Latest Posts

10/11/2023
Publications

Estimating ice discharge of the Antarctic Peninsula using different ice-thickness datasets

The Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet (APIS) has become a significant contributor to rising sea levels, and accurately estimating ice discharge from its outlet glaciers is essential for assessing the mass balance of the region. This study calculates ice discharge from APIS outlet glaciers north of 70°S using five commonly used ice-thickness reconstructions, employing a consistent surface velocity field and flux gates. Results indicate a total volumetric ice discharge ranging from 45 to 141 km3 per year for 2015–2017, with a mean of 87 ± 44 km3 per year. The substantial differences in results highlight the large uncertainty in current ice-discharge estimates, emphasizing the challenge of accurately modeling the ice-thickness distribution in this complex and data-scarce region.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/annals-of-glaciology/article/estimating-ice-discharge-of-the-antarctic-peninsula-using-different-icethickness-datasets/67B2F8FC77CD9342BD07DAACA41497AF

07/11/2023
Publications

TanDEM-X reveals ice surface elevation change patterns throughout the Antarctic Peninsula

Existing mass budget estimates for the northern Antarctic Peninsula (>70° S) are affected by considerable limitations. We carried out the first region-wide analysis of geodetic mass balances throughout this region (coverage of 96.4 %) for the period 2013–2017 based on repeat pass bi-static TanDEM-X acquisitions. A total mass budget of −24.1±2.8 Gt/a is revealed. Imbalanced high ice discharge, particularly at former ice shelf tributaries, is the main driver of overall ice loss.

https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/17/4629/2023/tc-17-4629-2023.html

 

07/11/2023
Allgemein Event

Joint field work of MOCCA members Manuel and Felix to install rock temperature loggers at the study site in Kaunertal

Knowledge about permafrost distribution is critical for the assessment of rock mass stability. By installing rock surface temperature loggers we aim to create a model to explore the distribution of permafrost in the Ötztal Alps. Solar incoming radiation and air temperature are the main drivers of permafrost evolution. Therefore we picked diverse locations in height, aspect and slope for installing the loggers.

The field work took place on a wonderful sunny day on 6th of September 2023. We are happy that everything worked out as planned and we returned home from the mountains in a safe way with good new stories on our shoulders.

07/11/2023
Event

Annual workshop of the doctoral programme M3OCCA in Obergurgl

The annual workshop of the International Doctoral College M3OCCA took place this year in September at the University Centre in Obergurgel. The doctoral students presented the current status of their research projects and gave an outlook on upcoming activities. In addition to the report colloquium and organisational discussions, there were topic-specific guest lectures by Prof. Dr. Francisco Navarro (UPM, Madrid), Prof. Dr. Helmut Rott (Uni. Innsbruck & ENVEO), and Dr. Wolfgang Gurgiser (Uni. Innsbruck). The workshop was followed by a two-day excursion to the Vernagtferner. Dr Christoph Mayer from the Bavarian Academy of Science explained to the participants the diverse glacier monitoring programme, which has been carried out for more than 50 years.

08/07/2023
Event

M3OCCA PhD candidates visited DLR in Oberpfaffenhofen

Members of the M3OCCA project visited the facilities of DLR in Oberpfaffenhofen on the 5th. July 2023.

During the visit, the project partners and M3OCCA members gave an overview of the activities at DLR including a guided tour of the Techlab.

Impressive was in particular the visit of the German Space Operations Centre (GSOC), where different space missions and the Columbus Module of the International Space Station are monitored and controlled.

08/07/2023
Allgemein Publications

Caffe – A Benchmark Dataset for Glacier Calving Front Extraction from Synthetic Aperture Radar Imagery

The study emphasizes the importance of understanding marine-terminating glacier dynamics in glacier projections. Deep learning methods can automate the extraction of calving front positions from satellite imagery, reducing manual effort. The “CaFFe” dataset, which includes annotated calving fronts in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery, offers a standardized benchmark for evaluating deep learning techniques in this area. Researchers can use CaFFe to assess the performance of upcoming deep learning models and identify promising research directions. A leaderboard of models can be found at https://paperswithcode.com/sota/calving-front-delineation-in-synthetic.

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10283406

08/07/2023
Publications

Conditional Random Fields for Improving Deep Learning-Based Glacier Calving Front Delineations

Advancements in Deep Learning have enabled the automated identification of glacier calving fronts in satellite imagery. This study improves the accuracy of this process by incorporating a Conditional Random Field (CRF) into the post-processing of the neural network’s predictions. Experiments using the CaFFe dataset showed a 27-meter improvement in mean distance error. The code is available at https://github.com/EntChanelt/GlacierCRF.

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10282915

05/07/2023
Event

Invited talk by Susanne Støle-Hentschel 31.07.2023

Title: How can we understand the dynamics of ocean waves from measurements and simulations?

The presentation introduces some of the core techniques used for measuring ocean waves and outlines why it is difficult to interpret those measurements.
The main focus of the talk will be dedicated to explaining the imaging mechanism of X-band radars. The talk will include a brief overview to freak waves in sea states where multiple wave systems meet.

Susanne is a PostDoc in the ERC project HIGHWAVE at Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) Paris-Saclay. She has achieved her Master’s and PhD at the University of Oslo, Norway. With a background in applied maths and fluid mechanics, Susanne has worked with a number of different applications, ranging from biomedical flows to ocean waves. In recent years she has pursued the study of ocean waves by combining numerical simulations and measurements. One of her focus areas is the interpretation of radar measurements of the ocean surface. Extracting wave information from radar images requires combining signal processing and an understanding of the imaging mechanism.

27/06/2023
Event

M³OCCA PhD students participate in field campaign on the Jungfraufirn in Switzerland

In March 2023 two of our M³OCCA PhD students, Lena Krabbe from LHFT/ FAU Erlangen and Akash Patil from BAdW Munich, joined a three-week field test campaign taking place at the Jungfraufirn on the Aletsch glacier in Switzerland. Therein, they were able to collect multiple data sets from different Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) systems, namely a commercial GPR system as well as a GPR sled developed by Lena Krabbe at LHFT.  Field campaigns like this are an essential part of glacier and ice research in order to assess the system performance in the field as well as to check, whether the systems and solutions developed in the lab are also capable of enduring extreme environmental conditions that are present on glaciers. Moreover, the collected data is a great basis for a performance comparison not only between the two surface-based GPR systems, but also for comparing them to further measurement equipment tested during this field campaign. The latter includes a melting probe consisting of a radar, a sonar and a permittivity sensor as well as UAV-based radar and lidar systems. During the field test, two main measurement sites were evaluated, including an area close to the Mönchsjoch as well as the camp site below the Sphinx, which is also close to the glacier entrance. Furthermore, also more remote places where evaluated after being explored and assessed together with a mountain guide. Overall, this field test was a great opportunity to gain experience in applied glacier research and intensify the collaboration inside the M³OCCA doctoral program.