Tecnología espacial aplicada a glaciares patagónicos y su comportamiento como indicadores ambientales

Abstract

In this work, we present a multitemporal analysis using remote sensing and meteorological data in a group of glaciers called Glaciares Escondidos. These are located in the southwest of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. This group comprises the Dickson, Cubo and Frías glaciers. They have suffered a marked retreat in their fronts that has increased over the last 10 years. The ice supply of Dickson and Frías glaciers was originally done by a single stream of ice and they used to act as natural dams, preventing the flow of water between Lake Frías and the Chilean fjords that flow to the west. Due to the loss of mass and the retreat of their fronts, the melt water that travelled more than 250 km to cross the arid plain of Patagonia to finally end at the Atlantic Ocean, today they flow towards the Pacific Ocean. We observe new proglaciary lakes, an increase in the speed of retreat and a high speed of ice flow. We make use of multitemporal measurements and offset tracking technique with radar images for those estimations. Likewise, we present mass balance studies on these three glaciers for the last 20 years, using the geodetic method.