5:15 PM - 6:45 PM
[ACC26-P01] Detection of glacier equilibrium line altitude using SAR backscatter images
Keywords:Glacier, Equilibrium Line Altitude, SAR, ALOS-2
The ELA (equilibrium line altitude) is one of the important indicators to quantify the response of glaciers to changing climate. However, ELA observations by field surveys (glaciological method) are limited to a few hundred glaciers due to labor and time intensive.
Winter backscatter of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is higher in the accumulation area and lower in the ablation area, suggesting the possibility of ELA detection using SAR data (e.g., Winsvold et al., 2018). Using SAR data, largely insensitive to weather, is expected to observe the ELA of glaciers worldwide. However, there has yet to be an established method to observe the ELA of glaciers worldwide using SAR data taken at various incident angles.
The purpose of this study is to estimate long-term time-series changes in the ELA of glaciers worldwide using archived L-band SAR data acquired by JAXA's SAR satellites JERS-1(1992-1998), ALOS/PALSAR (2006-2011) and ALOS-2/PALSAR-2 (2014- on-going) data.
In this presentation, we calculate the altitude profile of SAR backscatter coefficients for Taku Glacier, Alaska, where ELA has been observed, and discuss the possibility of ELA detection using L-band SAR data.
Winter backscatter of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is higher in the accumulation area and lower in the ablation area, suggesting the possibility of ELA detection using SAR data (e.g., Winsvold et al., 2018). Using SAR data, largely insensitive to weather, is expected to observe the ELA of glaciers worldwide. However, there has yet to be an established method to observe the ELA of glaciers worldwide using SAR data taken at various incident angles.
The purpose of this study is to estimate long-term time-series changes in the ELA of glaciers worldwide using archived L-band SAR data acquired by JAXA's SAR satellites JERS-1(1992-1998), ALOS/PALSAR (2006-2011) and ALOS-2/PALSAR-2 (2014- on-going) data.
In this presentation, we calculate the altitude profile of SAR backscatter coefficients for Taku Glacier, Alaska, where ELA has been observed, and discuss the possibility of ELA detection using L-band SAR data.