Attempt of alpine glacier flow modeling based on correlation measurements of high resolution SAR images

Yajing Yan (1) , Laurent Ferro-Famil (1) , Michel Gay (2, 3) , Renaud Fallourd (4) , Emmanuel Trouvé (4) , Flavien Vernier (4)

1 IETR - Institut d'Électronique et des Technologies du numéRique
2 GIPSA-Services - GIPSA-Services
3 GIPSA-SIGMAPHY - GIPSA - Signal Images Physique
4 LISTIC - Laboratoire d'Informatique, Systèmes, Traitement de l'Information et de la Connaissance

In this paper, an attempt of Alpine glacier flow modeling is performed based on a series of high resolution TerraSAR-X SAR images and a Digital Elevation Model. First, a glacier flow model is established according to the fluid mechanics theory in a simplified framework. Second, the displacement field over the glacier obtained from the sub-pixel image correlation of a series of TerraSAR-X SAR images is used to refine the model obtained previously. The comparison between the data observation and the model prediction allows for the validation of the established model. According to the obtained results, despite the simplifications made in the modeling, the established glacier flow model can provide general satisfactory results. Further investigation and improvement of this glacier flow model seem promising.

Mots clés: glaciology; image resolution; radar imaging; remote sensing by radar; Alpine glacier flow modeling; geophysical fluid dynamics; high resolution SAR images; digital elevation models; synthetic aperture radar

Domaines: Electronique

Yajing Yan, Laurent Ferro-Famil, Michel Gay, Renaud Fallourd, Emmanuel Trouvé, et al.. Attempt of alpine glacier flow modeling based on correlation measurements of high resolution SAR images. IGARSS 2013 - IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Jul 2013, Melbourne, Australia. pp.240-243, ⟨10.1109/IGARSS.2013.6721136⟩. ⟨hal-00953770⟩