The Cryosphere Discussions www.the-cryosphere-discuss.net 1994-0432 1994-0440 3 2 2009 10.5194/tcd-3-383-2009 http://www.the-cryosphere-discuss.net/3/383/2009/ http://www.the-cryosphere-discuss.net/3/383/2009/tcd-3-383-2009.html http://www.the-cryosphere-discuss.net/3/383/2009/tcd-3-383-2009.pdf 383 414 2009-07-01 Multi-temporal airborne LIDAR-DEMs for glacier and permafrost mapping and monitoring J. Abermann jakob.abermann@uibk.ac.at A. Fischer A. Lambrecht T. Geist Austrian Academy of Sciences, Commission for Geophysical Research, Vienna, Austria Institute of Meteorology and Geophysics, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria FFG – Austrian Research Promotion Agency / ALR – Aeronautics and Space Agency, Vienna, Austria The proposed method presents a simple and robust way to derive glacier extent by using multi-temporal high-resolution DEMs (digital elevation models) as a main data source. For glaciers that are not debris covered, we perform the glacier boundary delineation by analysing roughness differences between ice and its surroundings. A promising way to distinguish dead ice, debris-covered ice or permafrost from its rocky surroundings is shown by taking elevation changes from DEMs of different dates into consideration. In case data has a high spatial and temporal resolution a good representation of the extent of debris cover and thus the overall ice covered area can be given. We use examples to show how potentially ambiguous areas can be treated decisively by the additional qualitative analysis of aerial photographs. Problems and limitations are discussed in comparison with selected other remote sensing techniques and accuracies are quantified. For glaciers larger than 1 km² an accuracy of ±1% of the glacier area could be assessed. The errors of smaller glaciers do not exceed ±5% of the glacier area. 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