Detecting dynamics of cave floor ice with selective cloud-to-cloud approach

Abstract

Abstract. Ice caves can be considered an indicator of the long-term changes in the landscape. Ice volume is dynamic in the caves throughout the year, but the inter-seasonal comparison of ice dynamics might indicate change in the hydrological–climatic regime of the landscape. However, evaluating cave ice volume changes is a challenging task that requires continuous monitoring based on detailed mapping. Today, laser scanning technology is used for cryomorphology mapping to record the status of the ice with ultra-high resolution. Point clouds from individual scanning campaigns need to be localised in a unified coordinate system as a time series to evaluate the dynamics of cave ice. Here we present a selective cloud-to-cloud approach that addresses the issue of registration of single-scan missions into the unified coordinate system. We present the results of monitoring ice dynamics in the Silická ľadnica cave situated in Slovak Karst, which started in summer of 2016. The results show that the change of ice volume during the year is continuous and we can observe repeated processes of degradation and ice formation in the cave. The presented analysis of the inter-seasonal dynamics of the ice volume demonstrates that there has been a significant decrement of ice in the monitored period. However, further long-term observations are necessary to clarify the mechanisms behind this change.

Microclimate and habitat heterogeneity as important drivers of soil Collembola in a karst collapse doline in the temperate zone

“…Regional climatic fluctuations in a collapse doline with apparently dry seasons were documented by a recent study on the ice dynamics of Silická ľadnica Ice Cave, revealing an overall decrement in ice accumulations in recent years (Šupinský et al, 2019). The loss of the ice floor at the cave entrance is a reliable indicator of long‐term changes (Kováč, 2018; Mavlyudov, 2018; Raschmanová, Miklisová, et al, 2018; Serrano et al, 2018; Šupinský et al, 2019).…”

“…Regional climatic fluctuations in a collapse doline with apparently dry seasons were documented by a recent study on the ice dynamics of Silická ľadnica Ice Cave, revealing an overall decrement in ice accumulations in recent years (Šupinský et al, 2019). The loss of the ice floor at the cave entrance is a reliable indicator of long‐term changes (Kováč, 2018; Mavlyudov, 2018; Raschmanová, Miklisová, et al, 2018; Serrano et al, 2018; Šupinský et al, 2019). As a result of the continuously increasing global temperature, rare relict species in particular could be threatened with extinction (Mammola, Piano, et al, 2019; Wynne et al, 2014); therefore, ice cave entrances should be given priority attention in conservation activities (Kováč, 2018).…”

UAV-Based Photogrammetry and LiDAR for the Characterization of Ice Morphology Evolution

“…Besides, although the simple 2D differencing of the elevation here accomplishes the terrain evolution monitoring, the DoD on a raster basis might lose detailed information in 3D space. Alternatively, it is not inconceivable that a cloud-tocloud approach such as the "multiscale model-to-model cloud comparison" (M3C2) algorithm would achieve more insights in some complicated geometry [47], [48].…”

MOLISENS: a modular MObile LIdar SENsor System to exploit the potential of automotive lidar for geoscientific applications

“…This opens a wide range of applications ranging from cave mapping, glacier surface analysis to meltwater channel monitoring with the potential to increase our understanding of the drainage systems of glaciers. A 3D model of a glacier cave can be used to parameterize volumetric properties of the cave with the aim of analyzing cave morphology (Gallay et al, 2015;Šupinský et al, 2019). The recorded intensity values for ice surfaces are significantly lower than for surfaces covered with e.g.…”