Using time-lapse photogrammetric method to study the terminal part of the Perito Moreno glacier

LENZANO, M. G.; TOTH, C; LENZANO, L; SMALLEY, R

Congreso; AGU Meetting of the Americas; 2013

The changes that are occurring in regional climate affect cryospheric environments and have a direct impact on the hydrological cycle. This work presents a feasibility study on the implementation and performance assessment of time-lapse processing ofstereo image sequence, acquired by calibrated cameras, in order to determine the altimetric and volumetric changes in the terminus of Perito Moreno (PM) glacier. This glacier is located at 50° 28’ 23’’S, 73° 02’ 10’’W at the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, South Patagonia Icefield, Santa Cruz, Argentina. This glacier has experienced minor fluctuations or unusual behavior with respect to others glaciers since early 1960’s until nowadays. The time-lapse technique allows for obtaining accurate estimates of deformations and velocity models. Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) were created from images, captured daily from April, 2012 to November, 2012, with a total of 182 days. One of the challenges was maintaining the accurate co-registration of the DTMs, which was essential for the information extraction. The differences between DTMs provided the velocities in the terminal part of PM for the period as it approaches the Peninsula de Magallanes. In additon, the DTMs were validated in order to determine the degree of uncertainty in the estimation of changes in the glacier.