Tweedsmuir April 08

On April 8th, 2008, laser altimetry data was collected over the surging Tweedsmuir glacier. The data can be downloaded and viewed in Google Earth kmz file via this link: Tweedsmuir_2008_099.kmz

An overview of the terminus is shown to the right (top), with the laser points in red. The UAF laser altimetry system is a single beam lidar, meaning that we collect a single path of elevations beneath the flight path rather than a swath.

The lower panel shows a perspective view of the terminus area. I have tried to set up this kmz file so that you can visualize the elevation increases. The Z data in the kmz file are meters of elevation change (dZ) relative to the SRTM DEM (Feb.. 2000). In the kmz file, the points are shown above the surface by the amount the glacier surface elevation has changed, and the lines extending down to the surface help visulize the change. Note that these dZ values also contain all the melt and retreat that occurred from the SRTM-DEM date (Feb. 2000) up to last spring when the surge started, so the actual changes are even greater at least within the terminus region.

If you wish to see the value of surface elevation change for a specific point in this file, left click on it and then select properties (PC) or info (Mac) then altitude. The menu should look something like what is shown in the lower panel to the right. The value displayed is the dZ relative to the SRTM.

To see some pictures from the day of the flight, go here: PICTURES