Glacier-wide seasonal and annual geodetic mass balances from Pléiades stereo images: application to the Glacier d'Argentière, French Alps

Abstract

The increased availability of high-resolution and high-quality digital elevation models (DEMs) allows for the investigation of small-scale glaciological changes and improved precision in geodetic mass-balance estimates. However, high precision and careful methodological choices are required to retrieve glacier-wide mass changes at annual to seasonal time scales. Here, we used a 7-year time series of 12 DEMs of the Glacier d'Argentière, in the French Alps, derived from the Pléiades optical satellites to assess the ability of sub-metre stereoscopic satellite images to retrieve annual-to-seasonal mass balances. We found good agreement between the five annual and the four winter mass-balance values estimated using a geodetic method and those of in situ glaciological measurements: mean values via the geodetic method are −0.66 m w.e. and 1.47 m w.e. for annual and winter balances, respectively; mean absolute discrepancies are 0.25 m w.e. (annual) and 0.36 m w.e. (winter). Our study identified three main limitations of this methodology: (i) the intrinsic DEM precision; (ii) the lack of control over the satellite acquisition dates; and (iii) the density assumption. The consistency between the methods demonstrates the potential of short time-scale glacier mass-balance monitoring using very high-resolution satellite images.

Inferring the Basal Friction Law From Long Term Changes of Glacier Length, Thickness and Velocity on an Alpine Glacier

“…Since 1993, both winter and summer mass balances have been measured independently, providing observations of the spatio‐temporal variations of both winter accumulation and summer melting. In addition, several Digital Elevation Model (DEM) were generated from a historical topographic map (1905) (Vallot et al., 1928), aerial stereo photographs (1949, 1970, 1980, 1994, 1998, 2003, 2008) (Vincent, 2002; Vincent et al., 2009) and a Pleiades satellite image (2019) (Beraud et al., 2022) in order to quantify the geodetic mass balance.…”

Central Asia's spatiotemporal glacier response ambiguity due to data inconsistencies and regional simplifications

“…Standardizing sophisticated downscaling methods can improve the spatial representations of the reanalysis datasets. Despite potential improvements (remote sensing, Beraud et al, 2022;integration of unconventional datasets, Farinotti et al, 2015;Pohl et al, 2017;Naegeli et al, 2022;Key et al, 1997;andmodern downscaling technics, Fiddes andGruber, 2014, 2012), we recommend not relying on a single product for either correlation analysis or cryohydrological modeling.…”

“…Traditionally, many studies have been based on a single reanalysis dataset, used either for bias correction or directly as model input, and direct calibration data are generally limited to a few individual locations, insufficient for regional applications. Remote sensing can partly bridge the gap in observational data, and progress has been made to increase temporal resolution of geodetic mass balance estimates (Beraud et al, 2022). Furthermore, integration of different and sometimes unconventional datasets with information on the atmospheric conditions, the earth surface energy balance, glacier response, and other water storage changes (Farinotti et al, 2015;Pohl et al, 2017;Naegeli et al, 2022;Key et al, 1997) is valuable for assessing and possibly quantifying uncertainties related to the presented datasets and, eventually, rating their quality.…”

Exceptional thinning through the entire altitudinal range of Mont-Blanc glaciers during the 2021/22 mass balance year

“…A3). Such alongtracks undulations are common in Pléiades satellite DEMs (Deschamps-Berger and others, 2020;Beraud and others, 2023) and are corrected here by fitting a spline to a mean profile of elevation difference in the North-South (along-track) direction. However, our correction is poorly-constrained at the latitude of Bossons Glacier because of the lack of stable terrain.…”