ALBERT

Description: A widespread loss of glacier area and volume has been observed in the European Alps since the 1980s. In addition to differences among various regions of the Alps, different responses to climate change characterize neighboring glaciers within the same region. In this study we describe the glacier changes in the Ortles-Cevedale group, the largest glacierized area in the Italian Alps. We analyze the spatial variability, the drivers, and the main factors controlling the current loss of ice in this region, by comparing mean elevation changes derived from two digital terrain models (DTMs), along with glacier extents and snow-covered areas derived from Landsat images acquired in 1987 and 2009, to various topographic factors. Glacier outlines were obtained using the band ratio method with manual corrections. Snow was classified from a near-infrared image after topographic correction. The total glacierized area shrank by 23.4 ± 3% in this period, with no significant changes in the mean altitude of the glaciers. In 2009 the snowline was 240 m higher than in the 1960s and 1970s. From the snow-covered area at the end of summer 2009, which fairly represents the extent and local variability of the accumulation areas in the 2000s, we estimate that approximately 50% of the remaining glacier surfaces have to melt away to re-establish balanced mass budgets with present climatic conditions. The average geodetic mass budget rate, calculated for 112 ice bodies by differencing two DTMs, ranged from −0.18 ± 0.04 to −1.43 ± 0.09 m w.e. a−1, averaging −0.69 ± 0.12 m w.e. a−1. The correlation analysis of mass budgets vs. topographic variables emphasized the important role of hypsometry in controlling the area and volume loss of larger glaciers, whereas a higher variability characterizes smaller glaciers, which is likely due to the higher importance of local topo-climatic conditions.

Description: A widespread loss of glacier area and volume was observed in the European Alps since the 1980s. Besides differences among various regions of the Alps, different responses characterize neighboring glaciers within the same region. In this study we describe the glacier changes in the Ortles-Cevedale group, the largest glacierized area in the Italian Alps. We characterize the drivers, the spatial variability and the main factors controlling the current loss of ice in this region by comparing glacier extents and snow covered areas derived from Landsat images acquired in 1987 and 2009. Glacier outlines were obtained from a band ratio with manual corrections and snow was classified from a near infrared image after topographic correction. The total glacierized area shrank by 23% in this period, with no significant changes in the mean altitude of the glaciers. The snowline is now 240 m higher than in the 1960s and 1970s. From the snow covered area of 2009, which fairly represents the extent of the accumulation areas over the last decade, we estimate that about 50% of the remaining glacier surfaces have to melt away to re-establish equilibrium with present climatic conditions. The average geodetic mass budget rate, calculated for 112 ice bodies by differencing two Digital Terrain Models (DTMs), ranged from −0.15 to −1.50 m w.e. a−1, averaging −0.68 m w.e. a−1. A correlation analysis of mass budgets vs. topographic variables confirmed the important role of the hypsometry in controlling area and volume loss of larger glaciers, while a higher variability characterizes smaller glaciers and glacierets, likely due to the increasing importance of local topo-climatic conditions.

Description: Glacier inventories provide important baseline information for the determination of water resources, glacier-specific changes in area and volume, climate change impacts, and the past, potential and future contribution of glaciers to sea-level rise. Though heavily glacierized and thus highly relevant for all of the above points, such an inventory of all local glaciers and icecaps (GIC) was not available so far for Greenland. Here we present the details and results of our inventory, that has been compiled from more than 70 Landsat scenes mostly acquired between 1999 and 2002 using semi-automated multispectral mapping techniques. A digital elevation model (DEM) was used to derive drainage divides from watershed analysis and topographic parameters for each glacier entity. We assigned to each entity one of three connectivity levels (CL0, CL1, CL2; i.e. no, weak, and strong connection) with the ice sheet to distinguish the local GIC from the ice sheet and its outlet glaciers and to serve the specific needs of different user communities. All GIC larger 0.05 km2 include ~20 300 entities (of which 900 are marine terminating), covering an area of 129 983 ± 4029 km2, or 89 273 ± 2767 km2 without the CL2 GIC. The latter is about 50% more than according to all previous estimates. Glaciers smaller 0.5 km2 contribute only 1.5% to the total area but more than 50% (11 000) to the total number. In contrast, the 25 largest GIC (〉500 km2) contribute 28% to the total area, but only 0.1% to the total number. Most of the ice was located at elevations around 1000 m, except in the eastern sector with elevation arround 1700 m. In addition, a strong dependence of the median elevation to the distance from the ocean was found, but only a weak dependence on aspect. All data will be made available in the Global Land Ice Measurement from Space (GLIMS) glacier database.

Description: Glacier inventories provide essential baseline information for the determination of water resources, glacier-specific changes in area and volume, climate change impacts as well as past, potential and future contribution of glaciers to sea-level rise. Although Greenland is heavily glacierised and thus highly relevant for all of the above points, a complete inventory of its glaciers was not available so far. Here we present the results and details of a new and complete inventory that has been compiled from more than 70 Landsat scenes (mostly acquired between 1999 and 2002) using semi-automated glacier mapping techniques. A digital elevation model (DEM) was used to derive drainage divides from watershed analysis and topographic attributes for each glacier entity. To serve the needs of different user communities, we assigned to each glacier one of three connectivity levels with the ice sheet (CL0, CL1, CL2; i.e. no, weak, and strong connection) to clearly, but still flexibly, distinguish the local glaciers and ice caps (GIC) from the ice sheet and its outlet glaciers. In total, we mapped ~ 20 300 glaciers larger than 0.05 km2 (of which ~ 900 are marine terminating), covering an area of 130 076 ± 4032 km2, or 89 720 ± 2781 km2 without the CL2 GIC. The latter value is about 50% higher than the mean value of more recent previous estimates. Glaciers smaller than 0.5 km2 contribute only 1.5% to the total area but more than 50% (11 000) to the total number. In contrast, the 25 largest GIC (〉 500 km2) contribute 28% to the total area, but only 0.1% to the total number. The mean elevation of the GIC is 1700 m in the eastern sector and around 1000 m otherwise. The median elevation increases with distance from the coast, but has only a weak dependence on mean glacier aspect.