The geodetic mass balance of Eyjafjallajökull ice cap for 1945-2014: Processing guidelines and relation to climate

Abstract

Mass-balance measurements of Icelandic glaciers are sparse through the 20th century. However, the large archive of stereo images available allows estimates of glacier-wide mass balance in decadal time steps since 1945. Combined with climate records, they provide further insight into glacier-climate relationship. This study presents a workflow to process aerial photographs (1945-1995), spy satellite imagery (1977-1980) and modern satellite stereo images (since 2000) using photogrammetric techniques and robust statistics in a highly automated, open-source pipeline to retrieve seasonally corrected, decadal glacier-wide geodetic mass balances. In our test area, Eyjafjallajökull (S-Iceland, ~70 km2), we obtain a mass balance of