Remote Sensing Studies of Svalbard Glaciers
The study uses remotely sensed data from (1) air borne altimetry and radio echo sounding, (2) Landsat satellite imagery, and (3) aerial photography, to investigate aspects of the morphology and dynamics of the ice caps of Nordaustlandet, Svalbard. Data collection, methods of reduction and errors are...
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| Format: | Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge
1984
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.12791 https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/266722 |
| Summary: | The study uses remotely sensed data from (1) air borne altimetry and radio echo sounding, (2) Landsat satellite imagery, and (3) aerial photography, to investigate aspects of the morphology and dynamics of the ice caps of Nordaustlandet, Svalbard. Data collection, methods of reduction and errors are discussed. Three principal topics are examined. First, as a preliminary to comprehensive radio echo sounding operations over Nordaustlandet, the ability of 60 MHz radar equipment to sound ice at or near its melting point was tested over a number of glaciers in Spitsbergen. Ice thickness data were obtained from 38 glaciers. The results are compared with previous geophysical investigations of ice thickness on Spitsbergen, revealing problems concerning existing Soviet radio echo sounding data obtained at higher frequencies. An internal layer echo was interpreted as the bed by Soviet workers. Second, the ice caps of Nordaustlandet, about which little glaciological information was previously available, are described and mapped. The coastline and ice margins are located using corrected satellite imagery. The surface of the ice caps is described in detail, and ice divides and drainage basins are mapped. Synoptic data on relative surface elevations from digitally enhanced Landsat imagery is calibrated using accurate airborne altimetric information available only along flight lines. The morphology of the underlying bedrock, and the thickness of the ice cover above it, is recorded. Ice thickness on Austfonna-Sorfonna reaches 583 m and 28% of the bed is below present sea level. Third, several aspects of the regional glaciology of the Nordaustlandet ice caps are examined. Digital analysis of ice cap surface radiance characteristics provides data on snow line position and mass balance. The spatial and temporal pattern of detector saturation in each band of the Landsat MSS over snow in the polar regions is predicted from analysis of the influence of sun elevation. Regions of ice cap basal melting are identified from enhanced ... |
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