Monitoring glacier changes using a global positioning system in differential mode

Abstract

Recent developments of global positioning systems (GPS) have provided opportunities for rapid and frequent glacier mapping. The speed and accuracy of GPS techniques make them particularly suitable for repeated glacier mapping. Using two receivers in differential mode provides very high accuracy. In July 1995, a kinematic differential GPS survey of Austre Okstindbreen, one of the glaciers in the Norwegian national programme of mass-balance studies, provided three-dimensional positions of 2228 points in less than 6.5 h. Handling the data in a geographic information system permitted construction of a triangular irregular network digital terrain model (TIN DTM), which could be compared with TIN DTMs constructed from 1981 and 1993 surveys based on aerial photogrammetry and electronic distance measurement, respectively. A TIN DTM has advantages over the more usual grid-based DTM, which incorporates many interpolated values, although interpolation also is necessary if contours are to be derived from a TIN model. The aspect and gradient of triangular facets in the 1995 DTM have been used to produce a map which has considerable potential for detailed energy-balance studies of the glacier’s accumulation area.