Global Glacier Surface Elevation Change and Geodetic Mass Balance Estimations

Abstract:
Glaciers worldwide undergo drastic adaption caused by climate change. A detailed knowledge about their status is of broad public interest, as glaciers are freshwater resources and drivers of sea level change. We aim at providing elevation change rates for mountain glaciers worldwide between 60deg N and 56deg S and respective geodetic mass balance. Therefore, we derive DEMs from TanDEM-X CoSSC datasets via own dInSAR processing. These DEMs are referenced, aligned and compared to SRTM V.3 DEMs. Resulting elevation change information are converted to mass balance and result to -64.5±2.8 Gt a-1 on 184,056 km² (SRTM constraints).