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.
Highlights
Ice caves are considered the most dynamic types of caves in terms of morphology and speleoclimate changes, which results from numerous processes acting inside the cave and in its immediate exterior surroundings (Persoiu and Lauritzen, 2018)
Differences between 3-D floor cave models within the time series database were expressed by cross sections and arrows representing movement of objects (Fig. 8), seasonal and annual changes via surfaces derived from the differences of distances (DoDs) approach (Fig. 10), and numerically (Table 2)
We decided to analyse, using two methods such as overlapping cross sections (Fig. 8) and calculation of volumetric changes based on DoDs using 3-D floor cave models (Fig. 10) with interpretation, due to precipitation and temperatures during the monitored period (Fig. 9)
Summary
Ice caves are considered the most dynamic types of caves in terms of morphology and speleoclimate changes, which results from numerous processes acting inside the cave and in its immediate exterior surroundings (Persoiu and Lauritzen, 2018). Assessment of changes of the ice accumulations based on TLS point clouds requires the adjustment and relocation of measurements of individual missions (point clouds) into a uniform coordinate system in which the differences between the missions could be compared. For detailed mapping of the cave ice morphology, i.e. with the density over one point per square metre, the use of standard tachymetric methods becomes more tedious and challenging than TLS, which is capable of sampling the ice surface in a contactless fashion. The scientific contribution is in the procedure of deriving a complex 3-D cave surface from point clouds as a 3-D mesh surface model By this means, we identified and quantified cave floor ice changes in ultra-high resolution and. The cave is unique in the world for its permanent ice accumulations formed at the lowest altitude in the moderate climate zone
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