Improving semi-automated glacier mapping with a multi-method approach: applications in central Asia

Smith, T.; Bookhagen, B.; Cannon, F.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1747-2015

Articles | Volume 9, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1747-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1747-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 9, issue 5

Research article

|

04 Sep 2015

Research article |

| 04 Sep 2015

Improving semi-automated glacier mapping with a multi-method approach: applications in central Asia

T. Smith, B. Bookhagen, and F. Cannon

Download

Final revised paper (published on 04 Sep 2015)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 17 Oct 2014)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

- Printer-friendly version

- Supplement

RC C2671: 'Referee Comment', Frank Paul, 17 Dec 2014
RC C2680: 'Please see my comments in the supplement.', Wanqin Guo, 18 Dec 2014
AC C2882: 'Author Comments', Taylor Smith, 15 Jan 2015
EC C3016: 'Editor decision', Tobias Bolch, 04 Feb 2015

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (16 Feb 2015) by Tobias Bolch

RR by Wanqin Guo (10 Mar 2015)

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (30 Mar 2015)

AR by Anna Wenzel on behalf of the Authors (17 Feb 2015) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (08 Apr 2015) by Tobias Bolch

AR by Taylor Smith on behalf of the Authors (18 May 2015) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (19 May 2015) by Tobias Bolch

RR by Frank Paul (05 Jul 2015)

RR by Wanqin Guo (11 Jul 2015)

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (Editor review) (28 Jul 2015) by Tobias Bolch

Dear authors,

I have now received the reviews. Both reviewers highlighted that the manuscript has clearly improved and recommend publishing after some minor further improvements. I am in line with the reviewers comments and I have the following minor additional comments from my side:
L. 120: I agree that slope is one key morphometric parameter for delineating the debris-covered areas. However, the suggested threshold values differ depending on glacier type from the 24◦ suggested by for Oberaletschgletscher/Swiss Alps (Paul et al. 2004), for example, it is 12◦ for Khumbu Glacier/Himalayas (Bolch et al. 2007), less than 15◦ for Samudra Tapu Glacier/Himachal Himalayas (Shukla et al. 2010) and 18◦ for Gangotri Glacier/Garhwal Himalayas (Bhambri et al. 2011). Maybe you could check your chosen threshold (just a suggestion), but please provide some info about the different suggested thresholds here or in the discussion.
L. 275: Be a bit more specific about the 6 cited references. You may (but not must) include Bhambri et al. (2011), IJRS who also clearly mention the limitations of their approach.
I will not send out the manuscript for review again but will make a final decision once I have received the revised version. The revision should contain a response to each of the comments from the reviewers and explain how the comment was handled. If you disagree with a comment, please explain why. If the text was modified as a response to a comment, please indicate how the text was modified, including the new text and its position in the manuscript (line numbers) and/or highlight the changes in the manuscript.
Do not hesitate to ask in case you have any questions. I am looking forward to the revised version of your manuscript.

Best regards,

Tobias Bolch –Editor TC-

Hide

AR by Taylor Smith on behalf of the Authors (13 Aug 2015) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (25 Aug 2015) by Tobias Bolch

Short summary

We describe and apply a newly developed glacial mapping algorithm which uses spectral, topographic, velocity, and spatial data to quickly and accurately map glacial extents over a wide area. This method maps both clean glacier ice and debris-covered glacier tongues across diverse topographic, land cover, and spectral settings using primarily open-source tools.