- 1Department of Geoinformatics – Z_GIS, University of Salzburg, Austria (zgis@plus.ac.at)
- 2Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen, Norway (post@geo.uib.no)
Rock glaciers, key indicators of permafrost dynamics and hydrological processes in alpine regions, are studied to understand their kinematics and responses to climate change. By analysing Earth observation (EO) data, it is possible to detect and delineate them, estimate rock glacier velocities including seasonal and multi-year velocity patterns, and identify shifts from rapid, erratic glacial flow to slower, more stable movements.
In this study, we investigate how well InSAR-derived surface displacement measurements derived from Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) analysis of Sentinel-1 data align with rock glacier delineations from an existing inventory created through manual interpretation (Wagner et al., 2020) as well as an inventory produced by deep learning techniques by the authors of this contribution. Selected mountainous areas in the Austrian Alps serve as test sites. Specifically, we (1) evaluate the suitability of InSAR results for confirming or disconfirming rock glacier locations, (2) propose ways to improve the delineation of rock glaciers by integrating InSAR results, and (3) identify factors that may influence the InSAR results, such as topography, the size of the rock glacier, the movement rate, and slope-dependent dynamics. The findings can provide insights into the geomorphological controls on rock glacier dynamics and aid in refining feature delineation.
We will present results that include adapted spatial delineations of rock glaciers, examples of alignments and discrepancies between InSAR measurements and rock glacier delineations, and an exemplary assessment of factors limiting the capability of InSAR for rock glacier detection and characterisation. These insights can contribute to advancing our understanding of rock glacier behaviour, thereby supporting water resource management and hazard mitigation efforts in alpine environments.
Wagner, T., Ribis, M., Kellerer-Pirklbauer, A., Krainer, K., Winkler, G., 2020. The Austrian rock glacier inventory RGI_1 and the related rock glacier catchment inventory RGCI_1 in ArcGis (shapefile) format [dataset]. PANGAEA. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.921629
How to cite: Nafieva, E., Hölbling, D., Hauglin, E., Dabiri, Z., Robson, B. A., Streifeneder, V., and Abad, L.: How well do InSAR measurements align with rock glacier delineations in the Austrian Alps?, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-8133, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-8133, 2025.
