Quantifying Changes in Glacier Thickness and Area Using Remote Sensing and GIS: Taku Glacier System, AK by Lara Hughes-Allen A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the USC Graduate School University of Southern California In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science (Geographic Information Science and Technology) May 2017 Copyright ® 2017 by Lara Hughes-Allen ii Table of Contents Table of Contents ..................................................................................................................................................... iii List of Figures ............................................................................................................................................................. v List of Tables ............................................................................................................................................................ vii Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................................... viii List of Abbreviations .............................................................................................................................................. ix Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................................... x Chapter 1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Research question and objectives ........................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Motivation ....................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.3 Study area: Taku glacier ........................................................................................................................... 4 Chapter 2 Literature Review ............................................................................................................................... 9 2.1 Glaciological Method of Glacier Monitoring ................................................................................... 10 2.2 Glacier Monitoring using Remote Sensing ...................................................................................... 11 2.3 Glacier Characteristics and Measuring ............................................................................................. 13 2.3.1 Mass Balance of a Glacier ............................................................................................................... 13 2.3.2 Remote Sensing and Mass Balance ............................................................................................ 17 2.3.3 Equilibrium Line Altitude and Accumulation Area Ratio ................................................ 20 2.3.4 Satellite Considerations for Remote Sensing of Glaciers ................................................. 23 2.4 In-Situ Data Collection on the Taku Glacier .................................................................................... 24 Chapter 3 Data and Data Corrections ............................................................................................................ 26 3.2 Atmospheric corrections for remote sensing images ................................................................ 31 3.3 Glacier study area and Global Land Ice Measurements from Space .................................... 33 Chapter 4 Methods ................................................................................................................................................ 35 4.1 Delineation of ELA ..................................................................................................................................... 37 4.2 Delineation of glacier extent and surface area .............................................................................. 38 4.3 AAR Calculation .......................................................................................................................................... 41 4.4 Digitization of Historical Topographic Map ................................................................................... 42 4.5 Elevation change on the Taku Glacier ............................................................................................... 44 4.6 In situ elevation analysis ........................................................................................................................ 46 Chapter 5 Results ................................................................................................................................................... 47 5.1 Glacier extent ............................................................................................................................................... 47 iii 5.2 ELA and AAR ................................................................................................................................................ 50 5.3 Elevation Change on the Taku glacier from 1951-2014 ........................................................... 54 Chapter 6 Discussion and Conclusions ......................................................................................................... 56 6.1 Glacier extent ............................................................................................................................................... 56 6.2 Equilibrium Line Altitude and Accumulation Area Ratio ......................................................... 59 6.3 Elevation change on the Taku glacier from 1951 to 2015 ....................................................... 61 6.4 Further Research ....................................................................................................................................... 63 6.5 Final Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................... 64 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................................ 66 Appendix A: Modifications to the Global Land Ice Measurements from Space Outline of the Taku Glacier .............................................................................................................................................................. 70 Appendix B: Images associated with delineation of ELA and total glacier surface area methods. ..................................................................................................................................................................... 72 Appendix C: Images associated with digitization of historical topographic map methods and elevation change analysis. .................................................................................................................................. 79 Appendix D: Images associated with results of the elevation change analysis. .......................... 89 iv List of Figures Figure 1 Schematic of glaciers and their effect on the hydrologic cycle. ......................................... 3 Figure 2 Image showing approximate locations of the Taku Terminus from 1890 to 2004. Adapted from Truffer et al. 2009 ...................................................................................................................... 6 Figure 3 Map showing the distribution of survey profiles along the Taku Glacier system ..... 7 Figure 4 Historical map of study area with 200 ft. contour intervals. General study area indicated by the blue square. .............................................................................................................................. 8 Figure 5 Finsterwalder’s schematic of a glacier showing the accumulation of annual layers and the ELA ............................................................................................................................................................... 14 Figure 6 Image showing Landsat path 57 row 19 scene. Red arrow shows relative location of Taku Terminus. .................................................................................................................................................. 28 Figure 7 Methodological workflow: Using remote sensing to quantify changes in ELA, AAR, and glacier extent. .................................................................................................................................................. 36 Figure 8 Schematic describing elevation change calculation. ............................................................. 45 Figure 9 Glacier surface and bedrock designation for 1979 (left) and 1990 (right) Landsat scenes. ......................................................................................................................................................................... 49 Figure 10 Map showing position of equilibrium lines for each respective Landsat scene. ... 52 Figure 11 Hypsometric curve for the Taku Glacier. ................................................................................ 61 Figure 12 Annual and cumulative balance of the Taku Glacier from 1946-2006 (Pelto et al. 2008). .........................................................................................................................................................................