Airborne Laser Mapping of Greenland

Conference · Tue Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996

OSTI ID:379528

Krabill, W B ^[1]; Thomas, R H ^[2]; Martin, C F; Sonntag, J G ^[3]

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1. Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, VA (United States)
2. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC (United States)
3. EG&G Washington Analytical Services Center, Inc., Rockville, MD (United States)

The Polar ice sheets contain enough water to raise Earth`s sea level by some 70 m. It is not clear whether changes in these ice sheets are contributing to the current rise. Ice sheet mass balance estimates can be obtained by monitoring the topography of selected Polar regions. The Arctic Ice Mapping (AIM) Project is a continuing program designed to provide a record of the absolute height of representative Arctic ice sheets. Using the Global Positioning System (GPS), aircraft flight lines may be duplicated with sufficient tolerance to provide repeated laser elevation measurements from one year to another. The raw GPS measurements are re-processed post-mission to provide sub-10 cm trajectories for each aircraft flight. This program began in 1991 with a proof-of-concept mission to Greenland. The data from this mission demonstrates 20 cm repeatability, principally due to the limited GPS constellation available. Refinements in all phases of the program (software, law and GPS hardware, and a complete GPS constellation) have yielded 10 cm repeatability in data from subsequent years, which includes probable geophysical change in the surface due to storm events and wind drift. 5 refs., 5 figs., 2 tabs.

• OSTI ID: 379528
• Report Number(s): CONF-960613--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AERIAL SURVEYING
ARCTIC REGIONS
GREENLAND
ICE CAPS
LASERS
MAPPING
MASS BALANCE
SEA LEVEL