ABSTRACT
Various methods and data exist that can be used for producing digital elevation models (DEMs) of glacial areas. For comparison of different methods, it is advantageous that the data are acquired as near to simultaneously as possible. Such a simultaneous data acquisition was successfully carried out on August 12, 2003, at Hintereisferner, a valley glacier in the Central Eastern Alps, Austria, as a part of the OMEGA project funded by the European Commission during 2001-2004. The synchronous acquisition included very high resolution optical images by the Ikonos satellite, aerial photographs, airborne digital camera images, and airborne laser scanner data. For the georeferencing and verification of the spaceborne and airborne data, ground truth data were simultaneously acquired including terrestrial photographs in a small test area on the glacier, ground control points (GCPs) on bedrock surrounding the glacier, and checkpoints on ice along the glacier snout.
