Artículo de revista
A review of remote sensing methods for glacier mass balance determination
Fecha
2007-10Registro en:
GLOBAL AND PLANETARY CHANGE, Volume: 59, Issue: 1-4, Pages: 138-148, 2007
0921-8181
Autor
Bamber, Jonathan
Rivera Ibáñez, Sergio
Institución
Resumen
Airborne and satellite remote sensing is the only practical approach for deriving a wide area, regional assessment of glacier
mass balance. A number of remote sensing approaches are possible for inferring the mass balance from some sort of proxy
estimate. Here, we review the key methods relevant, in particular to Andean glaciers, discussing their strengths and weaknesses,
and data sets that could be more fully exploited. We also consider future satellite missions that will provide advances in our
observational capabilities. The methods discussed include observation of elevation changes, estimation of ice flux, repeat
measurement of changes in spatial extent, snowline elevation and accumulation–ablation area ratio estimation. The methods are
illustrated utilising a comprehensive review of results obtained from a number of studies of South American glaciers, focusing
specifically on the Patagonian Icefields. In particular, we present some new results from Glaciar Chico, Southern Patagonian
Icefield, Chile, where a variety of different satellite and in-situ data have been combined to estimate mass balance using a geodetic
or elevation change approach over about a 25 yr period.