Finding Greenland Crevasses from Orbit
Where are the cracks in this glacier? You tell us!
Project description
Crevasses are cracks in ice that can affect the strength and flow speed of glaciers. There is currently no automated way to measure how many crevasses are in a glacier or where they are, but we are working on building a tool that does exactly that. To train and validate this tool, we need to assess where the crevasses appear to be by analyzing satellite images. In this project, you will use GIS (either ArcGIS or QGIS, your preference) tools to analyze high-resolution satellite imagery of an area of the Greenland Ice Sheet where we suspect there are crevasses. Your output data will be used to assess the quality of the crevasse detection tools that are being developed.
Project outcome
The project outcome is a shapefile that the student will generate that outlines all of the crevasse fields found in a 510 square kilometer area in Greenland.
Project details
| Length of commitment | Less than a semester; 0-2 months | |
| Start time | Summer (May/June) Fall (August/September) | |
| In-person, remote, or hybrid? | Hybrid Project | |
| Level of collaboration | Individual student project | |
| Benefits | Stipend | |
| Who is eligible | All undergraduate students who have some experience with GIS |
Project mentor
Kristin Poinar
Assistant Professor
Geology
Start the project
- Email the project mentor using the contact information above to express your interest and get approval to work on the project. (Here are helpful tips on how to contact a project mentor.)
- After you receive approval from the mentor to start this project, click the button to start the digital badge. (Learn more about ELN's digital badge options.)
Preparation activities
Once you begin the digital badge series, you will have access to all the necessary activities and instructions. Your mentor has indicated they would like you to also complete the specific preparation activities below. Please reference this when you get to Step 2 of the Preparation Phase.
This project requires knowledge of GIS use and basic digitization tool skills, e.g. as described at https://www.qgistutorials.com/en/docs/digitizing_basics.html. Please demonstrate your abilities by producing the following shapefile:
Use the attached image, S2_2019med.tif, which is of an area in western Greenland.
There are three bright blue lakes in the image. Please outline them using a digitizing radius of 100 m. You should make one shapefile with three features, one for each lake.
FindingGreenlandcrevassesfromorbit_79406182_s2_2019med.tif | Powered by Box
Keywords
Geology, GIS, image analysis