Buried ice is an important part of the Alpine cryosphere. However, their hydrological processes remain largely unknown and the hydrological models of current Alpine ice basins do not necessarily take them into account. This is partly due to the difficulties encountered in observing and measuring buried ice. The objective of this master's degree is to explore the possibility of using InSAR satellite imagery to detect and delineate buried ice and to estimate its ablation characteristics. To achieve this goal, a deformation map derived from interferogram processing of a study area in the St. Elias Mountains in the Yukon is compared with the results of field studies conducted during two expeditions in June and August 2019. These allowed the generation of a high definition deformation map created by photogrammetry from images collected with a UAV. Even if a very small difference (2.96%) could be obtained between the average deformations resulting from the two methods, the results obtained do not allow, at this stage, to validate the use of InSAR as a method for monitoring ground deformations in the presence of buried ice. Indeed, the comparison of the maps pixel by pixel shows important differences. These are probably due to several factors: the pre selected study area which proved to be too chaotic for InSAR measurements, too small study areas, some InSAR data used which proved to be suspect due to severe weather conditions, and a phase sequence method for interferograms which was not adapted to the study subject. However, this study remains encouraging, as ways for improvement have been identified.
| Date | 2 Oct 2020 |
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| Original language | French |
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| Awarding Institution | - École de technologie supérieure
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| Supervisor | Michel Baraër (Supervisor) |
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Mortagne, S. (Author),
Baraër (Supervisor),
2 Oct 2020Student thesis: Master's thesis › Master in Engineering: Construction Engineering