Introduction
Introduction
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Mountain Glaciers
Mountain snowpack and glaciers are an important resource for both humans and ecosystems (Lindsey, 2024). These glaciers act as a reservoir that provide fresh water for both argiculture and cities such as Milan, Italy, which is downstream (Bolinger, 2020). Additionally, in the Saas Fee region of Switzerland, skiing is a large part of the culture, and many skiers have noticed a decline the the amount and quality of the snowpack in recent years (Bolinger, 2020). For these variety of reasons, it's important to understand how the glaciers and snowpack in the region is changing, and use these changes to understand what might happen in the future.
Why this project topic?
Water is essential for both human activites and ecosystems, and mountain glaciers play an important role as a water resource. However, climate change is posing a real threat to these resources (Lindsey, 2024). I've always been interested understanding the impacts of climate change, because I believe that knowing the impacts will help us to be better prepared to mitigate and prepare for the consequences. Understanding the changes happening to mountain glaciers can be useful for planning for the future, and the impacts to human populations, agriculture, ecosystems, and winter recreation opportunities.
Literature review:
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) claims that mountain glaciers are "among the most dramatic evidence that Earth's climate is warming." Current mountain glaciers are remnants of the last ice age. They can gain ice through snowfall that gets compacted over time. However, they are also susceptible to melting and sublimination if temperatures are too high. Mountain glaciers are different than sea ice because the water mass is stored on land, and this mass adds to sea level rise if the glaciers melt according to NASA, which further adds to the effect of climate change (Lindsey, 2024).
In Saas Fee, Switzerland, a study has been done to identify changes in size of the Allalin glacier from 2008 to 2018. The study observed a significant reduction in the size of the glacier over the time span, simply by using two oblique angled photographs from the same location and perspective from the two dates. The study emphasized that for the most accurate comparison, it was important to compare photographs that align with anniversary dates. For example, photographs from mid-August, 2008, and mid-August, 2018 (Oberli, 2018).
A common method for assessing size changes of glaciers is to use remote imagery. Luckily, a large amount of remote imagery data is available to the public such as data from the NASA Landsat program (USGS). There are several different ways that this imagery can be analyzed. One popular method is to trace or outline the edges of a glacier to measure it's size, and do this for several years over a large timespan. This method is useful for quantifying the amount of ice that a glacier loses or gains (Paul, et al, 2017).
Another method uses land cover classification to create a raster showing areas with and without snow. Change maps can be created from this to show where snow was gained or lost over the time period of study. This method is useful for larger scales where it is impractical to measure exact outlines and areas of many glaciers (Sood, et al, 2020).
Another method uses spectral indices such as the Normalized Difference Snow Index to visualize the extent of snow and ice. This method is particularly useful for creating an image that clearer represents the extent of snow and ice. However, if a study wanted to strictly study glacial ice, this method does not do a good job of differentiating between snow and ice (Man, et al, 2014) . Hyperspectral imagery would be needed for that purpose (Nolin, 2000).
Research question:
How has the snowpack and glacial mass of the Saas Fee region of Switzlerland changed from 2013 to 2024, and what are the implications and consequences of any observed changes?
To answer these questions, Landsat 8 and 9 imagery will be used to determine changes. A classification method will be applied to identify areas covered by snow/ice versus other land cover. These classification maps will be used to create a map showing areas of change in the snow and ice extent. The Normalized Difference Snow Index will be applied to determine the exact nature of this change (i.e. if there was a gain or loss of snow and ice extent).
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