Articles | Volume 9, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1445-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1445-2015
Research article
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05 Aug 2015
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 05 Aug 2015

Mapping snow depth from manned aircraft on landscape scales at centimeter resolution using structure-from-motion photogrammetry

M. Nolan, C. Larsen, and M. Sturm

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Cited articles

Barnett, T. P., Adam, J. C., and Lettenmaier, D. P.: Potential impacts of a warming climate on water availability in snow-dominated regions, Nature, 438, 303–309, 2005.
Bauder, A., Funk, M., and Huss, M.: Ice-volume changes of selected glaciers in the Swiss Alps since the end of the 19th century, Ann. Glaciol., 46, 145–149, 2007.
Berthier, E., Vadon, H., Baratoux, D., Arnaud, Y., Vincent, C., Feigl, K., Remy, F., and Legresy, B.: Surface motion of mountain glaciers derived from satellite optical imagery, Remote Sens. Environ., 95, 14–28, 2005.
Bitelli, G., Dubbini, M., and Zanutta, A.: Terrestrial laser scanning and digital photogrammetry techniques to monitor landslide bodies, International Archives of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 35, 246–251, 2004.
Brandenberger, A. J.: Map of the McCall Glacier, Brooks Range, Alaska, American Geographical Society, New York, AGS Report, 11 pp., 1959.
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Short summary
This paper presents a photogrammetric method for measuring topography from manned aircraft with an accuracy of 30 cm and repeatability of 8 cm, at significantly lower cost than other methods. Here we created difference maps to demonstrate that we could measure snow depth with an accuracy of 10 cm compared to over 6000 snow-probe measurements on the ground, but do so over entire watersheds at 10-20 cm spatial resolution rather than just a few transects.