1. MONITORING THICKNESS CHANGES OF MOUNTAIN GLACIER BY DIFFERENTIAL INTERFEROMETRY OF ALOS PALSAR DATA Jianmin Zhou , Zhen Li, Qiang Xing Key Laboratory of Digital Earth, Center for Earth Observation and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences 2011.07.28 Vancouver

5. Source: Dyurgerov and Meier 2005 Research background

7. Study Area and Datasets This glacier belongs to a subcontinent high mountain glacier in low altitude. The accumulation season for this glacier starts from the end of spring and the beginning of summer and ends in the end of autumn. The ablation season is in the summer. Local circulation is weak and mass balance is controlled by Indian Ocean monsoon circulation in the Kangwure Glacier region. It was a flat-top glacier, inclining to northeast with flat surface, and there was no debris on the glacier surface . Kangwure Glacier (28°27′N, 85°45′E) is situated on the north side of Mt. Xixiabangma, which is in the middle part of the Himalayas. The glacier terminus reaches to an altitude of 5680 m a.s.l. with an altitudinal difference of 476 m to the summit and the glacier exposes to the north in the upper area, then north-east.

8. Study Area and Datasets Two winter ALOS/PALSAR orbits acquired on Jan. 21, 2010 and Mar. 8, 2010 with HH polarization covering Kangwure Glacier was exploited. The images were taken under favorable weather conditions and were selected in order to compute an interferogram with acquisition time intervals of 46 days and short baselines (132 m). Datasets: Acquisition Date Satellites Orbit type Seasons 2007-12-10 ALOS/PALSAR Ascending Winter 2008-01-25 ALOS/PALSAR Ascending Winter

14. Methodology InSAR processing I nSAR pairs data (here, ALOS/PALSAR) Glacier topography Thickness changes of the glacier Component decomposition

15. (a) The interferogram image at the Kangwure glacier area; (b): differential interferogram image at the Kangwure glacier area for ALOS/PALSAR pair between Jan. 21 and Mar. 8, 2010. Experimental Study

16. Thickness changes distribution map. Experimental Study

17. Conclusions In conclusion, the results imply that this method, compared to conventional method, has advantage to derive the glacier’s thickness changes in high-accuracy. According to the historical measurement data of the Kangwure glacier, our test study shows that the result is reasonable. The method developed in this study can be used to accurately extract glacier thickness changes.

18. Future Work Need More InSAR Data

19. Thanks ！