无人机在冰川变化监测中的应用——以唐古拉山小冬克玛底冰川为例

Application of unmanned aerial vehicle in glacier change monitoring:Taking the Xiao Dongkemadi Glacier in the Tanggula Mountains as an example

近年来,无人机技术发展迅速。无人机的灵活、便携、超高分辨率等特性使其在冰川变化监测上具有很好的发展前景。论文以青藏高原腹地的唐古拉山小冬克玛底冰川为例,首次在海拔5400 m以上的地区开展了无人机航测,通过非冰川区的基岩对2019年7月20日、2019年9月27日和2020年7月16日3期航测产品进行相对校正,分析了小冬克玛底冰川在物质平衡年和消融期内的变化情况,并进一步讨论了无人机在冰川区观测时所遇到的问题及其优势,以期为后续研究提供参考。结果表明:利用无人机技术能够实现冰川在消融期内的末端、面积以及高程变化监测,并对冰川的细部特征进行分析,适合于小区域单条冰川的变化监测。

In recent years,unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)technology has experienced a great improvement.Due to its flexibility and super-high resolution,UAV has a great development potential in the field of glacier change monitoring.In this study,three UAV surveys were conducted,for the first time above 5400 m altitude,at the Xiao Dongkemadi Glacier,which is located in the Tanggula Mountains on the central Tibetan Plateau.Three UAV products were co-registered based on the reference points of bedrocks around the glacier.Then,we analyzed the ablation pattern of the glacier in a year of balance and ablation season,and further explored the application of UAV in glacier change monitoring and discussed the problems we met,as well as advantages of UAV,to provide some guidance for future research.Our results show that the UAV technology is suitable for the change monitoring in a single and small glacier.It can be used to monitor glacier changes in terminal,area,surface elevation,and detail glacier features.