GLACIER RHEOLOGY STUDIES IN KUKSAI GLACIER USING TERRA SAR-X DATA

Abstract

he glacier mass balance is of great importance as it is sensitive indicator of climate change and the release of glacier mass greatly depends on the surface velocity of the glacier. The melt water equivalent to the discharge of glacier mass is an important source of fresh water especially in Central and South Asia. With a length of approximately 18 km, Kekesayi Glacier is situated in the Murtag Ata massif, the eastern part of Pamir Plateau, Xinjiang region of China. This dissertation work established glacier surface velocity of Kekesayi glacier by means of TerraSAR-X synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data acquired in 2011. Three TerraSAR-X images have been used in the study that were acquired on Aug 10, Aug 21 and Sept 1 of 2011. Phase and amplitude (backscatter intensity) information of SAR data were exploited to measure the surface velocity. The first part of the dissertation dealt with three phase based methods namely; DInSAR, Dual difference InSAR and GInSAR, to measure the slant range velocity of the glacier surface. In the second part two-dimensional surface velocity was measured using Amplitude Tracking method. The whole mathematical understanding of the methods with their sequential implementation on SARscape and RSG software has been presented. The glacier velocities derived from the cited methods have been compared and the suitability of every method in the context of determining glacier surface velocity has been demonstrated. Keywords: DInSAR, GInSAR, Amplitude Tracking, Glacier Rheology, Glacier Surface Velocity. _......