Monitoring Of Seasonal Snow Cover On Glaciers

Abstract

The delineation of the transient snow line on the AletschGlacier was studied in detail for the melting period 1985 by comparing the data from an automatic camera, aerial photographs and Landsat-TM images. The accuracy achieved from TM band 2 regarding the course of the snow line lies, except at a few areas of very low contrast, within one pixel. The highest snow line in fall and the separation of the fim line allow direct conclusions on the position of the equilibrium line. The dynamics of the melting pattem and the melting curve could be established. This allows to assess the influence of the weather conditions on the seasonal snow cover and consequently on the run-off pattern.