Matthew Hoffman
Portland State University, Department of Geology

Area change in glaciers since the Little Ice Age can be well-documented in places with a detailed temporal record of aerial and ground-based photographs, such as Olympic National Park. Volume change is a more important climate indicator, but requires knowledge of glacier topography at multiple points in time. Digital Elevation Models created by the US Geological Survey provide baseline topography for the glaciers of Olympic for years ranging from 1943 to 1987, depending on location. While development of new Digital Elevation Models from aerial photograph stereopairs is a costly process, I will apply methods from terrestrial photogrammetry to relatively inexpensive oblique aerial photos captured by digital camera from a single-engine airplane. I will focus on Olympic National Park, where previous research has already established a detailed chronology of glacier area change. Time and resource permitting, the analysis may be extended to include Goat Rocks and the Oregon Cascades.

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