The Darwin-Hatherton glacial system is an outlet glacial system in the Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica, which drains ice from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet into the Ross Ice Shelf. This research provides remotely sensed data that can be used in modeling research for the Darwin-Hatherton glacial system, which in turn can be used in mass balance research for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Two improved digital elevation models (DEM) are produced to cover the lower Darwin Glacier and to cover the upper Darwin and Hatherton Glaciers. The new improved DEMs are generated from Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) satellite data, with a resolution of 45 m. To produce the two final DEMs, multiple DEMs are firstly adjusted to remove systematic errors and are then stacked and averaged to increase the accuracy and produce the final two DEMs. For the lower Darwin Glacier, 5 DEMs were averaged and in the upper Darwin and Hatherton Glaciers, 6 DEMs were averaged. The accuracy is quantified by a remaining error of + 9 m for the lower Darwin Glacier DEM and + 37 m for the upper Darwin and Hatherton Glaciers DEM. This is a significant improvement from the existing 200 m resolution Radarsat Antarctic mapping project (RAMPv2) DEM which has a remaining error of + 138 m over the lower Darwin Glacier and + 152 m over the upper Darwin and Hatherton Glaciers. The accuracy is assessed by comparing the ASTER and RAMPv2 DEMs to highly accurate ice, cloud and land elevation satellite (ICESat) laser altimetry data. A 15 m resolution, true colour, orthorectified image is provided for the entire Darwin-Hatherton glacial system from ASTER satellite imagery. The DEMs used to orthorectify the ASTER satellite imagery are the two new 45 m resolution ASTER DEMs. Lastly feature tracking was explored as a method for measuring surface ice velocity. This research shows that feature tracking is unsuitable for the Darwin-Hatherton glacial system if using 15 m resolution satellite imagery over a 1 to 4 year time period.

The Skelton Glacier is one of the many smaller outlet glaciers located in the Transantarctic Mountains, where it drains ice into the Ross Ice Shelf. These outlet glaciers are important when determining the past, present, and future state of the mass balance of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. This research uses satellite imagery acquired over a period of 15 years to obtain a high resolution velocity field for the Skelton Glacier which is then used to calculate the mass flux and mass balance at ten flux gates along the glacier using the input-output method. The high resolution velocity field is combined with ice thickness data and accumulation data from other sources to obtain the total mass balance. The high resolution velocity field of the Skelton Glacier was created using European Remote-Sensing Satellite 1 and 2 (ERS-1/2) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data acquired in 1996 with the processing technique of SAR interferometry (InSAR). Because of the lack of differential InSAR pairs, new auxiliary data from the ICESat and TanDEM-X mission were included into the analysis. A velocity field was created at a spatial resolution of 50m which was validated with in situ GPS measurements from 2011/12, and compared to lower resolution velocity fields of the Skelton Glacier. The ice velocity field is at improved accuracy for this area compared to previous studies and is thought to be representative for the mean ice velocity. The analysis of ice flux at several flux gates allowed an improved error estimation of the applied technique to estimate the overall mass balance. Mass flux estimates along the glacier were calculated using the new velocity field and additional thickness data, which was then compared to two accumulation datasets to give mass balance estimates along the glacier at selected flux gates. The mass flux through the grounding line was found to be 1.2165 Gt a⁻¹, which needs to be balanced in a state of mass balance equilibrium by a mean annual snow accumulation of about 185 mm a⁻¹ water equivalent over the total catchment area determined with 6569 km². The mass balance at the grounding line is slightly negative, but the second flux gate is thought to be more representative of the mass balance, which is estimated to be 0.0441 Gt a⁻¹. Error analysis of the mass balance estimates found uncertainties in this data to be approximately 0.110 Gt a⁻¹. It is concluded from the analysis that further improvements in the overall mass balance estimate can be primarily obtained by a better knowledge of ice thickness and snow accumulation.

The Darwin-Hatherton glacial system is an outlet glacial system in the Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica, which drains ice from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet into the Ross Ice Shelf. This research provides remotely sensed data that can be used in modeling research for the Darwin-Hatherton glacial system, which in turn can be used in mass balance research for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Two improved digital elevation models (DEM) are produced to cover the lower Darwin Glacier and to cover the upper Darwin and Hatherton Glaciers. The new improved DEMs are generated from Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) satellite data, with a resolution of 45 m. To produce the two final DEMs, multiple DEMs are firstly adjusted to remove systematic errors and are then stacked and averaged to increase the accuracy and produce the final two DEMs. For the lower Darwin Glacier, 5 DEMs were averaged and in the upper Darwin and Hatherton Glaciers, 6 DEMs were averaged. The accuracy is quantified by a remaining error of + 9 m for the lower Darwin Glacier DEM and + 37 m for the upper Darwin and Hatherton Glaciers DEM. This is a significant improvement from the existing 200 m resolution Radarsat Antarctic mapping project (RAMPv2) DEM which has a remaining error of + 138 m over the lower Darwin Glacier and + 152 m over the upper Darwin and Hatherton Glaciers. The accuracy is assessed by comparing the ASTER and RAMPv2 DEMs to highly accurate ice, cloud and land elevation satellite (ICESat) laser altimetry data. A 15 m resolution, true colour, orthorectified image is provided for the entire Darwin-Hatherton glacial system from ASTER satellite imagery. The DEMs used to orthorectify the ASTER satellite imagery are the two new 45 m resolution ASTER DEMs. Lastly feature tracking was explored as a method for measuring surface ice velocity. This research shows that feature tracking is unsuitable for the Darwin-Hatherton glacial system if using 15 m resolution satellite imagery over a 1 to 4 year time period.

short time scale. Four differential GPS stations were installed in the lower ablation area of Storglaciären in Sweden for one week in August 2012. The position data over the period were then compared with the environment information including temperature, precipitation, known hydrology and topography.The instantaneous velocity results show 9 acceleration events in correlation to temperature and precipitation. The increase of the meltwater inputs drive increases of the motion supposedly through water pressures and basal sliding.Strain determination using the stations geometry showed that the lower part of the survey area had an extensive behavior when the upper part was showing compressive properties. A deformation event occurring the 14th of august shows an elongation deformation along the centerline from the front of the glacier resulting in a lateral compression on the upper part due to shear stress closer to the margin.It was proposed that the force driving the elongation is due to the increase of water pressure on the front of the glacier where the internal hydrological system pass from a complex multi-branched system to a channelized output. / Syftet med detta projekt var att studera sambandet mellan en glaciärs hydrologi och isrörelse under korta tidsperioder (minuter till timmar). I augusti 2012 installerades fyra differentiella GPS-stationer under en veckas tid i nedre ablationsområdet på Storglaciären i Sverige. Positionsdata under perioden jämfördes sedan med miljöinformation inklusive temperatur, nederbörd, avrinning från glaciären och topografi.De uppskattade hastighetsresultaten visar på 9 olika accelerationshändelser som relaterar till tempe-ratur och nederbörd. En ökad införsel av smältvatten driver upp vattentrycket vid glaciärens botten som minskar friktionsmotståndet och glaciären får ökad basal glidning.Isdeformationsberäkningar mellan DGPS-stationerna visar att den nedre delen av undersök-ningsområdet hade extensionell deformation i isrörelseriktningen medan den övre delen visade kompression vinkelrätt mot denna riktning. Deformationshändelsen den 14 augusti visar det motsatta med extensionell deformation längs mittlinjen från fronten av glaciären vilket resulterar i en lateral kompression i den övre delen av det undersökta området kanske orsakade av skjuvspänning vid marginalen.Det föreslås att utsträckningen av glaciären under dessa händelser är på grund av en ökning av vattentrycket i det område där det interna subglaciala hydrologiska systemet ändras från en komplex multigrenade system högre upp i ablationsområdet till ett kanaliserat system vid fronten.