Delineation of Debris-Covered Glaciers Based on a Combination of Geomorphometric Parameters and a TIR/NIR/SWIR Band Ratio

作者：Alifu Haireti; Johnson Brian A; Tateishi Ryutaro

来源：IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 2016, 9(2): 781-792.

DOI：10.1109/JSTARS.2015.2500906

• ASTER GDEM
• geomorphometric parameters
• Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM)
• thermal infrared (TIR)/nearinfrared (NIR)/shortwave infrared (SWIR) band ratio

Accurate mapping of glaciers is important for the management of water resources, studying glacier mass-balance, and monitoring glacier health. However, many glaciers are partially covered by debris of varying thicknesses, and these debris-covered glacier areas are difficult to distinguish clearly from the adjacent valley rock using optical remote sensing data due to their similar reflectance in the visible-to-near-infrared (VNIR) wavelength region. For better detection of the debris-covered glacier margin, a new method was proposed here which considers glacier terrain features (concave and convex landscapes) as well as VNIR reflectance, shortwave-infrared reflectance (SWIR), and thermal infrared (TIR) information. The proposed method uses several geomorphometric parameters (slope, plan, and profile curvature) and a Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) band ratio image TM TIR/(TM NIR/TM SWIR) for mapping the Yengisogat glacier in the Shaksgam valley of China. The final debris-covered glacier boundary is generated by thresholding the band ratio image and overlaying it onto the result derived from cluster analysis performed using plan, profile curvature, and combined with mean of slope information. Evaluation of the final debris-covered glacier outline was carried out through comparison with GIS data from several reference data sets, and the final Yengisogat glacier outline had a difference of less than 1% in area compared to the reference data sets.

• 出版日期2016-2