Abstract
Glacier-related applications of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in high mountain regions with steep topography are relatively rare. This study makes a contribution to the lack of UAS applications in studying alpine glaciers in the European Alps. We transferred an established workflow of UAS-based change detection procedures to Austria’s largest glacier, the Pasterze Glacier. We focused on a selected part of the glacier tongue and its proglacial vicinity to obtain detailed knowledge of (i) the behavior of a lateral crevasse field, (ii) the evolution of glacier surface structures and velocity fields, (iii) glacier ablation behavior and the current glacier margin, and (iv) proglacial dead ice conditions and dead ice ablation. Based on two UAS flight campaigns, accomplished in 2016 (51 days apart), we produced digital elevation models (DEMs) and orthophotos with a ground sampling distance (GSD) of 0.15 m using Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetry. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) profiling was additionally conducted in the proglacial area. Results indicate distinct changes in the crevasse field with massive ice collapses, rapid glacier recession, surface lowering (mean of −0.9 m), and ice disintegration at the margins, calculated degree day factors on the order of −7 to −11 mm d−1·°C−1 for clean ice parts, and minimal changes of the debris-covered dead ice in the proglacial area. With this contribution we highlight the benefit of UAS in comparison to commonly used terrestrial methods and satellite-related approaches.
Highlights
Nowadays, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are widely used in a variety of disciplines and for a range of different purposes
Even though though in in that that case case the the high high resolution resolution data data was was only only gained gained for for aa comparably comparably small small subset ofthe theentire entireglacier glacier extent, it was possible to indicate the applicability for studies, glacier subset of extent, it was possible to indicate the applicability of UASoffor glacier studies, a highenvironment
By using different methodological approaches for assessing the digital elevation models (DEMs)’ accuracy, we found that the resulting DEMs and orthophotos are sufficiently accurate with respect to the detected changes
Summary
Nowadays, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are widely used in a variety of disciplines and for a range of different purposes. For many reasons there is a gap between a general increasing number of UAS-related studies in the last few years [2,3] on the one hand and a more or less constant quantity of UAS used in glaciological studies on the other hand [4]. Most of these studies are not related to high mountain regions, even if there are some examples, e.g., [5]. One main aim of the present study is to give an example of an application of UAS in a high alpine environment within a glaciological context
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