Determining distributed ablation over dirty ice areas of debris-covered glaciers using a UAV-SfM approach

International audienceAreas of discontinuous debris (dirty ice) often occur just above the limit of continuous debris on debris-covered glaciers. They therefore tend to be areas of particularly high melt and are associated with the identified increase in debris cover. However ablation is highly spatially variable in areas of dirty ice, due to clasts a few centimetres thick being close to the threshold between enhancing and reducing ablation. Traditional point measurement of ablation using stakes is not capable of capturing this variability in ablation. This work aims to quantify distributed ablation using a novel approach using repeat aerial photography acquired from a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) on Miage Glacier, Italy. Spatially continuous ablation will be correlated with debris characteristics to quantify the effect of these characteristics on ablation and inform future work to improve modelling of dirty ice areas