The Quaternary GIS Laboratory at INSTAAR, University of Colorado, supports quantitative spatial analysis of glacier, climate, coastal, and other environmental relationships.
The coastlines of southwest Alaska are highly dynamic. In collaboration with the National Park Service, this pilot study assesses the potential for high-resolution imagery to quantify coastal and environmental change over the last five decades.
GIS-based animations show how monthly temperature and precipitation change through the seasons. Patterns are related to latitude, elevation, coastal effects, and other environmental parameters.
Radar imagery, Digital Elevation Models, and value-added GIS layers are now available! This project takes advantage of state-of-the-art remote-sensing technologies to produce baseline geospatial data. The shared imagery and spatial databases will promote multi-disciplinary research of environmental change in the Barrow area. A GIS-based animation shows how the land bridge between Asia and North America changed as sea level rose over the last 21,000 years. A broadly collaborative effort has enabled this online presentation of maps and GIS layers. The APG Atlas depicts late Wisconsin glaciation and the Pleistocene maximum extent of the northwestern Cordilleran Ice Sheet, ice caps, and valley glaciers across Alaska. This project combines field research and surface-exposure dating with GIS analysis of Alaskan glaciers that existed during the Last Glacial Maximum. Our study helps document magnitudes, processes, and sensitivity of natural climate dynamics across Alaska about 20,000 years ago.
GIS can also be used to empirically quantify 20th-century climatic controls on approx. 100,000 Alaskan glaciers. This project utilizes digital equivalents of >500 topographic maps to measure more than 40 glaciologic parameters for each glacier. Spatial variability helps us better understand glacier dynamics in the face of recent, unprecedented environmental change. Other Projects
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