Publications by Heinz Blatter | EPFL Graph Search

Estimating the ice thickness of shallow glaciers from surface topography and mass-balance data with a shape optimization algorithm

Marco Picasso, Martin Funk, Heinz Blatter, Laurent Michel

A shape optimization algorithm is presented that estimates the ice thickness distribution within a three-dimensional, shallow glacier, given a transient surface geometry and a mass-balance distribution. The approach is based on the minimization of the surf ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2014

Estimating the ice thickness of mountain glaciers with a shape optimization algorithm using surface topography and mass-balance

Marco Picasso, Martin Funk, Heinz Blatter, Laurent Michel

We present a shape optimization algorithm to estimate the ice thickness distribution within a two-dimensional, non-sliding mountain glacier, given a transient surface geometry and a mass-balance distribution. The approach is based on the minimization of th ...

De Gruyter2014

Bedrock topography reconstruction of glaciers from surface topography and mass-balance data

Marco Picasso, Martin Funk, Heinz Blatter, Laurent Michel

Three methods based on the three-dimensional shallow ice approximation of glacier flow are devised that infer a glacier's subglacial topography from the observation of its time-evolving surface and mass balance. The quasi-stationary inverse method relying ...

Springer2014

Measurement of strain-rate components in a glacier with embedded inclinometers: numerical analysis

Marco Picasso, Heinz Blatter, Mariam Jaber

Inclinometry with embedded probes is analyzed with a Stokes model of a solid body floating in a fluid with much smaller viscosity for a two-dimensional flow field. The assumption that such a probe behaves like a Lagrangian unit vector is only justified for ...

International Glaciological Society2013

Modelling the retreat of Grosser Aletschgletscher, Switzerland, in a changing climate

Martin Funk, Heinz Blatter, Guillaume Jouvet

For more than a century Alpine glaciers have been retreating dramatically, and they are expected to shrink even more quickly over the coming decades. This study addresses the future evolution of Grosser Aletschgletscher, Switzerland, the largest glacier in ...

International Glaciological Society2011

Existence and stability of steady-state solutions of the shallow-ice-sheet equation by an energy-minimization approach

Jacques Rappaz, Heinz Blatter, Guillaume Jouvet

The existence of solutions of the non-sliding shallow-ice-sheet equation on a flat horizontal bed with a mass balance linearly depending on altitude is proven for fixed margins. Free-margin solutions for the same mass balance do not exist. Fixed-margin sol ...

International Glaciological Society2011

Numerical simulation of Rhonegletscher from 1874 to 2100

Marco Picasso, Jacques Rappaz, Heinz Blatter, Guillaume Jouvet

Due to climatic change, many Alpine glaciers have significantly retreated during the last century. In this study we perform the numerical simulation of the temporal and spatial change of Rhonegletscher, Swiss Alps, from 1874 to 2007, and from 2007 to 2100. ...

Elsevier2009

A new algorithm to simulate the dynamics of a glacier: theory and applications

Marco Picasso, Jacques Rappaz, Heinz Blatter, Guillaume Jouvet

We propose a novel Eulerian algorithm to compute the changes of a glacier geometry for given mass balances. The surface of a glacier is obtained by solving a transport equation for the volume of fluid (VOF). The surface mass balance is taken into account b ...

International Glaciological Society2008