An RTK GNSS system for measuring glacier motion

We show the development of an internet-connected GNSS to study the short-term changes in surface velocity of two adjacent Icelandic glaciers, using an RTK methodology. The system is low power, cost effective, with centimetre-level accuracy (using Ublox ZED-F9P) and transmits data to the web server daily from multiple trackers. We show that we were able to deploy trackers using a UAV (Matrice 300), which allowed inaccessible areas of the glacier to be studied. Our data indicate clear similarities in temporal velocity variations between the trackers at the individual sites, both at Breiðamerkurjökull where the units were only ~200m apart as well as Fjallsjökull where they were ~1 km apart. This demonstrates how velocity patterns were similar across the glacier.