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SUMMARY:Remote sensing of Greenland tidewater glaciers - Dr Suzanne Bevan\
 , Swansea University
DTSTART:20130605T153000Z
DTEND:20130605T163000Z
UID:TALK40738@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Steven Palmer
DESCRIPTION:Recent years have seen large losses in the mass balance of the
  Greenland ice sheet\, with flux lost at the calving margins of tidewater 
 outlet glaciers a significant component of these losses. Ice-sheet calving
  processes and interactions between ice and ocean\, however\, are still no
 t well understood and in-situ observations in the critical ice-front regio
 ns are difficult and dangerous to obtain. This seminar will show the vario
 us roles that satellite observations have to play in underpinning attempts
  to advance understanding of calving processes.\nTo begin with I will summ
 arise some recent work which made use of data from the early LandSAT archi
 ve through to more recent Envisat SAR imagery. The results highlight the o
 nset of changing tidewater glacier dynamics around Greenland\, and the coi
 ncidence of change with warming atmosphere and ocean temperatures. These l
 ong time series of broad-scale data can provide empirical evidence for the
  influence of atmosphere and ocean on glacier dynamics. \nNext I will pres
 ent some data of much higher temporal sampling – Envisat ASAR Wide Swath
  Mode data. These data begin to capture continuous observations of calving
  and allow differences in calving characteristics to be identified between
 \, for example\, Helheim and Kangerdugssuq glaciers in east Greenland. Thi
 s type of data can be used to inform empirical or parametrised models of c
 alving behaviour.\nProgressing towards a mechanistic calving model require
 s improved spatial resolution. TanDEM-X (launched in 2010) and TerraSAR-X 
 (2007) are providing extremely high-spatial resolution SAR data. These dat
 a will ultimately be used to generate an interferometric global digital el
 evation model (DEM). However\, by processing data ourselves we are able to
  create DEM time series at 11-day repeat intervals and an extraordinary 2
  m spatial resolution over ‘supersites’ such as Helheim and Kangerdlu
 gssuaq. I will conclude by presenting some of these DEMs and also feature-
 tracked surface velocity fields based on the same data.
LOCATION:Scott Polar Research Institute\, main lecture theatre
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