First results from the high-density 4D GPR datasets acquired on three Swiss alpine glaciers using our drone-based GPR system.

Drone-based ground-penetrating radar (GPR) has emerged as a valuable tool for safe and efficient acquisitions of unprecedented 3D and 4D high-density GPR datasets over alpine glaciers. Between the summers of 2022 and 2023, we obtained 4D datasets from three Swiss alpine glaciers, each serving distinct research objectives. First of all, on the Otemma glacier, we collected the most extensive 3D/4D high-density datasets ever acquired on an alpine glacier, which primary goal is the investigation of internal glacier hydrology. Then, on the Findelen glacier, we conducted identical acquisitions five times regularly over a span of fourteen months, aiming to study the glaciers internal dynamics. And finally, on the Rhne glacier, we acquired four datasets on a monthly basis over a large collapse feature that evolved during the summer of 2022, in order to understand better such mechanism. This presentation aims to introduce the preliminary results from the analysis of these datasets, with a particular emphasis on the latest findings from the Rhne glacier dataset.