Search results for "glacier"
showing 10 items of 67 documents
Quantification des hauteurs de neige et des températures de l'air à la surface d'un glacier : du terrain à l'interpolation, confrontation de méthodes
2009
Quantifying snow cover and surface air temperature on a glacier is usually based on point data. The density of point measures is dependent on the local context. Interpolation brings the opportunity to generate a continuous surface. This surface can be used to derive a global measure for the whole glacier. These measures (total snow water equivalent, average thermal state) are integrated in glaciological and hydrological equations. Interpolation also renders the spatial variations of processes and provides information on inaccessible or not-monitored zones. Using the example of an arctic glacier, several interpolation methods were tested and compared. These methods were applied to snow drill…
APPLICATION OF UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES FOR GLACIER RESEARCH IN THE ARCTIC AND ANTARCTIC
2019
Unmanned aerial vehicles or drones are nowadays widely used in a broad field of scientific and commercial applications. Despite this, it is quite a new method for glacier mapping in polar regions and has a lot of advantages, as well as disadvantages over more classical remote sensing instruments. Here we examine the main issues associated with the application of drones for glacier research from our experience in Iceland, Greenland and the Antarctic. We use DJI Phantom series drones for the obtaining of aerial photographs and produce digital surface models (resolution of 8 – 16 cm) and orthomosaics (resolution of 2 – 4 cm) for glacier mapping. Several issues related to the ground control poi…
Contributions of statistical modelling for the understanding of the nivo-glaciological dynamics of a small arctic glacial basin (Austre Lovén glacier…
2021
Since the middle of the 19th century, the Earth has experienced a climate shift marked by a high rise in temperature (+ 0.85 °C over the period 1880-2012). The Arctic is the region of the world that is warming the most rapidly, at a rate of 2 to 3 times faster than the global average. In this context, all components of the Arctic cryosphere are experiencing a change in their dynamics. Because of their direct links with the atmosphere, glaciers are among the best indicators of these climate variations. Like other glaciers on the globe, the glaciers of Svalbard, which cover 60% of the archipelago’s surface, have been retreating since the end of the Little Ice Age. This retreat, which is refle…
A 5500-year oxygen isotope record of high arctic environmental change from southern Spitsbergen
2017
The oxygen isotope composition of chironomid head capsules in a sediment core spanning the past 5500 years from Lake Svartvatnet in southern Spitsbergen was used to reconstruct the oxygen isotope composition of lake water (δ18Olw) and local precipitation. The δ18Olw values display shifts from the baseline variability consistent with the timing of recognized historical climatic episodes, such as the Roman Warm Period, the Dark Ages Cold Period and the ‘Little Ice Age’. The highest values of the record, ca. 3‰ above modern δ18Olw values, occur at ca. 1900–1800 cal. yr BP. Three negative excursions increasing in intensity toward the present, at 3400–3200, 1250–1100, and 350–50 cal. yr BP, are…
A discrete-element model for viscoelastic deformation and fracture of glacial ice
2015
a b s t r a c t A discrete-element model was developed to study the behavior of viscoelastic materials that are allowed to fracture. Applicable to many materials, the main objective of this analysis was to develop a model specifically for ice dynamics. A realistic model of glacial ice must include elasticity, brittle fracture and slow viscous deformations. Here the model is described in detail and tested with several benchmark simulations. The model was used to simulate various ice-specific applications with resulting flow rates that were compatible with Glen's law, and produced under fragmentation fragment-size distributions that agreed with the known analytical and experimental results.
The transport history of two Saharan dust events archived in an Alpine ice core
2005
Mineral dust from the Saharan desert can be transported across the Mediterranean towards the Alpine region several times a year. When coinciding with snowfall, the dust can be deposited on Alpine glaciers and then appears as yellow or red layers in ice cores. Two such significant dust events were identified in an ice core drilled at the high-accumulation site Piz Zupó in the Swiss Alps (46°22' N, 9°55' E, 3850 m a.s.l.). From stable oxygen isotopes and major ion concentrations, the events were approximately dated as October and March 2000. In order to link the dust record in the ice core to the meteorological situation that led to the dust events, a novel methodology based on b…
Etude d'un système fluviatile proglaciaire par méthodes géophysiques et mesures GPS : L'exemple du glacier des Bossons
2007
Quantification of sediment transport into Kongsfjorden due to the glacier melt dynamics of Austre Lovenbreen using terrestrial laser scanning
2018
International audience; Climate warming causes a decrease of glaciers in Svalbard. This results in sig-nificant changes of the geomorphology of areas in glacier catchments where iceand permafrost is melting. In particular the snout of the glacier melts drasticallyand the water outflow of the glacier changes sometimes its direction. Sedimentand bed load transport forms new river beds in the moraine, and the sedimentsinvolved are transported downstream into the fjords. In recent years terrestriallaser scanning technology has developed significantly, so it is possible to mea-sure the surface of a whole glacier catchment such as the Austre Lovenbreen inhigh resolution just in a few days or even…