Detecting short-term surface melt over Vestre Broggerbreen, Arctic glacier using indigenously developed unmanned air vehicles

In the Arctic, the impacts of global warming are strong and the rate of ice melting is increasingly accelerating due to warmer temperatures relative to snow accumulation. With recent advances in unmanned air vehicle (UAV) technology and image processing techniques, field measurements for cryosphere...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inGeocarto international Vol. 37; no. 11; pp. 3167 - 3178
Main Authors Geetha Priya, M., Venkatesh, Krishna, Shivanna, Lohit, Devaraj, Suresh
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Taylor & Francis 03.06.2022
Subjects
glacier
global warming
polar
snow
Surface melt
UAV
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:In the Arctic, the impacts of global warming are strong and the rate of ice melting is increasingly accelerating due to warmer temperatures relative to snow accumulation. With recent advances in unmanned air vehicle (UAV) technology and image processing techniques, field measurements for cryosphere studies have gained significance today. In the current report, an attempt is being made to measure glacier surface melt over a four-day period using UAV acquisitions and field measurements to improve India's scientific credentials in polar science. Two aerial surveys were performed on 14 and 17 September 2019 using an indigenous Quadcopter UAV over a portion of the Ablation area of Vestre Broggerbreen glacier, Svalbard, Arctic. To measure precise surface melt, surface topography reconstructed from the acquired aerial images is processed. Results concluded that a surface melt was observed ranging from 0.013 to 0.065 m, which agreed with the measurements in situ.
ISSN:1010-6049
1752-0762
DOI:10.1080/10106049.2020.1849416