New airborne laser altimetry over the Thwaites Glacier catchment, West Antarctica

Duncan A. Young; Scott D. Kempf; Donald D. Blankenship; John W. Holt; David L. Morse

doi:10.1029/2007GC001935

New airborne laser altimetry over the Thwaites Glacier catchment, West Antarctica

Duncan A. Young, Scott D. Kempf, Donald D. Blankenship, John W. Holt, David L. Morse

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

A new airborne altimetry data set collected over Thwaites Glacier, one of Antarctica's most active ice streams, demonstrates the improvement in publicly available digital elevation models (DEMs) of the Antarctic ice sheet. The airborne altimetry comprises 35,000 line km sampled at 20 m along track. The full data set has a relative error of ±20 cm; a reference subset has an error of ±8 cm. These data are offset from ICESat observations by +20 cm. We find that a recently released ICESat DEM provides a good model of the surface of Thwaites Glacier, despite cloud cover and wide track spacings. However, the ICESat DEM's accuracy is an order of magnitude less than that of the ICESat profile data. Our airborne data will serve as an additional temporal reference for the evolution of Thwaites Glacier's surface as well as aid the construction of future high-resolution DEMs.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	Q06006
Journal	Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems
Volume	9
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GC001935
State	Published - Jun 2008
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

Airborne altimetry
Antarctica
Digital elevation models
Satellite altimetry
Thwaites Glacier

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Geophysics
Geochemistry and Petrology

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10.1029/2007GC001935

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title = "New airborne laser altimetry over the Thwaites Glacier catchment, West Antarctica",

abstract = "A new airborne altimetry data set collected over Thwaites Glacier, one of Antarctica's most active ice streams, demonstrates the improvement in publicly available digital elevation models (DEMs) of the Antarctic ice sheet. The airborne altimetry comprises 35,000 line km sampled at 20 m along track. The full data set has a relative error of ±20 cm; a reference subset has an error of ±8 cm. These data are offset from ICESat observations by +20 cm. We find that a recently released ICESat DEM provides a good model of the surface of Thwaites Glacier, despite cloud cover and wide track spacings. However, the ICESat DEM's accuracy is an order of magnitude less than that of the ICESat profile data. Our airborne data will serve as an additional temporal reference for the evolution of Thwaites Glacier's surface as well as aid the construction of future high-resolution DEMs.",

keywords = "Airborne altimetry, Antarctica, Digital elevation models, Satellite altimetry, Thwaites Glacier",

author = "Young, {Duncan A.} and Kempf, {Scott D.} and Blankenship, {Donald D.} and Holt, {John W.} and Morse, {David L.}",

year = "2008",

month = jun,

doi = "10.1029/2007GC001935",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "9",

journal = "Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems",

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T1 - New airborne laser altimetry over the Thwaites Glacier catchment, West Antarctica

AU - Young, Duncan A.

AU - Kempf, Scott D.

AU - Blankenship, Donald D.

AU - Holt, John W.

AU - Morse, David L.

PY - 2008/6

Y1 - 2008/6

N2 - A new airborne altimetry data set collected over Thwaites Glacier, one of Antarctica's most active ice streams, demonstrates the improvement in publicly available digital elevation models (DEMs) of the Antarctic ice sheet. The airborne altimetry comprises 35,000 line km sampled at 20 m along track. The full data set has a relative error of ±20 cm; a reference subset has an error of ±8 cm. These data are offset from ICESat observations by +20 cm. We find that a recently released ICESat DEM provides a good model of the surface of Thwaites Glacier, despite cloud cover and wide track spacings. However, the ICESat DEM's accuracy is an order of magnitude less than that of the ICESat profile data. Our airborne data will serve as an additional temporal reference for the evolution of Thwaites Glacier's surface as well as aid the construction of future high-resolution DEMs.

AB - A new airborne altimetry data set collected over Thwaites Glacier, one of Antarctica's most active ice streams, demonstrates the improvement in publicly available digital elevation models (DEMs) of the Antarctic ice sheet. The airborne altimetry comprises 35,000 line km sampled at 20 m along track. The full data set has a relative error of ±20 cm; a reference subset has an error of ±8 cm. These data are offset from ICESat observations by +20 cm. We find that a recently released ICESat DEM provides a good model of the surface of Thwaites Glacier, despite cloud cover and wide track spacings. However, the ICESat DEM's accuracy is an order of magnitude less than that of the ICESat profile data. Our airborne data will serve as an additional temporal reference for the evolution of Thwaites Glacier's surface as well as aid the construction of future high-resolution DEMs.

KW - Airborne altimetry

KW - Antarctica

KW - Digital elevation models

KW - Satellite altimetry

KW - Thwaites Glacier

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New airborne laser altimetry over the Thwaites Glacier catchment, West Antarctica

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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