Investigating snowcover volumes and icings dynamics in the moraine of an Arctic catchment using UAV/ photogrammetry and LiDAR

International audienceMeans for assessing the contribution of the terminal moraine into the water budget of an Arctic glacier is investigated: on the one hand the terminal moraine represents a significant fraction (22%)of the catchment area of the glacier under investigation – Austre Lovenbreen, in the Brøgger peninsula, Spitsbergen – and on the other hand icings formation (or aufeis) each winter illustrates the contribution of subglacial water flow. While over the glacier, with a smooth surface readily interpolated, the winter and summer mass balances are assessed with only a few sparsely distributed stakes, such an approach is not valid with the rough topography of the glacier moraine: high spatial resolution elevation models at different seasons are needed to estimate the volume of ice and snow accumulated during winter in this part of the catchment basin and released in rivers during the melting season. Even if located at only 6 km from the Ny-Ålesund meteorological station, the moraine of Austre Lovenbreen catchment, can collect snow whose amount may differ from that given by station, due to drift snow and elevation-amount gradient, spatially and temporally variable, Surveying the terminal moraine by remote sensing methods is helpful for better quantifying the snow cover in proglacial moraine