Monitoring Glacial Advance and Retreat of the Skaftafellsj

1
Monitoring Glacial Advance and Retreat of the
Skaftafellsjökull Glacier, Iceland

• Team Members
• Mr. Bryce Carmichael
• Ms. Amber Smith
• Mentors
• Dr. Sridhar Anandakrishnan
• Mr. Peter Burkett

2
Overview

• Introduction
• Importance
• Proposal
• Background Information
• The Skaftafellsjökull Glacier
• gPhoto2
• Linux ts7300 Board
• Nikon D50 SLR camera

• Methodology
• Crontab
• Shell script
• Preliminary Findings
• Results
• Discussion
• Future Work
• References
• Acknowledgments

3
Introduction

• Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS)
• Science and technology center instituted by the
  National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2005
• Lead institution located at the University of
  Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas
• Main focus is to understand the role of polar ice
  sheets in global climate

4
Importance

• Expensive to fly to all the glaciers and conduct
  drill ice cores all the way to the bed.
• Harsh weather conditions make extended on-site
  field work difficult
• Limited equipment prevents monitoring all
  glaciers at the same time

5
Importance

• Melting of polar ice-sheets can initiate
  sea-level rise. This means more coastal
  flooding, which in turn causes an increase in
  property damage and population dislocation
• Monitoring outlet glaciers for advance and
  retreat can give an indication of ice-sheet
  behavior and contributions to sea-level

6
Sea Level Rise Maps of the Southeast region of
the United States (Haskell Indian Nations
University - CReSIS)
7
Proposal

• Create an autonomous image capturing device that
  will monitor the movement of the
  Skaftafellsjökull Glacier, Iceland
• The device will be able to withstand all weather
  conditions
• Images of the glacier will be sent back to Penn
  State where they will be displayed in the Earth
  and Mineral Science museum

8
Background Information

• The Skaftafellsjökull Glacier
• Located in Iceland
• First explored in 1754
• 1446 meters above sea level
• Situated along an active volcano
• Has retreated rapidly in the past few years

9
Background Information

• gPhoto2
• The successor of gPhoto
• Uses as a set of software applications and
  libraries
• Retrieves images from cameras and has the ability
  to upload the images to remote computers

10
Background Information

• Linux ts7300 Board
• The system's utilities and libraries usually come
  from the GNU operating system
• Used for a wide variety of computer hardware,
  video game systems, arcade games, and embedded
  devices

11
Background Information

• Nikon D50 SLR
• 6.1 Megapixels
• Size 5.2 4 3"
• Weight 1 lb and 3 oz (540g)
• 2 inch LCD Screen
• Storage SD/MMC Card

12
Methodology

• The first step was to power up the ts7300 and
  connect it to the Mac
• The terminal was opened, and all necessary files
  and folders were created on the Linux board
• The user must log on to the Linux board by typing
  ssh root_at_192.168.0.51 and the respective
  password
• A separate directory called Images, was
  required to be made by using the mkdir command
• Type vi at the command line in the home shell,
  followed by the name of the script that is being
  created

13
Methodology

• Download and unzip the installation files of
  GPhoto2 onto the Linux board
• Command, gPhoto2 --list-ports, checked and
  listed all active ports of the ts7300
• Connected camera located using the command,
  gPhoto2 --auto-detect,
• Periodically remove images by adding an rm line
  to the gPhoto2 shell script to make room for new
  images

14
Cronjob

• A linux utility which allows tasks to be
  scheduled and run at specified times
• Run by the cron daemon

15
Shell Script

• Created using the vi editor
• Tells Crontab what operations to perform

16
Preliminary Findings

• The autonomous image-capturing device was created
  successfully
• Captures, uploads, and removes photographs from
  the cameras central memory to the ts7300 Linux
  board
• For testing, camera was programmed to capture
  images every minute for an entire hour

17
(No Transcript)
18
Discussion

• Use the newest version of gPhoto2 or find a more
  reliable software that is capable of performing
  all the functions needed
• Instead of the vi editor, possibly use a
  different script editor, such as Emacs
• A Linux board that has more memory

19
Future Work

• Incorporate a wireless device into this system to
  reduce the wired connections and ease
  communication
• Attach the all-weather case to the tripod
• Build additional autonomous imaging devices to
  place at other glaciers

20
References

• "Crontab - Quick Reference." Admin's Choice.
  2007. 14 June 2008 lthttp//www.adminschoice.com/do
  cs/crontab.htmgt.
• Hekman, Jessica Perry. Linux in a Nutshell A
  Desktop Quick Reference. 1st ed. Sebastopol
  O'Reilly and Associates, Inc., 1997. 1-160.
• Kochan, Stephen G., and Patrick H. Wood. Unix
  Shell Programming.Revised ed. Hayden Books, 1990.
  5-148.
• Ray, Deborah S., and Eric J. Ray. Unix. 2nd ed.
  Berkeley Peachpit P, 2003. 9-56.
• "Sea Level Rise Maps and GIS Data gt Southeast
  USA." CReSIS. Haskell Indian Nations University.
  23 July 2008 lthttps//www.cresis.ku.edu/research/d
  ata/sea_level_rise/h_southeast-usa.htmlgt.
• "Skaftafellsjokull." 14 July 2008
  lthttp//www.mit.edu/pjsugi/skaftafellsjokull.html
  gt.
• "The SnæFellsjöKull Glacier." UMHVERFISSTOFNUN.
  18 Feb. 2004. 14 July 2008 lthttp//english.ust.is/
  Snaefellsjokullnationalpark/TheGlacier/gt.
• The UNIX Forum. 13 Jan. 2008. 10 June 2008
  lthttp//www.unix.comgt.
• Waugh, Tim, Hans U. Niedermann, and Michael J.
  Rensing. "The GPhoto2 Manual." GPhoto. 28 Mar.
  2008. GNU. 9 June 2008 lthttp//www.gphoto.org/gt.

21
Acknowledgments

• The Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets
  (CReSIS)
• Dr. Sridhar Anandakrishnan
• Mr. Peter G. Burkett
• Dr. Linda B. Hayden
• Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP) 2008
• The Pennsylvania State University
• Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
  Office of Graduate Equity Dr. Lyons
• The National Science Foundation (NSF)
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  (NASA)

22
Questions? Contact Information Bryce L.
Carmichael blcarmichael_at_mail.ecsu.edu Amber E.
Smith asmith89_at_mail.nccu.edu