MM JOSE Review - Individual Glacier Surface Velocity Analysis

[mikemorris12]

• Typo when describing the distribution plots: “Plotting a histogram of vx, vy, and v we see that they both have Gaussian distributions…” The list should not include “v” since it does not follow a Gaussian distribution, as described in the proceeding sentences.
• There is an error regarding the calculation of mean speed (velocity magnitude) and speed anomalies (https://e-marshall.github.io/itslive/ind_glacier_analysis.html#calculating-velocity-anomalies):
  o Because the magnitude of a vector is a nonlinear function of its components, speed should be calculated before averaging the components. Average speed cannot be calculated from averaged components – averaging must be done last.
  o The statement “Note that if we tried to compute the magnitude of velocity anomalies, they would all be positive because magnitude is a scalar quantity. Thus, this would show us the magnitude of the anomaly’s deviation from the mean but not the direction. To discern whether a magnitude of velocity anomaly is positive or negative, we would need to examine the signs of the velocity component anomalies.” is not true. It doesn’t matter that speed is a positive definite quantity. A speed anomaly will be negative if the value is less than the mean.