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Session 2. Mountain Glaciers

L. Jakob, A. Di Bella

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Key Findings

  • Elevation and mass changes can now be retrieved via a number of different altimetry sensors (CryoSat-2, ICESat-2, ICESat, GEDI, Sentinel-6, Sentinel-3) over ice caps, although exhibiting different resolutions and coverage.
    • CryoSat-2 has currently demonstrated to monitor glacier mass balance globally, regionally and locally, including the most topographically challenging regions;
    • ICESat-2 has currently demonstrated to monitor glacier mass balance regionally and locally;
    • Other sensors (e.g. Sentinel-6, Sentinel-3) have been shown to exhibit the potential to contribute to regional mass balance estimates
  • The combination of multiple sensors can increase temporal and spatial resolution of mass balance measurements, bridge future mission gaps as well as enable radar penetration studies and a better estimation of errors.
  • Volume to mass conversion over glaciers as one of the main challenges and the largest source of uncertainties as the current standard over glaciers still uses bulk density, which breaks down at short time-scales (sub 10 years).
  • Various new and promising applications of ICESat-2 over glaciers and ice caps beyond mass balance measurements, including monitoring of surface roughness changes on surge-type glaciers, crevasses and proglacial lakes.

Cryo2ice Symposium 2024

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Recommendations / Opportunities

  • Further exploit and combine ICESat/ ICESat-2/ GEDI/ CryoSat-2/ Sentinel-6/ Sentinel-3 over glaciers
  • More effort needed to target multi-sensor applications over glaciers
  • An effort is needed to improve density assumptions used for the volume to mass conversion (current standard is bulk density for conversion)
  • Opportunity to leverage monthly/seasonal mass balance signals from altimetry sensors (CryoSat-2, ICESat2); e.g. for regional hydrology applications (multi-sensors approach?)
  • Opportunity for CRISTAL and other future missions to optimize the sensor for better sampling over glaciers, to provide new opportunities for long-term monitoring of glaciers

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Vatnajökull ice cap, Iceland

Cryo2ice Symposium 2024