Using surface velocities to calculate ice thickness and bed topography of the Taku Glacier. (2014)
Undergraduate: Sarah Cooley
Faculty Advisor: Tamlin Pavelsky
Department: Geology
Understanding glacier volume and ice thickness is very important for many glaciological studies, yet it is difficult to obtain this information from direct measurement. This research presents an application of a new method that utilizes satellite surface velocity and thinning rates to produce a model of the bed topography. By using an estimate of ice flux to solve the continuity equation between adjacent glacier flowlines, we calculate ice thickness across the entire glacier. We then produce a model of the bed topography beneath the glacier using this ice thickness. This study is conducted on the Taku Glacier, a tidewater glacier on the Juneau Icefield in Southeast Alaska, which provides a unique opportunity to test this method on a large advancing glacier. By considering the calculated bedrock slopes and how thickness change propagates through a glacier, we can also then examine the stability of the Taku Glacier¿s current advance.