Synergistic Use of Single-Pass Interferometry and Radar Altimetry to Measure Mass Loss of NEGIS Outlet Glaciers between 2011 and 2014

• Published in: Remote Sensing
• Main Authors: Lukas Krieger, Undine Strößenreuther, Veit Helm, Dana Floricioiu, Martin Horwath
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020
• Subjects: ice sheet; greenland; mass balance; tandem-x; cryosat-2; negis; zachariæ isstrøm and nioghalvfjerdsfjorden (79north); Science; Q; Greenland; Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden; glacier; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12060996; https://doaj.org/article/37c264927a8d43f0be24390f6fc0df64

Mass balances of individual glaciers on ice sheets have been previously reported by forming a mass budget of discharged ice and modelled ice sheet surface mass balance or a complementary method which measures volume changes over the glaciated area that are subsequently converted to glacier mass change. On ice sheets, volume changes have been measured predominantly with radar and laser altimeters but InSAR DEM differencing has also been applied on smaller ice bodies. Here, we report for the first time on the synergistic use of volumetric measurements from the CryoSat-2 radar altimetry mission together with TanDEM-X DEM differencing and calculate the mass balance of the two major outlet glaciers of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream: Zachariæ Isstrøm and Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden (79North). The glaciers lost <math display="inline"> <semantics> <mrow> <mn>3.59</mn> <mo>±</mo> <mn>1.15</mn> </mrow> </semantics> </math> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <mi mathvariant="normal">G</mi> </semantics> </math> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <mi mathvariant="normal">t</mi> </semantics> </math> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <msup> <mi mathvariant="normal">a</mi> <mrow> <mo>−</mo> <mn>1</mn> </mrow> </msup> </semantics> </math> and <math display="inline"> <semantics> <mrow> <mn>1.01</mn> <mo>±</mo> <mn>0.95</mn> </mrow> </semantics> </math> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <mi mathvariant="normal">G</mi> </semantics> </math> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <mi mathvariant="normal">t</mi> </semantics> </math> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <msup> <mi mathvariant="normal">a</mi> <mrow> ...