Spatio-temporal changes in radar zones and ELA estimation of glaciers in NyÅlesund using Sentinel-1 SAR

• Published in: Polar Science
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Ny-Ålesund; Glacier facies; Glacier radar zone; Equilibrium line altitude; Geospatial technology; Ela; Ny Ålesund; Polar Science
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=16913; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00016782/

A total of 15 glaciers in the Ny-Ålesund region were studied for their glacier radar zones vis-à-vis ELA over the period 2016–2020, using the multi-seasonal SAR data. All the glaciers were comprised of three zones, namely middle percolation/wet snow, lower percolation/wet snow, and clean ice. Using the anomalies of temperature and precipitation derived from Ny Ålesund meteorological station, it is observed that the ELA for most of the glaciers shifted to a higher altitude during 2016–2018 when the temperature was slightly high as compared to the long term mean, while it shifted down the glacier due to heavy accumulation and low temperature during 2019–20. The maximum shift of ±25 (with an uncertainty of ±6.85 m arising out of remote sensing data) in ELA, was detected during 2016–2020. These results obtained using geospatial technology-based analysis are provided for assessing the impact of climate change on the behaviour of the glaciers.