Drones to study the Alpine glaciers

After the exploration of the seas, that of high altitude: the drones fly over glaciers at 2,400 meters above sea level. The cold brought them a group of researchers at the University of Milan-Bicocca to develop a new monitoring technique, with the aim of controlling the state of health of the glaciers, and find out how much ice melts every summer. But not only scientists want to use them to study the

phenomenon of blacks glaciers.

AS ICE MELTING? Researchers at the Department of Environmental Sciences and Territory (DISAT) have flown a drone quadricottero 150 meters high from the surface of the glacier Morteratsch, the largest of the Bernina Alps, Switzerland. The drone captured images in rapid sequence in which 3D models of highly detailed glacier were built.

From these models you can observe the seasonal trend of the glacier, calculating how much ice melts during the "melting season", which is the period in which the seasonal snow disappears and the bare ice is exposed to direct sunlight, more or less between July and September. On the front of the Morteratsch Glacier are 5 meters in length the "lost" this summer, and up to 6 meters in thickness, the researchers say.