Measuring decadal vertical land-level changes from SRTM-C (2000) and TanDEM-X  ( ∼ 2015) in the south-central Andes

Purinton, Benjamin; Bookhagen, Bodo

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-6-971-2018

Articles | Volume 6, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-6-971-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-6-971-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 6, issue 4

Research article

|

30 Oct 2018

Research article |

| 30 Oct 2018

Measuring decadal vertical land-level changes from SRTM-C (2000) and TanDEM-X ( ∼ 2015) in the south-central Andes

Benjamin Purinton and Bodo Bookhagen

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-6-971-2018-supplement

Data sets

NASADEM MEaSUREs US Government https://e4ftl01.cr.usgs.gov/provisional/MEaSUREs/NASADEM/

SRTM-TanDEM-dh Github Repository B. Purinton https://github.com/UP-RS-ESP/TanDEM-SRTM-dh

Model code and software

Correction and Differencing Scripts (Python) B. Purinton https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1305779

Video supplement

Iterative-Shifting-Video B. Purinton https://doi.org/10.5446/37092

Short summary

We show a new use for the SRTM-C digital elevation model from February 2000 and the newer TanDEM-X dataset from ~ 2015. We difference the datasets over hillslopes and gravel-bed channels to extract vertical land-level changes. These signals are associated with incision, aggradation, and landsliding. This requires careful correction of the SRTM-C biases using the TanDEM-X and propagation of significant uncertainties. The method can be applied to moderate relief areas with SRTM-C coverage.