HR: 1340h
AN: H43A-0957    [Abstracts]
TI: Glacial Change in the Wind River Range, Wyoming, USA
AU: * Cheesbrough, K
EM: kcheese4@uwyo.edu
AU: Edmunds, J
EM: jedmunds@uwyo.edu
AU: Kerr, G
EM: rrek@uwyo.edu
AU: Pochop, L
EM: Pochop@uwyo.edu
AU: Tootle, G
EM: tootleg@uwyo.edu
AB: The upper Green River Basin (GRB) [located in the upper Colorado River Basin] and the upper Wind-Bighorn River Basin (WBRB) [located in the upper Missouri-Mississippi River Basin] are separated by the Wind River Range (WRR) of Wyoming. The WRR is an unbroken 160-kilometer barrier in west central Wyoming that is host to 63 glaciers, the largest concentration of glaciers in the American Rocky Mountains. These glaciers serve as natural water reservoirs and the continued recession of glaciers will impact agricultural water supply in the region. Previous research determined that the glaciers in the WRR contribute approximately 30% of the total streamflow volume during the critical late summer / early fall growing season. However, the previous research was limited in scope to a small number of climatic stations and limited streamflow measurements. The proposed research improves on previous research by evaluating glacial recession in the WRR using remote sensing techniques. Glacier area and terminus position for 42 glacial complexes in the WRR (from 1985 to present) will be evaluated using LANDSAT Imagery and GIS techniques. Next, for selected glaciers, aerial photograph stereopairs will also be obtained from the USGS Earth Resources, Observation and Science (EROS) Data Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota from 1966 to present. The stereopair images will be utilized to derive the surface elevation of glaciers and calculate volume change. Traditional methods require the user to view the two photos with a stereoscope to view an object in three dimensions. Modern techniques allow this process to be completed digitally. Leica Photogrammetry suite is used to specify the spatial coordinates of each photo and create a block file, a file that consists of two or more photographs of the same area that contain spatial coordinates of each photo. Once the block file is created, the user can view the objects contained in the overlapping portions of the photos and make vertical measurements. This process allows the user to calculate changes in surface area and changes in elevation, thus volume changes can be computed. Glacier volume will also be estimated from glacier surface areas using the Bahr et al. (1997) area-volume scaling method. Finally, field data (real-time differential GPS surface survey, ground penetrating radar of ice thickness and repeat photography) from a summer 2006 site visit to Dinwoody Glacier (located on the east slope of the WRR) will be compared to previous site visits in the past 40 years. The field data will either confirm or reject observations from the remote sensing approach.
DE: 1807 Climate impacts
DE: 1827 Glaciology (0736, 0776, 1863)
DE: 1855 Remote sensing (1640)
DE: 1863 Snow and ice (0736, 0738, 0776, 1827)
DE: 1884 Water supply
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting