Articles | Volume 10, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-159-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-159-2016
Research article
 | 
19 Jan 2016
Research article |  | 19 Jan 2016

Geodetic mass balance record with rigorous uncertainty estimates deduced from aerial photographs and lidar data – Case study from Drangajökull ice cap, NW Iceland

E. Magnússon, J. Muñoz-Cobo Belart, F. Pálsson, H. Ágústsson, and P. Crochet

Download

Interactive discussion

Status: closed
Status: closed
AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment
Printer-friendly Version - Printer-friendly version Supplement - Supplement

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision
AR by Svenja Lange on behalf of the Authors (14 Dec 2015)  Author's response
ED: Publish as is (17 Dec 2015) by Ian M. Howat
Download
Short summary
We demonstrate the opportunities given by high resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) to improve procedures for obtaining mass balance records from archives of aerial photographs. We also describe a geostatistical approach to estimate uncertainty of elevation changes derived by differencing DEMs. This method is more statistically robust than other described in the literature. Our study highlights a common tendency of overestimating this uncertainty, downgrading geodetic mass balance records.