Alpine glaciers flow velocity mapping from satellite observations

Updated at: 07/06/2023
Data from the Sentinel-2 satellite (ESA) freely available every 5 days since mid-2015 for the entire Earth's surface make it possible to map the flow velocity of glaciers and document their evolution over time, a paramount indicator of their “health status”.

Combining a high spatial resolution (10 m) and a revisiting period of 5 days, the optical satellite data from Sentinel-2 (ESA, Copernicus) have a strong potential to document changes at the Earth surface. We applied an optimized cross-correlation method on image pairs embedded in an automatized processing chains that also encompasses modules of post-processing for data filtering and aggregation, to produce annual glacier surface flow velocity maps at the European Alps scale over the period 2015-2021.

Although the covered time period is rather short, the 50 m resolution maps we produce allow documenting significant changes in glacier flow velocity, a paramount information for documenting the state of mountain glaciers in the current context of environmental changes.

Rabatel, Antoine; Ducasse, Etienne; Millan, Romain; Mouginot, Jérémie, 2023, "Annual glacier surface flow velocity product from Sentinel-2 data for the European Alps", https://doi.org/10.57745/XHQ7TL, Recherche Data Gouv, V1
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