Application of ALSM to Ice Sheet Mapping

Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,

July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL

Laser Altimetry Research at OSU

Laser altimetry projects

GLAS related research, host of one of the Remote Science Computing
Facilities (NASA/GSFC, 1994-2003),
Acquisition and analysis of a multisensor data set, including laser and
photogrammetry, over Ocean City (NASA, OSU, ISPRS, NGS, NOAA)
Creation of precise DEM over Ocean City for calibrating the Microaltimeter low
photon count satellite laser system (NASA/GSFC, 2001)
Calibration and validation of NSF-SOAR laser altimeter in the Antarctica (NSF,
1998-2001)
Mapping surface topography and changes by using ATM data in Greenland
(NASA, PARCA program, 2000)

Personel
3 faculty, 3-5 graduate student (2 PhD dissertation completed, 3 ongoing)

Other activity:
Co-organizers of laser altimetry workshop series:
2nd Laser Altimetry Workshop, Annapolis, MD, October 22-24, 2001
Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,
July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL

Mapping and Monitoring Polar Ice Sheets

Topography/Volume
Importance of ice sheets
Ice sheets are huge reservoirs of fresh water
Ice sheets have significant contribution to sea level change
caused by global warming
Ice sheets exhibit complex behavior

Objectives:
To determine the contribution of the ice sheets to sea level
changes by measuring their changes in volume (mass
balance monitoring)
To determine dynamic imbalances within the ice sheet. For
example, local thickening may indicate reduced velocity
To measure interannual variability of surface elevations
To provide high resolution ice-surface topography and
roughness for glaciological research
Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,
July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL

Mapping and Monitoring Polar Ice Sheets

by Altimetry (ctd.)
Methods:
Surface measurements: optical leveling, GPS
Image based methods: aerial and satellite photogrammetry,
shape from shading
Altimetry: Airborne and satellite laser and radar altimetry
InSAR

Why laser altimetry:

Works on featureless terrain
Ice sheets are ideal targets for laser altimetry
Small ranging error: highly reflective, smooth, flat surface,
small footprint and negligible penetration
Small positional error from mounting bias: small slopes
Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,
July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL

Laser Altimetry in Polar Research

Airborne laser scanning
Large program in Greenland by Airborne Topographic
Mapper (ATM) of NASA WFF (1993-present)
Small calibration and validation and science program in
Antarctica by using NSF-SOAR facility (1997-2000)

Satellite laser mapping:

Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) is scheduled to
be launched on ICESat in December 2001. ICESat is a part
of NASAs EOS mission, and its primarily objective is to
map polar ice sheet topography.

Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,

July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL

Airborne Laser Altimetry in Polar Research

Baseline surface elevation and volume change measurements
in Greenland (global coverage)
Detailed mapping of outlet glaciers (Greenland) and ice streams
(Antarctica)
Mapping surface features, such as supraglacial lakes,
crevasses and surface roughness
Providing detailed surface topography for simulating satellite
laser altimetry waveforms and developing and testing waveform
processing algorithms
Calibration of satellite laser altimetry

Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,

July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL

Airborne Topographic Mapper

The Laser
First missions were flown by
Airborne Oceanographic Lidar
Current system uses Spectra
Physics laser transmitter
Specs:

Frequency: 532 nm
Pulse length: 7nsec
Energy: 250 uJ
Typical flight height: 400-600 m
Footprint size: 0.5-1.0 m

Ranging method:
Thresholding with predetermined
threshold, range correction based
on total power to remove range
walk
Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,
July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL

Airborne Topographic Mapper

The System
Scanning mechanism:

Scan pattern of ATM

Position and attitude:

Differential carrier-phase GPS
and laser ring-gyro INS

Calibration:
Range calibration on the ground
Mounting bias determination from
overflights over flat terrain

Accuracy: 0.1-0.2 m vertical

accuracy over baselines of 500
km or longer.
Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,
July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL

120 m

Conical scanning with nutating

mirror
Adjustable off-nadir setting, scan
rate and pulse rate

Greenland ALSM program

Mass Balance Monitoring
Objective: estimation of mass
balance (annual rate of
thinning/thickening for the whole
Greenland ice sheet
Repeat laser altimetry, first
measurements in 1993-94 were
repeated in 1998-1999
Result: center part of ice sheet
(higher than 2000 m) is balanced,
but significant peripheral thinning
takes place
Results were published in Science,
Krabill et al., 1999 and 2000;
Thomas et al., 2000.
Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,
July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL

Greenland ALSM Program

Global DEM Generation
Bamber et al., in press (JGR) used
radar altimetry, stereo
photogrammetry, InSAR and digitized
cartographic maps to create the DEM
of whole Greenland
Laser altimetry data collected by Krabill
et al., 1993-1998 were used to correct
the slope induced bias of radar
altimetry data and to estimate the
accuracy of the final DEM
Result: 1 km resolution DEM of
Greenland, error is about 7 m RMS.

Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,

July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL

Mapping Ice Sheet Surface Features

Undulations
Undulations/mottles are
dominant surface features on ice
sheet.
Length scale: km
Amplitude scale: m
Glaciological information about
flow style and bed topography
Precise mapping with laser

From Bamber et al., in press

Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,
July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL

Mapping Ice Sheet Surface Features

Supraglacial Lakes
Supraglacial lakes may form on
ice sheets during melting season
Length scale: km
Amplitude (depth) scale: m
Glaciological information about
bed topography and hydraulics
of ice sheet. Possible
relationship to surging outlet
glaciers
Precise mapping and temporal
monitoring with laser

Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,

July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL

From Csatho et al., 1996

Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,

July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL

Krabill et al., unpublished

Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,
July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL

70 m

Detailed Topography of Supraglacial Lakes

from Merged ATM Swaths

3km

From Csatho et al., 1996

Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,

July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL

Mapping Ice Sheet Surface Features

Sastrugi

Sastrugi are wind generated small scale surface irregularities

Typical wavelength is few meters, amplitude is 5-20 cm
Snow surface is changing, sastrugi persist for a few month
Sastrugi statistics can be measured airborne laser and maybe
inferred from GLAS waveforms

Ice sheet surface with sastrugi mapped by ATM

From Csatho et al., 1996
Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,
July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL

Sastrugi Mapping (ctd.)

Van der Veen and Csatho, 1998 have used very high
resolution (6 cm spacing) ATM profiler data around Summit
station at Greenland to compute surface roughness
Result: Surface roughness agreed well with spatial noise in ice
core records.
Recommendation: Surface roughness can be used for
estimating spatial noise in ice cores and for studying ventilation
in firm.
Surface irregularities

Surface roughness

Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,

July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL

Other Features on Ice Sheets, Outlet

Glaciers and Ice Stream
Outlet glacier with crevasse zones
flow traces (m/km)

m/km=amplitude/wavelength
Snow dunes (m/100m)
Blue ice

Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,

July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL

Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,

July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL

West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Ice Streams

WAIS is currently undegoing major dynamic changes

Significant rate of thickening/thinning is inferred from IfSAR data
over the stopped section of ice stream C
Iceflow field from RADARSAT IfSAR
(Joughin et al., 1999)

Inferred rate of thickness change

Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,

July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL

Calibration of NSF-SOAR System and

Laser Altimetry over WAIS Ice Streams
NSF supports a small laser altimetry
program at the Antarctica to calibrate
and validate the NSF-Support Office
of Aerogeophysical Reseach (SOAR)
laser system and map changes on
the WAIS (Whillans-Csatho, 19982001)

Location of repeat laser altimetry

flights and field camps with
calibration sites (triangles)

Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,

July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL

Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,

July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL

NSF-SOAR Laser System

Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,

July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL

Calibration-Validation of SOAR system

Calibration was performed over aircraft landings strips (skiways) on the ice
sheet. Skiways were mapped by snowmobil mounted GPS
To estimate the mounting and range biases an analytical calibration solution
using full laser equation and piecewise planar surface approximation has
been developed. Complete calibration over arbitrary surface can be
performed
Laser altimetry results are validated by comparison with long term massbalance measurement sites monitored by repeat GPS

Survey of skiway

Survey of mass balance site

Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,

July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL

Results of Calibration-Validation

Accuracy of calibrated system is better than 0.1 m RMS for short

GPS baselines
Elevation accuracy of 0.1-0.25 m is inferred from crossovers and
comparison with mass balance stations for long GPS baselines (100350 km)
Repeat surface elevation measurements reveal changes in
thickening/thinning rates over the ice streams
Calibration results over Byrd Surface Camp, January 6, 2000

Workshop on Advanced Methods of Mapping Geo-surficial Processes,

July 23-25, 2001, Gainesville, FL