About the JIRP Survey Reports
All the reports presented here are based on research conducted on the Juneau Icefield, Alaska between 1988 and the present. All work was conducted under the financial and logistical support of the Juneau Icefield Research Program and its parent organization, the Foundation for Glacier and Environmental Research. Additional support was provided by the National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, NASA, the Army Research Office, University of Idaho Glaciological and Arctic Sciences Institute, University of Alaska Southeast, the Juneau Rotary Club, and private donors.

All survey work described in these reports was conducted and supervised by the following individuals:

• Scott McGee, Foundation for Glacier and Environmental Research, Moscow, Idaho and Anchorage, Alaska
   
• Dr.-Ing. Walter M. Welsch, Universität der Bundeswehr München, Munich, Germany
   
• Dipl.-Ing. Martin Lang, Universität der Bundeswehr München, Munich, Germany
   
• Susann Beuttner, Universität der Bundeswehr München, Munich, Germany
   
• Ronny Wenzel, Universität der Bundeswehr München, Munich, Germany
   
• Dr. Werner Stempfhuber, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland
   
• Claudia Roosli, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland
   
• Florence Vaudan, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland
   
• Melanie Kunz, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland

Student participants involved in the survey field work were supported by the Young Scholars Program and the Research Experience for Undergraduates programs of the National Science Foundation, by NASA, and by the Army Research Office.

A
The purpose of the surveying program is to collect annual data relating to the surface movement, elevation, and strain rates of baseline profiles across the Juneau Icefield. Additionally, new survey profiles are established annually in order to extend investigations into unsurveyed areas. Terrestrial-based surveys of several of the baseline profiles have been conducted over the course of several decades. More recently, GPS-based survey methods have been adopted and have replaced the older method. Unfortunately, strict comparisons of movement and elevation data obtained with high precision GPS equipment and techniques and those data obtained in the past with lower precision theodolite/EDM methods cannot be made. This is due to the fact that, before the advent of real-time GPS, it was nearly impossible to place the survey stakes in the same exact positions from year to year.

Most of the reports presented here detail survey work carried out with rapid static and real-time GPS equipment and techniques, giving an accuracy of approximately 1 cm horizontally and 5 cm vertically. Some of the earlier reports are based on traditional terrestrial survey techniques which utilized theodolites and EDMs. These older reports are presented here for the sake of historical documentation of the survey activities on the Juneau Icefield. Researchers and casual readers are cautioned that direct, quantitative comparisons cannot be made between the data in the GPS reports and the older theodolite/EDM reports.
 

Fireweed and lupine in bloom at the terminus of the advancing Taku Glacier, which will soon obliterate this lush patch of wildflowers