Our newly developed drone-based GPR system is a great tool to record unprecedentedly high-densified 4D GPR data. One of the use of such dataset might be the study of internal glacier dynamics. Indeed, some might try to correlate two GPR datasets recorded at the exact same spot at two different times, and infer conclusions about how the ice moved from one acquisition to the next. To do so, we had to select adequately a field-site. The glacier can’t be too deep because the radar should still be able to probe its entire depth down to the bedrock. It should be dynamic enough such that the ice move between two data collections. It shouldn’t be too crevassed as such features impact the GPR data, and finally it should be rather accessible, as the objective is to go on a regular basis and going by helicopter every single occurrence is expensive and pollutant. Under these requirements, we selected two different sites:
- The Findelen glacier is located in the Valais canton in the south of Switzerland. It is accessible from the famous village of Zermatt, where a few trains and cable cars can be taken to reach a point located only a few kilometers to the glacier snout. A high moraine needs to be crossed, but a little path can be followed at least in the summer. The closeby Fluhalp hotel can be used if the data acquisition has to span over several days. At its lower part, the glacier is less than a hundred meters thick, and is known to be rather dynamic.
- The Morteratsch glacier is located in the Grison canton in the southeast part of Switzerland. With a special authorization from the communal authorities, a little road / pedestrian way leading just beneath the glacier can be driven on. From this point, a little but steep hike separates us from the glacier tongue. The glacier is suffering from the high summer temperatures in an extraordinary way : it indeed lost more than 10 meters of ice thickness at its lowest location. It was therefore complicated to estimate its dynamics from former studies, but its thickness and great accessibility made us want to try this glacier!
We finally decided to record several high-density 3D GPR datasets on both glaciers, maximizing our chances to collect great-quality data where we could study internal glacier dynamics. No results will be displayed on this page as the study is currently under work, but a few photos of our acquisitions are available below.
Findelen glacier : (photos by Bastien Ruols)
Morteratsch glacier : (when not specified, photos by Bastien Ruols)
