INVESTIGADORES
RUIZ Lucas Ernesto
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
A preliminary remote sensing glacier inventory for the Wet Andes, Argentine and Chile, between 42°S and 42°10'S.
Autor/es:
RUIZ, LUCAS.; TROMBOTTO, DARIO.; VILLALBA, RICARDO.
Lugar:
Valdvia
Reunión:
Conferencia; VICC2010 International Glaciological Conference Ice and Climate Change: A View from the South; 2010
Institución organizadora:
CECS (Centro de Estudios Cientificos)
Resumen:
The study presented here describes two major tasks.
First, a preliminary glacier inventory of the Wet Andes
between the 42° S, 72°10 W and 42° 10 S, 72° W, was realized. The study area
is characterized by a small ice field, from which valley glaciers or hanging
glaciers flow out. Similar ice fields exist further west. The inventory was
compiled using one ASTER scene of 2007, following GLIMS methodology. Because of
the presence of covered or highly cast shadow parts and proglacial lakes, a
manual correction of glaciers boundaries was necessary.
The total area covered with glaciers or/and snow patches is
~100 km2, 103 glaciers bigger than 0.1 km2 were identified and 50% of them has
an area of <0.5 km2. The biggest glacier is in Argentina the Esperanza Norte
glacier with 10.7 Km2.
Second, 3-dimensional glacier parameters obtained from a
digital elevation model (ASTER_GDEM) in GIS environment were related with the
horizontal area change between 1987 and 2007 in order to characterize the
influence of topography in the response of glaciers to climate. The extents of
the glaciers in 1987 were obtained from a Landsat TM.
As preliminary results, glaciers that lost more area between
1987 and 2007 are characterized by an ablation zone of low gradient and low
elevation, most of them developed proglacial lakes in the 20 year period.
Another significant change is related with valley glaciers that now are
reconstituted. This dynamic behavior has to be considered when evaluating the
response of glaciers to climate.