Christopher McNeil
My research focuses on understanding the ways glaciers change in area, volume, and mass at basin-to-regional spatial scales, and how those changes impact local ecosystems and global sea level.
My projects synthesize both in-situ and remotely sensed data of glacier change ranging from Alaska to the Contiguous United States. Research includes reanalyzing the longest in-situ records of glacier change in North America to homogenize the U.S. Geological Survey’s traditional glacier monitoring network. Additionally, my research extends to understanding the factors (hypsometry, snow accumulation patterns, energy balances, dynamic processes) that drive variable glacier change rates at the mountain range scale. This work leverages historical aerial imagery, high resolution commercial satellite imagery, open-source computing platforms, geospatial analyses, and high-performance computing.
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 16
Raw Ground Penetrating Radar Data on North American Glaciers Raw Ground Penetrating Radar Data on North American Glaciers
U.S. Geological Survey researchers conducted time-series ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys with a Sensors and Software 500-MHz Pulse Ekko Pro system. This data release contains ground-based (ski and snowmobile) as well as airborne common-offset profiles. All profiles are linked to coincident GPS observations. Additionally, common-midpoint data was collected at specific glacier...
Geodetic Data for Juneau Icefield Glaciers: Orthophotos, Digital Elevation Models, and Glacier Boundaries Geodetic Data for Juneau Icefield Glaciers: Orthophotos, Digital Elevation Models, and Glacier Boundaries
his data release provides geodetic measurements collected since the mid-1940s to characterize the surface elevation, area, and motion of glaciers studied by the U.S, Geological Survey. The primary glaciers of focus are the Benchmark Glaciers of North America which include Gulkana, Wolverine, and Lemon Creek Glaciers in Alaska, Sperry Glacier in Montana, and South Cascade Glacier in...
Weather Station Data on the Juneau Icefield Weather Station Data on the Juneau Icefield
Measurements of meteorological data are made at many permanent camp facilities on the Juneau Icefield. This portion of the data release includes select weather data that has received basic quality control and assurance. Data is released at three different levels of processing, level 0, 1 and 2. Level 0 data contains compiled raw data, before QC procedures are applied, at the original...
SUPERSEDED: Raw Ground Penetrating Radar Data, Valdez Glacier, Alaska; 2013 SUPERSEDED: Raw Ground Penetrating Radar Data, Valdez Glacier, Alaska; 2013
No data are available from this page. U.S. Geological Survey ground penetrating radar (GPR) data from select North American glaciers, including the Valdez Glacier, are available in the U.S. Geological Survey data release: https://doi.org/10.5066/F7M043G7
SUPERSEDED: Raw Ground Penetrating Radar Data, Taku Glacier, Alaska; 2013 SUPERSEDED: Raw Ground Penetrating Radar Data, Taku Glacier, Alaska; 2013
No data are available from this page. U.S. Geological Survey ground penetrating radar (GPR) data from select North American glaciers, including the Taku Glacier, are available in the U.S. Geological Survey data release: https://doi.org/10.5066/F7M043G7
SUPERSEDED: Raw Ground Penetrating Radar Data, Scott Glacier, Alaska; 2013 SUPERSEDED: Raw Ground Penetrating Radar Data, Scott Glacier, Alaska; 2013
No data are available from this page. U.S. Geological Survey ground penetrating radar (GPR) data from select North American glaciers, including the Scott Glacier, are available in the U.S. Geological Survey data release: https://doi.org/10.5066/F7M043G7
Filter Total Items: 16
Inventory of glaciers and perennial snowfields of the conterminous USA Inventory of glaciers and perennial snowfields of the conterminous USA
This report summarizes an updated inventory of glaciers and perennial snowfields of the conterminous United States. The inventory is based on interpretation of mostly aerial imagery provided by the National Agricultural I magery Program, US Department of Agriculture, with some satellite imagery in places where aerial imagery was not suitable. The inventory includes all perennial snow and...
Authors
Andrew Fountain, Bryce Glenn, Christopher J. McNeil
Historical Structure from Motion (HSfM): Automated processing of historical aerial photographs for long-term topographic change analysis Historical Structure from Motion (HSfM): Automated processing of historical aerial photographs for long-term topographic change analysis
Precisely measuring the Earth’s changing surface on decadal to centennial time scales is critical for many science and engineering applications, yet long-term records of quantitative landscape change are often temporally and geographically sparse. Archives of scanned historical aerial photographs provide an opportunity to augment these records with accurate elevation measurements that...
Authors
Friedrich Knuth, David Shean, Shashank Bhushan, Eli Schwat, Oleg Alexandrov, Christopher J. McNeil, Amaury Dehecq, Caitlyn Florentine, Shad O'Neel
Uncertainty of ICESat-2 ATL06- and ATL08-derived snow depths for glacierized and vegetated mountain regions Uncertainty of ICESat-2 ATL06- and ATL08-derived snow depths for glacierized and vegetated mountain regions
Seasonal snow melt dominates the hydrologic budget across a large portion of the globe. Snow accumulation and melt vary over a broad range of spatial scales, preventing accurate extrapolation of sparse in situ observations to watershed scales. The lidar onboard the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation, Satellite (ICESat-2) was designed for precise mapping of ice sheets and sea ice, and here we...
Authors
Ellyn Enderlin, Colten Elkin, Madeline Gendreau, H. P. Marshall, Shad O'Neel, Christopher J. McNeil, Caitlyn Florentine, Louis C. Sass
Beyond glacier-wide mass balances: Parsing seasonal elevation change into spatially resolved patterns of accumulation and ablation at Wolverine Glacier, Alaska Beyond glacier-wide mass balances: Parsing seasonal elevation change into spatially resolved patterns of accumulation and ablation at Wolverine Glacier, Alaska
We present spatially distributed seasonal and annual surface mass balances of Wolverine Glacier, Alaska, from 2016 to 2020. Our approach accounts for the effects of ice emergence and firn compaction on surface elevation changes to resolve the spatial patterns in mass balance at 10 m scale. We present and compare three methods for estimating emergence velocities. Firn compaction was...
Authors
Lucas Zeller, Daniel J McGrath, Louis C. Sass, Shad O'Neel, Christopher J. McNeil, Emily Baker
Topographic controls on ice flow and recession for Juneau Icefield (Alaska/British Columbia) Topographic controls on ice flow and recession for Juneau Icefield (Alaska/British Columbia)
Globally, mountain glaciers and ice caps are losing dramatic volumes of ice. The resultant sea-level rise is dominated by contributions from Alaska. Plateau icefields may be especially sensitive to climate change due to the non-linear controls their topography imparts on their response to climate change. However, Alaskan plateau icefields have been subject to little structural...
Authors
Bethan Davies, Jacob Bendle, Jonathan Carrivick, Robert McNabb, Christopher J. McNeil, Mauri Pelto, Seth Campbell, Tom Holt, Jeremy Ely, Bradley Markle
The imminent calving retreat of Taku Glacier The imminent calving retreat of Taku Glacier
Along the rugged Southeast Alaska coast, 30 kilometers northeast of the state capital Juneau, a tidewater glacier has largely defied global trends by steadily advancing for most of the past century while most glaciers on Earth retreated. This 55-kilometer-long and nearly 1,500-meter-thick tidewater glacier, named Taku Glacier, or T'aaḵú Ḵwáan Sít'i in the language of the Indigenous...
Authors
Christopher J. McNeil, Jason Amundson, Shad O’Neel, Roman Motyka, Louis C. Sass, Martin Truffer, Jenna Ziemann, Seth Campbell
Non-USGS Publications**
Pelto, M., Kavanaugh, J., and McNeil, C.: Juneau Icefield Mass Balance Program 1946–2011, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 5, 319–330, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-5-319-2013, 2013.
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 16
Raw Ground Penetrating Radar Data on North American Glaciers Raw Ground Penetrating Radar Data on North American Glaciers
U.S. Geological Survey researchers conducted time-series ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys with a Sensors and Software 500-MHz Pulse Ekko Pro system. This data release contains ground-based (ski and snowmobile) as well as airborne common-offset profiles. All profiles are linked to coincident GPS observations. Additionally, common-midpoint data was collected at specific glacier...
Geodetic Data for Juneau Icefield Glaciers: Orthophotos, Digital Elevation Models, and Glacier Boundaries Geodetic Data for Juneau Icefield Glaciers: Orthophotos, Digital Elevation Models, and Glacier Boundaries
his data release provides geodetic measurements collected since the mid-1940s to characterize the surface elevation, area, and motion of glaciers studied by the U.S, Geological Survey. The primary glaciers of focus are the Benchmark Glaciers of North America which include Gulkana, Wolverine, and Lemon Creek Glaciers in Alaska, Sperry Glacier in Montana, and South Cascade Glacier in...
Weather Station Data on the Juneau Icefield Weather Station Data on the Juneau Icefield
Measurements of meteorological data are made at many permanent camp facilities on the Juneau Icefield. This portion of the data release includes select weather data that has received basic quality control and assurance. Data is released at three different levels of processing, level 0, 1 and 2. Level 0 data contains compiled raw data, before QC procedures are applied, at the original...
SUPERSEDED: Raw Ground Penetrating Radar Data, Valdez Glacier, Alaska; 2013 SUPERSEDED: Raw Ground Penetrating Radar Data, Valdez Glacier, Alaska; 2013
No data are available from this page. U.S. Geological Survey ground penetrating radar (GPR) data from select North American glaciers, including the Valdez Glacier, are available in the U.S. Geological Survey data release: https://doi.org/10.5066/F7M043G7
SUPERSEDED: Raw Ground Penetrating Radar Data, Taku Glacier, Alaska; 2013 SUPERSEDED: Raw Ground Penetrating Radar Data, Taku Glacier, Alaska; 2013
No data are available from this page. U.S. Geological Survey ground penetrating radar (GPR) data from select North American glaciers, including the Taku Glacier, are available in the U.S. Geological Survey data release: https://doi.org/10.5066/F7M043G7
SUPERSEDED: Raw Ground Penetrating Radar Data, Scott Glacier, Alaska; 2013 SUPERSEDED: Raw Ground Penetrating Radar Data, Scott Glacier, Alaska; 2013
No data are available from this page. U.S. Geological Survey ground penetrating radar (GPR) data from select North American glaciers, including the Scott Glacier, are available in the U.S. Geological Survey data release: https://doi.org/10.5066/F7M043G7
Filter Total Items: 16
Inventory of glaciers and perennial snowfields of the conterminous USA Inventory of glaciers and perennial snowfields of the conterminous USA
This report summarizes an updated inventory of glaciers and perennial snowfields of the conterminous United States. The inventory is based on interpretation of mostly aerial imagery provided by the National Agricultural I magery Program, US Department of Agriculture, with some satellite imagery in places where aerial imagery was not suitable. The inventory includes all perennial snow and...
Authors
Andrew Fountain, Bryce Glenn, Christopher J. McNeil
Historical Structure from Motion (HSfM): Automated processing of historical aerial photographs for long-term topographic change analysis Historical Structure from Motion (HSfM): Automated processing of historical aerial photographs for long-term topographic change analysis
Precisely measuring the Earth’s changing surface on decadal to centennial time scales is critical for many science and engineering applications, yet long-term records of quantitative landscape change are often temporally and geographically sparse. Archives of scanned historical aerial photographs provide an opportunity to augment these records with accurate elevation measurements that...
Authors
Friedrich Knuth, David Shean, Shashank Bhushan, Eli Schwat, Oleg Alexandrov, Christopher J. McNeil, Amaury Dehecq, Caitlyn Florentine, Shad O'Neel
Uncertainty of ICESat-2 ATL06- and ATL08-derived snow depths for glacierized and vegetated mountain regions Uncertainty of ICESat-2 ATL06- and ATL08-derived snow depths for glacierized and vegetated mountain regions
Seasonal snow melt dominates the hydrologic budget across a large portion of the globe. Snow accumulation and melt vary over a broad range of spatial scales, preventing accurate extrapolation of sparse in situ observations to watershed scales. The lidar onboard the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation, Satellite (ICESat-2) was designed for precise mapping of ice sheets and sea ice, and here we...
Authors
Ellyn Enderlin, Colten Elkin, Madeline Gendreau, H. P. Marshall, Shad O'Neel, Christopher J. McNeil, Caitlyn Florentine, Louis C. Sass
Beyond glacier-wide mass balances: Parsing seasonal elevation change into spatially resolved patterns of accumulation and ablation at Wolverine Glacier, Alaska Beyond glacier-wide mass balances: Parsing seasonal elevation change into spatially resolved patterns of accumulation and ablation at Wolverine Glacier, Alaska
We present spatially distributed seasonal and annual surface mass balances of Wolverine Glacier, Alaska, from 2016 to 2020. Our approach accounts for the effects of ice emergence and firn compaction on surface elevation changes to resolve the spatial patterns in mass balance at 10 m scale. We present and compare three methods for estimating emergence velocities. Firn compaction was...
Authors
Lucas Zeller, Daniel J McGrath, Louis C. Sass, Shad O'Neel, Christopher J. McNeil, Emily Baker
Topographic controls on ice flow and recession for Juneau Icefield (Alaska/British Columbia) Topographic controls on ice flow and recession for Juneau Icefield (Alaska/British Columbia)
Globally, mountain glaciers and ice caps are losing dramatic volumes of ice. The resultant sea-level rise is dominated by contributions from Alaska. Plateau icefields may be especially sensitive to climate change due to the non-linear controls their topography imparts on their response to climate change. However, Alaskan plateau icefields have been subject to little structural...
Authors
Bethan Davies, Jacob Bendle, Jonathan Carrivick, Robert McNabb, Christopher J. McNeil, Mauri Pelto, Seth Campbell, Tom Holt, Jeremy Ely, Bradley Markle
The imminent calving retreat of Taku Glacier The imminent calving retreat of Taku Glacier
Along the rugged Southeast Alaska coast, 30 kilometers northeast of the state capital Juneau, a tidewater glacier has largely defied global trends by steadily advancing for most of the past century while most glaciers on Earth retreated. This 55-kilometer-long and nearly 1,500-meter-thick tidewater glacier, named Taku Glacier, or T'aaḵú Ḵwáan Sít'i in the language of the Indigenous...
Authors
Christopher J. McNeil, Jason Amundson, Shad O’Neel, Roman Motyka, Louis C. Sass, Martin Truffer, Jenna Ziemann, Seth Campbell
Non-USGS Publications**
Pelto, M., Kavanaugh, J., and McNeil, C.: Juneau Icefield Mass Balance Program 1946–2011, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 5, 319–330, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-5-319-2013, 2013.
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.