Current Browsing: Cryosphere science


Antarctic ice sheet surface elevation data (2003-2009)

The Antarctic ice sheet elevation data were generated from radar altimeter data (Envisat RA-2) and lidar data (ICESat/GLAS). To improve the accuracy of the ICESat/GLAS data, five different quality control indicators were used to process the GLAS data, filtering out 8.36% unqualified data. These five quality control indicators were used to eliminate satellite location error, atmospheric forward scattering, saturation and cloud effects. At the same time, dry and wet tropospheric, correction, solid tide and extreme tide corrections were performed on the Envisat RA-2 data. For the two different elevation data, an elevation relative correction method based on the geometric intersection of Envisat RA-2 and GLAS data spot footprints was proposed, which was used to analyze the point pairs of GLAS footprints and Envisat RA-2 data center points, establish the correlation between the height difference of these intersection points (GLAS-RA-2) and the roughness of the terrain relief, and perform the relative correction of the Envisat RA-2 data to the point pairs with stable correlation. By analyzing the altimetry density in different areas of the Antarctic ice sheet, the final DEM resolution was determined to be 1000 meters. Considering the differences between the Prydz Bay and the inland regions of the Antarctic, the Antarctic ice sheet was divided into 16 sections. The best interpolation model and parameters were determined by semivariogram analysis, and the Antarctic ice sheet elevation data with a resolution of 1000 meters were generated by the Kriging interpolation method. The new Antarctic DEM was verified by two kinds of airborne lidar data and GPS data measured by multiple Antarctic expeditions of China. The results showed that the differences between the new DEM and the measured data ranged from 3.21 to 27.84 meters, and the error distribution was closely related to the slope.

2021-11-02

Surface DEM for typical glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau (Version 1.0) (2003)

The DEMs of the typical glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau were provided by the bistatic InSAR method. The data were collected on November 21, 2013. It covered Puruogangri and west Qilian Mountains with a spatial resolution of 10 meters, and an elevation accuracy of 0.8 m which met the requirements of national 1:10 000 topographic mapping. Considering the characteristics of the bistatic InSAR in terms of imaging geometry and phase unwrapping, based on the TanDEM-X bistatic InSAR data, and adopting the improved SAR interference processing method, the surface DEMs of the two typical glaciers above were generated with high resolution and precision. The data set was in GeoTIFF format, and each typical glacial DEM was stored in a folder. For details of the data, please refer to the Surface DEMs for typical glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau - Data Description.

2021-10-26

Glacier velocity of the Central Karakoram (Version 1.0) (1999-2003)

Under the background of global warming, mountain glaciers worldwide are facing strong ablation and retreat, but from existing field observations, it is found that most of the glaciers in the Karakorum region remain stable or are advancing, which is called the "Karakorum anomaly". Glacier surface velocity is an important parameter for studying glacier dynamics and mass balance. Studying the temporal and spatial variation characteristics of glacier velocity in central Karakorum is significant for understanding the dynamic characteristics of the glacier in this region and its response to climate change. Four pairs of Landsat 7 ETM+ images acquired in 1999 to 2003 (images acquired on 1999.7.16, 2000.6.16, 2001.7.21, 2002.8.9, 2002.4.19, 2003.3.21) were selected; using the panchromatic band with a resolution of 15 m, each pair of images was accurately registered, and then cross-correlation calculations were then performed on each image pair after registration to obtain the surface velocity of the glacier in the central Karakorum region from 1999 to 2003. Due to the lack of velocity observation data in the study area, the accuracy of the ice flow results is estimated using the offset value of the stable region, and the surface velocity error of the glacier is approximately ±7 m/year. The glacier velocity data dates are from 1999 to 2003, with a temporal resolution of one year. They cover the central Karakorum region, with a spatial resolution of 30 m. The data are stored as a GeoTIFF file every year. For details regarding the data, please refer to the data description.

2020-04-29