The abstract representation of landscape objects such as mountain peaks, valleys, river networks, lakes, cultivated land and nonproductive areas (forests, pastures, boulder fields, glaciers), settlement areas, infrastructure and traffic networks has been the main concept behind all kind of maps for a long time.
The spectacle of vivid natural surfaces (volcanoes, forests, oceans, tilled fields, glaciers) cascading under us gives way to the scars of mankind's plundering, heedless ways.
These techniques have advanced our abilities to quantify earth surface processes in general, and are particularly powerful in the field of glacier and ice-sheet dynamics and their coupling to climate change.
Image-to-image cross-correlation has been applied previously to pairs of optical sensor images to automatically track crevasses in mapping the velocity field of glacier motion and deformation (Scambos et al., 1992; Whillans and Tseng, 1995).
Being so far north, much of region - some 146,000 square km - is covered by glaciers and ice caps (a type of ice field where glaciers flow off in many directions).
Cryosphere: Mapping snow fields and glacier melting.
Straddling the Chilean Argentine border high in the Andes, near a field of glaciers, lies an ore body that by mining industry estimates is large enough to yield 750,000 ounces of gold, 30 million ounces of silver, and 5,000 tons of tradable copper concentrate (typically consisting of 25 30% copper) every year for 20 years.
She has also worked on a wide range of water-related research projects including the laboratory investigation of tsunami wave breaking behaviors at the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory in Oregon, the assessment and design of water filtration in rural Thailand, and the study of glacier hydrology through field research in Alaska.
The St. Elias Mountains and accompanying ice fields and glaciers are located in the western part of the park.
The landscape they captured is enchanting: a ring of dramatic mountains and rugged lava fields, with glaciers on the horizon, today wreathed in clouds.
