Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet - Ice Surface Velocities

S.B. Andersen, A.P. Ahlstrøm, J.P.M. Boncori, J. Dall

Research output: Contribution to conferencePoster

Abstract

In 2007, the Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy launched the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE) as an ongoing effort to assess changes in the mass budget of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Iceberg calving from the outlet glaciers of the Greenland Ice Sheet, often termed the ice-dynamic mass loss, is responsible for an important part of the mass loss during the last decade. To quantify this part of the mass loss, we combine airborne surveys yielding ice-sheet thickness along the entire margin, with surface velocities derived from satellite synthetic-aperture radar (SAR). In order to derive ice sheet surface velocities from SAR a processing chain has been developed for GEUS by DTU Space based on a commercial software package distributed by GAMMA Remote Sensing. The processor, named SUSIE (Scripts and Utilities for SAR Ice-motion Estimation), can use both differential SAR interferometry and offset-tracking techniques to measure the horizontal velocity components, providing also an estimate of the corresponding measurement error. So far surface velocities have been derived for a number of sites including Nioghalvfjerdsfjord Glacier, the Kangerlussuaq region, the Nuuk region, Helheim Glacier and Daugaard-Jensen Glacier using data from ERS-1/ERS-2, ENVISAT ASAR and ALOS Palsar. Here we will present these first results.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2011
EventAGU Fall Meeting 2011 - San Fransisco, USA
Duration: 5 Dec 20119 Dec 2011

Conference

ConferenceAGU Fall Meeting 2011
CitySan Fransisco, USA
Period5/12/119/12/11

Programme Area

  • Programme Area 5: Nature and Climate

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