SIMPLE RHEOLOGICAL MODELS OF EUROPEAN TIDEWATER GLACIERS FROM SATELLITE INTERFEROMETRY AND ALTIMETRY

• Main Authors: Aleksey I. Sharov, Sven Etzold
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Franz Josef Land; Novaya Zemlya; Tidewater
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.380.8533; http://earth.esa.int/workshops/salzburg04/papers_posters/4B5_sharov_17.pdf

The theory of elastic deformation and the energy conservation principle were applied to simplified rheological modelling of large European tidewater glaciers using interferometric and altimetric data obtained from the European ERS and American ICESat satellites. Several questions concerning the co-registration, joint interpretation and physical formulation of specific rheological features detected in INSAR interferograms and altimetric transects were analysed and briefly discussed. The transferential approach to analysing fast ice deformations and measuring frontal glacier velocities from single SAR interferograms was enhanced. The resultant rheological model allowed frontal velocities and thicknesses of large glaciers in the Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya archipelagos to be determined and verified thus contributing to the integral estimation of present glacier regime in the European Arctic. 1.