CryoSat+Mountain Glaciers

CryoSat reveals ice loss from glaciers in Alaska and Asia

admin — Sat, 05 Jun 2021 09:30:32 +0000

CryoSat shows that between 2010 and 2019, the Gulf of Alaska lost 76 Gt of ice per year while High Mountain Asia lost 28 Gt of ice per year. These losses are equivalent to adding 0.21 mm and 0.05 mm to sea level rise per year, respectively.

High Mountain Asia and Pacific Coast Range mass change

admin — Thu, 19 Mar 2020 15:39:22 +0000

Cryosat swath data has been used to generate for the first time elevation change at the scale of an entire mountain glacier area in PCR and HMA from radar altimetry.

CryoSat+ Mountain Glaciers project extension

admin — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 15:07:26 +0000

The CryoSat+ Mountain Glaciers project has demonstrated the benefit of using CryoSat-2 swath processing for retrieving elevation and rates of surface elevation change over ice caps and glaciers. The purpose of this project extension is to expand on the work and to explore a different approach to calculating rates of surface elevation change from swath elevation produced during the CryoSat+ Mountain Glaciers project. This is motivated by the fact that there is a insufficient number of repeat observation over regions such as the High Mountain Asia (HMA) and Pacific Coast Range (PCR) to allow for conventional repeat.

CryoSat reveals retreat of Patagonian glaciers

admin — Sat, 08 Sep 2018 12:18:41 +0000

Apart from Antarctica, Patagonia is home to the biggest glaciers in the southern hemisphere, but some are retreating faster than anywhere else in the world. This is because the weather is relatively warm and these glaciers typically terminate in fjords and lakes, exacerbating surface melting and causing them to flow faster and lose ice as icebergs at their margins. Traditionally, it has been very difficult to map exactly how fast these glaciers are changing. However, a new way of processing ESA CryoSat swath data now makes it possible to map these glaciers in fine detail. CryoSat has revealed that between 2011 and 2017, there was widespread thinning, particularly in Patagonia’s more northern ice fields.

Heterogeneous and rapid ice loss over the Patagonian Ice Fields

admin — Fri, 15 Jun 2018 12:10:59 +0000

CryoSat-2 swath radar altimetry is employed successfully to map elevation change over the Patagonian Ice Fields at sub-kilometer spatial resolution. Despite the challenging topography, similar to that of mountain glaciers, the technique can be used to observe changes over individual glaciers or catchments with an area as small as 300 km².

Between April 2011 and March 2017, the Ice Fields lost mass at a combined rate of 21.29 ± 1.98 Gt a⁻¹ (equivalent to 0.059 ± 0.005 mm a⁻¹ eustatic sea level rise), an increase of 24% and 42% when compared to the periods 2000–2012/14 and 1975–2000, respectively.

Elevation over High Mountain Asia

admin — Mon, 26 Jun 2017 12:26:28 +0000

CS+Mountain Glaciers project has produced elevation data over High Mountain Asia with unprecedent coverage.

Elevation over Alaska

admin — Mon, 26 Jun 2017 12:24:56 +0000

CS+Mountain Glaciers project has produced elevation data over Alaska

Elevation data over Canada

admin — Mon, 26 Jun 2017 12:22:41 +0000

CS+Mountain Glaciers project has produced elevation data over Canadian Rockies.

EGU blog – Icelandic glaciers monitored from space

admin — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 08:10:21 +0000

CryoSat+MtG featured a EGU blog on Icelandic glaciers monitored from space:

http://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/2017/02/17/image-of-the-week-icelandic-glaciers-monitored-from-space/

Southern Hemisphere Mass Loss

admin — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 17:09:10 +0000

Swath Processing will allow to better estimate Rates of surface elevation change, Mass loss and contribution to Sea Level Rise in the Southern Hemisphere