Monitoring of Belvedere Glacier using a wide angle GB-SAR interferometer

Belvedere Glacier, east face of the Mount Rosa, has experienced drastic changes in flow regime and morphology in the last years. Within the activities of the GALAHAD project funded by the European Commission, a ground-based SAR (GB-SAR) interferometer was employed on this glacier. Although based on the ground, the sensor works with the same principles as satellite radar interferometry measuring the deformation field of the illuminated surface. It was used for the first time on this glacier in 2004 and a new survey, here reported, was arranged last summer (2007). During this latter survey, the radar antenna moved around a vertical axis in order to illuminate a larger part of the glacier. It provided deformation maps of a wider part of the glacier every half an hour almost continually for 1 month. Finally, a procedure for building a digital elevation model (DEM) of the glacier was developed and the obtained DEM was compared with an available topographic map dated July 2005. Large differences in the ice surface height appear from the comparison confirming the overall reduction of the ice mass.