Summer school on cryospheric monitoring and water resources

11 day-long international summer school (3 ECTS) on cryospheric monitoring and water resources in the Chilean Andes. Fully funded by the Akademiaavtalen and the CHESS Research school on changing climates in the coupled earth system for participants from affiliated Norwegian institutes. This course will introduce students to a range of field and computer-based methods for cryospheric monitoring in a region where glaciers and rock glaciers provide up to 80% of the local streamflow. Students will learn how to couple the analysis of satellite and aerial imagery with Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in order to study topographical and kinematic changes. Students will also use Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) techniques, as well as performing geomorphological mapping using Geomatics enabled tablets. For questions, please contact Benjamin Robson (benjamin.robson.no) or Willem van der Bilt (willemvanderbilt@uib.no).

Advanced graduate students (PhDs). Other applications will be considered on a case by case basis if there is space  Deadline: 20th June 2022

Registration  here 

The course will focus on how regional scale remote sensing (catchment scale moniotring of snow cover, glacier and rock glacier volume changes and velocity datasets) can be combined with field-based Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) data, ground penetrating radar (GPR) measurements, and geomorpholical mapping, can all be combined to study how glaciers and rock glaciers are responding to climate change

Overall aim: an integrated approach to studying and interpreting cryospheric changes and the implications for local hydrology

1. Digital Elevation Model (DEM) Generation and Topographic Analysis for determing volume changes
2. Time series for monitoring regional scale trends in snow
3. Radar interferometry for quantifying rock glacier rates of velocity and identifying actively deforming landforms that could be ice-rich
4. Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAV) data acquistion and processing
5. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) data collection and processing to measure ice content and depth
6. Geomorphological mapping using Geomatics enabled tablets to determins how the remote sensing based measurements correspond to the morphology - what features are indicitatve of high or changing ice content?

There will also be a focus on visiting ongoing community and citizen science projects in the Elqui valley.

Travel to the Puclaro Reservoir (1h stop). Meet with the Junta de Vigilencia who manage the water allocation for most of the Elqui catchment. See the operation of the mini hydrodam

Stop in Vicuña for lunch and visit the Gabriela Mistral museum to discuss cultural connections to land and water (1h stop)

Stop at Rivadavia and visit the discharge monitoring site of the Dirección General de Aguas (Ministry of Public Works). Discuss water monitoring and the confluence of river catchments here. Describe differences in water management between the two main branches of the Elqui River (30 min stop)

Continue along highway 41 and stop to observe vineyards (Pisco Industry) and the Inca Pathway to describe development of Inca and Diaguitas peoples in the valley (two 15 min stops)

Stop at the Border station for Passport check, and convenience stop. Chat with local police about conditions.

Stop at La Laguna reservoir refuge. Talk with the reservoir controllers about dam operation and seasonal variability. Also describe citizen science programme (Snow neighbours) (final stop)

The course will be taught by a range of experts all with expertise in different subfields of cryospheric and landscape monitoring.

Benjamin Robson (University of Bergen) - Topographic data analysis and UAVs, radar interferometry

Willem van der Bilt (University of Bergen) - Paleoclimeaology and glacier variability

Shelley MacDonell (CEAZA (Chile) and University of Canterbury  - Andean glaciology, cryospheric hydrology and community snow projects, rock glacier monitoring programs

Jostein Bakke (University of Bergen) - Ground Penetrating Radar and paleoclimatic reconstructions

Pål Ringkjøb Nielsen (University of Bergen) - Geomorphology

Gidske Andersen (University of Bergen) - Remote sensing, time series analysis

Álvaro Ayala (CEAZA) - Glacier hydrology and response to climate, glacier modelling