1. Motion of David Glacier in East Antarctica Observed by
COSMO-SkyMED Differential SAR Interferometry
Hyangsun Han and Hoonyol Lee
Department of Geophysics, Kangwon National University, Republic of Korea
Abstract
Monitoring motion of glacier is necessary to investigate the ice mass balance, polar ice discharge, and the effect of polar ice to climate change. Differential SAR Interferometry (DInSAR) has been widely used to detect glacier motion. In this study, we extracted a surface displacement map of David glacier by applying DInSAR to one-day tandem pairs obtained from COSMO-SkyMED satellites. Terra ASTER global digital elevation model (GDEM) is used to remove the topographic effect from the COSMO-SkyMED interferograms. The glacier showed very fast motion forming a block of streamlines with different flow velocity. For more accurate analysis, we will use TanDEM-X DEM to perform the DInSAR. The flow characteristics, ice mass balance, ice discharge rate of David glacier remains as an ongoing research.
Displacement Map
0 m
LOS Displacement
Range
-1.0 m
Range
-0.3 m
0 m
Azimuth
Azimuth
LOS Displacement
LOS Displacement
COSMO-SkyMED Interferograms
Range
Azimuth
0.8 m
0.6 m
(a)
(b)
(c)
Date
(yyyy/mm/dd)
Orbit
Incidence angle
Baseline
(perpendicular)
(a)
2011/04/28
2011/04/29
descending
40.0°
98.6 m
(b)
2011/05/05
2011/05/06
ascending
120.1 m
(c)
2011/09/07
2011/09/08
37.7°
32.1 m
(d)
2011/09/17
2011/09/18
50.0 m
(e)
2011/10/07
2011/10/08
35.8°
92.3 m
0.8 m
LOS Displacement
-0.4 m
Range
0 m
Azimuth
LOS Displacement
0.8 m
Range
Azimuth
(d)
(e)
Fig. 1. COSMO-SkyMED one-day interferograms of David glacier, East Antarctica (75°20′S, 161°15′E). David glacier is an outlet glacier of 13 km width near the grounding line and 50 km long from the source to the grounding line. David glacier flows into Ross Sea forming Drygalski Ice Tongue, 100 km long and 23 km wide.
Fig. 2. The maps of surface displacement of David glacier toward the line of sight (LOS) of radar extracted form phase unwrapped differential interferograms of (a) April, (b) May, (c and d) September and (e) October, The glacier showed very fast motion forming a block of streamlines with different flow velocity.