Rivera, A.; Bown, F.; Wendt A. and C. Bravo (2012) : “Recent glacier changes in southern Chile and in the Antarctic Peninsula” Anales Instituto Patagonia (Chile), 40(1), 39-44.

Resumen / Abstract.

In historical times, glaciers in Southern Chile have experienced a significant area reduction mainly in response to ongoing atmospheric warming. Here we present some of the research that has been done by Centro de Estudios Científicos, CECs, Valdivia, during recent years. This research has been conducted by means of direct glacier measurements, airborne data collection and remotely sensed satellite imagery analysis. Visible to near infrared images were employed to study active ice-capped volcanoes with the aim of monitoring possible volcanic activity effects on recent glacier behaviors. Several field campaigns have been also conducted to the Northern and Southern Patagonian Icefields (NPI and SPI respectively), where automatic weather stations, continuous GPS stations and time-lapse cameras have been used to survey glaciers. In 2002 and 2008, these icefields were surveyed with a Chilean Navy P3 airplane equipped with a laser and radar from NASA, and other sensors from CECs. In the Antarctic Peninsula (AP), during recent decades several ice shelves have collapsed, affecting upstream glaciers. In order to study these changes, field campaigns have been conducted to Adelaide Island (2002) and Fleming glacier (2007, 2008 and 2009) where ice thicknesses, ice velocities and local meteorological conditions have been measured. Airborne surveys have been conducted to the whole Antarctica Peninsula onboard a Chilean Navy P3 airplane equipped with CECS and NASA instruments in 2002, 2004 and 2008. In addition, the CECs airborne mapping system (CAMS) mounted onboard a Chilean Air Force (FACH) Twin Otter, was used in 2008 to survey the surface topography of Fleming.

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