Observations of Small Deviations in Glacier Velocity Measurements

As part of the international IPY project GLACIODYN (the dynamic response of Arctic glaciers to global warming) the velocity of the Kronebreen glacier at Svalbard was measured testing an interferometric radar with high range and high temporal resolution. The measurements were performed at a distance of approximately 4 km from the glacier using a FMCW interferometric radar at 5.65 GHz with a range resolution of 1 m. The velocity of the glacier measured with the interferometric radar corresponds well with results from other measurement methods such as photogrammetry. The high temporal sampling rate of the interferometric radar measurements revealed a high frequency small forward/backward movement in the glacier that were superimposed on the average glacier flow velocity. These small movements are in the order of up to a couple of mm and occur frequently, approximately from every second to every 10 second. The paper presents the measurement set-up and results.