On the potential of very high-resolution repeat DEMs in glacial and periglacial environments

Abstract

Abstract. The potential of high-resolution repeat DEMs was investigated for glaciological applications including periglacial features (e.g. rock glaciers). It was shown that glacier boundaries can be delineated using airborne LIDARDEMs as a primary data source and that information on debris cover extent could be extracted using multi-temporal DEMs. Problems and limitations are discussed, and accuracies quantified. Absolute deviations of airborne laser scanning (ALS) derived glacier boundaries from ground-truthed ones were below 4 m for 80% of the ground-truthed values. Overall, we estimated an accuracy of +/−1.5% of the glacier area for glaciers larger than 1 km 2 . The errors in the case of smaller glaciers did not exceed +/−5% of the glacier area. The use of repeat DEMs in order to obtain information on the extent, characteristics and activity of rock glaciers was investigated and discussed based on examples.

A reanalysis of one decade of the mass balance series on Hintereisferner, Ötztal Alps, Austria: a detailed view into annual geodetic and glaciological observations

“…Results are submitted to the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) annually. In order to provide a common base for both the glaciological and geodetic analyses we re-generate the annual glacier outlines from the ALS data rigorously following the guidelines presented 120 in Abermann et al (2010). This led to minor changes (ε area ) in annual glaciological balances in the order of -0.015 to +0.039 m w.e.…”

Snow accumulation of a high alpine catchment derived from LiDAR measurements

“…2. Because significant glacier area loss occurred between 2002 and 2008, two glacier boundaries were produced using the procedure presented by Abermann et al (2010). The glacierized area of this catchment was reduced by 8.7 % between 2002 (14.1 km 2 ) and 2008 (12.8 km 2 ).…”

“…Many studies analyzed the potential of these multi-temporal laser scan acquisitions in high mountain catchments investigating changes of the alpine cryosphere in terms of glacier changes (e.g. Geist and Stötter, 2007;Abermann et al, 2010;Geist and Stötter, 2009;Fischer et al, 2011). Studies about the spatial distribution of the alpine snow cover based on LiDAR measurements are mainly available for restricted areas covering only a part of mountain hillsides (e.g.…”

An integrated airborne laser scanning approach to forest management and cultural heritage issues: a case study at Porolissum, Romania

“…They can be classified into first returns, reflected from the tree tops, intermediate returns, from the leaves or branches, and last returns, reflected from the ground. Aerial laser scanning has many uses: measuring agricultural productivity (Saeys et al 2009), distinguishing faint archaeological evidences (Bennett 2012), forestry practices (Hyyppä et al 2012), advancing the science of geomorphology (Sofia et al 2014), measuring volcano uplift (Whelley et al 2014), glacier decline and snowpack (Abermann et al 2010), and providing data for topographic mapping, to name just a few. Using the LiDAR point cloud data, one can extract specific features, such as dimensions of underground ancient structures or aboveground parameters of individual trees (Popescu et al 2003, Popescu 2007, Edson & Wing 2011, Dalponte et al 2014, and obtain ecosystem level information such as forests biomass or carbon sequestration capacity (Lefsky et al 2005, Popescu 2007, García et al 2010, Lee et al 2013.…”