions within the units. These parameters were used to classify the units via agglomerative cluster analysis into nine environmental classes. Key words: cluster analysis, digital elevation model, geoecosystem, geo-spatial analysis.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shizhou Ma ◽  
Karen Beazley ◽  
Patrick Nussey ◽  
Chris Greene

Abstract The Active River Area (ARA) is a spatial approach for identifying the extent of functional riparian area. Given known limitations in terms of input elevation data quality and methodology, ARA studies to date have not achieved effective computer-based ARA-component delineation, limiting the efficacy of the ARA framework in terms of informing riparian conservation and management. To achieve framework refinement and determine the optimal input elevation data for future ARA studies, this study tested a novel Digital Elevation Model (DEM) smoothing algorithm and assessed ARA outputs derived from a range of DEMs for accuracy and efficiency. It was found that the tested DEM smoothing algorithm allows the ARA framework to take advantage of high-resolution LiDAR DEM and considerably improves the accuracy of high-resolution LiDAR DEM derived ARA results; smoothed LiDAR DEM in 5-meter spatial resolution best balanced ARA accuracy and data processing efficiency and is ultimately recommended for future ARA delineations across large regions.


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