The cryosphere is one of Earth’s most important natural resources, serving as a frozen reservoir that supplements surface runoff throughout the year. We continued our work on assessment of changes in glacier area, volume and mass through the Hakai Institute Airborne Coastal Observatory work. Our acquisitions are chosen to maximize the regional representativeness of our ice surveys so that these measurements can be used to answer questions about the importance of glacier runoff on freshwater availability in western Canada.
Hakai ACO Projects 23_4042_00_USGS_Montana, 23_4033_00_SouthCascadeGlacier, and
23_4034_00_SperryGlacier are three projects carried out in partnership with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to expand our cryosphere work beyond the Canadian border. For more information on the partnership, please contact Brian Menounos (brian.menounos@hakai.org).
The Airborne Coastal Observatory (ACO) is an aerial remote sensing platform operated by
Hakai Institute, with support from partners UNBC and Kisik Aerial Survey. The platform is
primarily focused on monitoring Ice and Snow as a part of Hakai’s Cryosphere program, but the
platform works on a range of applications.