Surface Characteristics, Elevation Change, and Velocity of High-Arctic Valley Glacier from Repeated High-Resolution UAV Photogrammetry

Abstract

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are being increasingly used in glaciology demonstrating their potential for the generation of high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) that can be further used for the evaluation of glacial processes in detail. Such investigations are especially important for the evaluation of surface changes of small valley glaciers, which are not well-represented in lower-resolution satellite-derived products. In this study, we performed two UAV surveys at the end of the ablation season in 2019 and 2021 on Waldemarbreen, a High-Arctic glacier in NW Svalbard. We derived the mean annual glacier surface velocity of 5.3 m. The estimated mean glacier surface elevation change from 2019 to 2021 was −1.46 m a−1 which corresponds to the geodetic mass balance (MB) of −1.33 m w.e. a−1. The glaciological MB for the same period was −1.61 m w.e. a−1. Our survey includes all Waldemarbreen and demonstrates the efficiency of high-resolution DEMs produced from UAV photogrammetry for the reconstruction of changes in glacier surface elevation and velocity. We suggest that glaciological and geodetic MB methods should be used complementary to each other.

Dynamic Monitoring of Laohugou Glacier No. 12 with a Drone, West Qilian Mountains, West China

“…First, although the DSM and DOM generated by drones had a high resolution at the centimeter scale, the area of aerial photogrammetry could not cover the entire glacier's surface. In previous cases of drone-based glacier monitoring, there were only a few glaciers that were smaller and that had a more accessible route covering the entire area [49,57]. The images acquired by drones for those glaciers have a larger scale or are less accessible, and only the partially covered regions, such as the terminus region [32,58].…”

“…In those areas, the glacier surface mostly consisted of bare ice and lower roughness, leading to more outliers. Therefore, the search window size had to be big enough to include surface texture features [49]. Considering the computing capability, the images were re-sampled to a 1 m resolution, and the search window size was set to 200, while the relative distance on the ice surface was 200 m.…”

Geotechnical Measurements for the Investigation and Assessment of Arctic Coastal Erosion—A Review and Outlook

“…For example, Figure 3 presents a coastal slope south of Anchorage that was impacted by localized landslides (circled in yellow) following the November M7.0 2018 earthquake [71]. Such advances in UAV-based remote sensing in the Arctic have allowed observations of centimeter-scale changes in glacial ice [71][72][73], snowpack [74], and permafrost degradation [75]. Lamster et al [73] demonstrated the capabilities of UAV photogrammetry in monitoring multi-year changes in an Arctic glacier from 2019 to 2021.…”

“…Such advances in UAV-based remote sensing in the Arctic have allowed observations of centimeter-scale changes in glacial ice [71][72][73], snowpack [74], and permafrost degradation [75]. Lamster et al [73] demonstrated the capabilities of UAV photogrammetry in monitoring multi-year changes in an Arctic glacier from 2019 to 2021. From the data they collected, they were able to determine elevation change, geodetic MB, and surface velocities [73].…”

“…Lamster et al [73] demonstrated the capabilities of UAV photogrammetry in monitoring multi-year changes in an Arctic glacier from 2019 to 2021. From the data they collected, they were able to determine elevation change, geodetic MB, and surface velocities [73]. Lou et al [74] used thermal infrared imagery to estimate the spatial distribution of ground surface temperatures of permafrost.…”