Glacier specific ablation rate derived by remote sensing measurements

The specific ablation rate in a transect of Storstrømmen, a large outlet glacier from the Northeast Greenland ice sheet, is derived by combining airborne laser altimetry measurements with emergence/submergence velocities derived from satellite synthetic aperture radar inteferometry (InSAR) and airbo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Reeh, N., Mohr, J. J., Krabill, W. B., Thomas, R., Oerter, Hans, Gundestrup, N., Bøggild, C. E.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: 2002
Subjects:
Online Access:https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/5702/
https://doi.org/10.1029/2002GL015307
https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.16265
Description
Summary:The specific ablation rate in a transect of Storstrømmen, a large outlet glacier from the Northeast Greenland ice sheet, is derived by combining airborne laser altimetry measurements with emergence/submergence velocities derived from satellite synthetic aperture radar inteferometry (InSAR) and airborne ice sounding radar measurement of ice thickness. The results are compared with in situ point observations of ablation measured at poles drilled into the glacier. Considering the different measurement periods for the different data sets, the agreement between derived and observed ablation rates is satisfactory. The new method of deriving specific mass balance, particularly ablation rate, by remote sensing measurements alone has the potential to substantially increase the density of observational based abation rates on ice sheet and ice cap margins.