A GIS tool for automatic calculation of glacier equilibrium-line altitudes

Ramon Pellitero-Ondicol; Brice R. Rea; Matteo Spagnolo

doi:10.1016/j.cageo.2015.05.005

A GIS tool for automatic calculation of glacier equilibrium-line altitudes

Ramon Pellitero-Ondicol, Brice R. Rea, Matteo Spagnolo

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Abstract

A toolbox for the automated calculation of glacier equilibrium-line altitudes (ELAs) using the Accumulation Area Ratio, Area-Altitude Balance Ratio, Area-Altitude and Kurowski methods is presented. These are the most commonly-used methods of ELA calculation in palaeo-glacier reconstructions. The toolbox has been coded in Python and runs in ArcGIS requiring only the reconstructed surface of the palaeo-glacier (a DEM) as input. Through fast and automatic calculation this toolbox simplifies the process of ELA determination and can successfully work both for a single glacier and for large datasets of multiple glaciers.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	55-62
Number of pages	8
Journal	Computers & Geosciences
Volume	82
Early online date	6 May 2015
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cageo.2015.05.005
Publication status	Published - Sept 2015

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgments
This research has been supported by the Leverhulme Trust International Network Grant IN-2012-140. We acknowledge Jose María Fernández for his help testing the tool, and also the very helpful comments of Doug Benn and an anonymous reviewer on an earlier draft of this paper.

Keywords

equilibrium-line altitude
glacier
GIS
accumulation area ratio
accumulation area balance ratio
python

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Cite this

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title = "A GIS tool for automatic calculation of glacier equilibrium-line altitudes",

abstract = "A toolbox for the automated calculation of glacier equilibrium-line altitudes (ELAs) using the Accumulation Area Ratio, Area-Altitude Balance Ratio, Area-Altitude and Kurowski methods is presented. These are the most commonly-used methods of ELA calculation in palaeo-glacier reconstructions. The toolbox has been coded in Python and runs in ArcGIS requiring only the reconstructed surface of the palaeo-glacier (a DEM) as input. Through fast and automatic calculation this toolbox simplifies the process of ELA determination and can successfully work both for a single glacier and for large datasets of multiple glaciers.",

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note = "Acknowledgments This research has been supported by the Leverhulme Trust International Network Grant IN-2012-140. We acknowledge Jose Mar{\'i}a Fern{\'a}ndez for his help testing the tool, and also the very helpful comments of Doug Benn and an anonymous reviewer on an earlier draft of this paper.",

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KW - accumulation area balance ratio

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DO - 10.1016/j.cageo.2015.05.005

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JO - Computers & Geosciences

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ER -

A GIS tool for automatic calculation of glacier equilibrium-line altitudes

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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