ALBERT

Description: Lava flow thicknesses, volumes, and effusion rates provide essential information for understanding the behavior of eruptions and their associated deformation signals. Preeruption and posteruption elevation models were generated from historical stereo photographs to produce the lava flow thickness maps for the last five eruptions at Hekla volcano, Iceland. These results provide precise estimation of lava bulk volumes: V1947–1948 = 0.742 ± 0.138 km3, V1970 = 0.205 ± 0.012 km3, V1980–1981 = 0.169 ± 0.016 km3, V1991 = 0.241 ± 0.019 km3, and V2000 = 0.095 ± 0.005 km3 and reveal variable production rate through the 20th century. These new volumes improve the linear correlation between erupted volume and coeruption tilt change, indicating that tilt may be used to determine eruption volume. During eruptions the active vents migrate 325–480 m downhill, suggesting rough excess pressures of 8–12 MPa and that the gradient of this excess pressure increases from 0.4 to 11 Pa s−1 during the 20th century. We suggest that this is related to increased resistance along the eruptive conduit. ©2018. The Authors.

Description: In this paper we describe how recent high resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) can be used as constraints for extracting glacier surface DEMs from old aerial photographs and to evaluate the uncertainty of the mass balance record derived from the DEMs. We present a case study for Drangajökull ice cap, NW-Iceland. This ice cap covered an area of 144 km2 when it was surveyed with airborne LiDAR in 2011. Aerial photographs spanning all or most of the ice cap are available from survey flights in 1946, 1960, 1975, 1985, 1994 and 2005. All ground control points used to constrain the orientation of the aerial photographs were obtained from the high resolution LiDAR DEM (2 m × 2 m cell size and vertical accuracy 〈 0.5 m). The LiDAR DEM was also used to estimate errors of the extracted photogrammetric DEMs in ice and snow free areas, at nunataks and outside the glacier margin. The derived errors of each DEM were used to constrain a spherical variogram model, which along with the derived errors in ice and snow free areas were used as inputs into 1000 Sequential Gaussian Simulations (SGSim). The simulations were used to estimate the possible bias in the entire glaciated part of the DEM. The derived bias correction, varying in magnitude between DEMs from 0.03 to 1.66 m (1946 DEM) was then applied. The simulation results were also used to calculate the 95 % confidence level of this bias, resulting in values between ±0.21 m (in 2005) and ±1.58 m (in 1946). Error estimation methods based on more simple proxies would typically yield 2–4 times larger error estimates. The aerial photographs used were acquired between late June and early October. An additional bias correction was therefore estimated using a degree day model to obtain the volume change between the start of two hydrological years (1 October). This correction corresponds to an average elevation change of ~ −3 m in the worst case for 1960, or about ~ 2/3 of volume change between the 1960 and the 1975 DEMs. The total uncertainty of the derived mass balance record is mostly due to uncertainty of the SGSim bias correction, the uncertainty of the seasonal bias correction and the uncertainty of the interpolated glacier surface where data is lacking. The record shows a glacier-wide mass balance rate of Ḃ = −0.250 ± 0.040 m w.e. a−1 for the entire study period (1946–2011). We observe significant decadal variability including positive periods, peaking in 1985–1994 with Ḃ = 0.26 ± 0.11 m w.e. a−1. There is a striking difference if Ḃ is calculated separately for the western and eastern halves of Drangajökull, with a reduction of eastern part on average ~ 3 times faster than the western part. Our study emphasises the need of applying rigorous geostatistical methods for obtaining uncertainty estimates of geodetic mass balance, the importance of seasonal corrections of DEMs from glaciers with high mass turnover and the risk of extrapolating mass balance record from one glacier to another even over short distances.

Description: In response to climate change, most glaciers are losing mass and hence contribute to sea-level rise. Repeated and accurate mapping of their surface topography is required to estimate their mass balance and to extrapolate/calibrate sparse field glaciological measurements. In this study we evaluate the potential of Pléiades sub-meter stereo imagery to derive digital elevation models (DEMs) of glaciers and their elevation changes. Our five validation sites are located in Iceland, the European Alps, the Central Andes, Nepal and Antarctica. For all sites, nearly simultaneous field measurements were collected to evaluate the Pléiades DEMs. For Iceland, the Pléiades DEM is also compared to a Lidar DEM. The vertical biases of the Pléiades DEMs are less than 1 m if ground control points (GCPs) are used, but reach up to 6 m without GCPs. Even without GCPs, vertical biases can be reduced to a few decimetres by horizontal and vertical co-registration of the DEMs to reference altimetric data on ice-free terrain. Around these biases, the vertical precision of the Pléiades DEMs is ±1 m and even ±0.5 m on the flat glacier tongues (1-sigma confidence level). We also demonstrate the high potential of Pléiades DEMs for measuring seasonal, annual and multi-annual elevation changes with an accuracy of 1 m or better. The negative glacier-wide mass balances of the Argentière Glacier and Mer de Glace (−1.21 ± 0.16 and −1.19 ± 0.16 m.w.e. yr−1, respectively) are revealed by differencing SPOT5 and Pléiades DEMs acquired in August 2003 and 2012 demonstrating the continuing rapid glacial wastage in the Mont-Blanc area.

Description: In response to climate change, most glaciers are losing mass and hence contribute to sea-level rise. Repeated and accurate mapping of their surface topography is required to estimate their mass balance and to extrapolate/calibrate sparse field glaciological measurements. In this study we evaluate the potential of sub-meter stereo imagery from the recently launched Pléiades satellites to derive digital elevation models (DEMs) of glaciers and their elevation changes. Our five evaluation sites, where nearly simultaneous field measurements were collected, are located in Iceland, the European Alps, the central Andes, Nepal and Antarctica. For Iceland, the Pléiades DEM is also compared to a lidar DEM. The vertical biases of the Pléiades DEMs are less than 1 m if ground control points (GCPs) are used, but reach up to 7 m without GCPs. Even without GCPs, vertical biases can be reduced to a few decimetres by horizontal and vertical co-registration of the DEMs to reference altimetric data on ice-free terrain. Around these biases, the vertical precision of the Pléiades DEMs is ±1 m and even ±0.5 m on the flat glacier tongues (1σ confidence level). Similar precision levels are obtained in the accumulation areas of glaciers and in Antarctica. We also demonstrate the high potential of Pléiades DEMs for measuring seasonal, annual and multi-annual elevation changes with an accuracy of 1 m or better if cloud-free images are available. The negative region-wide mass balances of glaciers in the Mont-Blanc area (−1.04 ± 0.23 m a−1 water equivalent, w.e.) are revealed by differencing Satellite pour l'Observation de la Terre 5 (SPOT 5) and Pléiades DEMs acquired in August 2003 and 2012, confirming the accelerated glacial wastage in the European Alps.