Université de Fribourg

Worldwide version-controlled database of glacier thickness observations

Welty, Ethan ; Zemp, Michael ; Navarro, Francisco ; Huss, Matthias ; Fürst, Johannes J. ; Gärtner-Roer, Isabelle ; Landmann, Johannes ; Machguth, Horst ; Naegeli, Kathrin ; Andreassen, Liss M. ; Farinotti, Daniel ; Li, Huilin ; GlaThiDa Contributors

In: Earth System Science Data, 2020, vol. 12, no. 4, p. 3039–3055

Although worldwide inventories of glacier area have been coordinated internationally for several decades, a similar effort for glacier ice thicknesses was only initiated in 2013. Here, we present the third version of the Glacier Thickness Database (GlaThiDa v3), which includes 3 854 279 thickness measurements distributed over roughly 3000 glaciers worldwide. Overall, 14 % of global...

Université de Fribourg

Brief communication: Ad hoc estimation of glacier contributions to sea-level rise from the latest glaciological observations

Zemp, Michael ; Huss, Matthias ; Eckert, Nicolas ; Thibert, Emmanuel ; Paul, Frank ; Nussbaumer, Samuel U. ; Gärtner-Roer, Isabelle

In: The Cryosphere, 2020, vol. 14, no. 3, p. 1043–1050

Comprehensive assessments of global glacier mass changes based on a variety of observations and prevailing methodologies have been published at multi-annual intervals. For the years in between, the glaciological method provides annual observations of specific mass changes but is suspected to not be representative at the regional to global scales due to uneven glacier distribution with...

Université de Fribourg

Elevation changes of the Holm Land Ice Cap, northeast Greenland, from 1978 to 2012–2015, derived from high-resolution digital elevation models

Albedyll, Luisa von ; Machguth, Horst ; Nussbaumer, Samuel U. ; Zemp, Michael

In: Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, 2018, vol. 50, no. 1, p. e1523638

Greenland’s peripheral glaciers and ice caps are key indicators of climate change in the Arctic, but quantitative observational data of their recent evolution are sparse. Three recently released high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs)—AeroDEM (based on images from 1978 to 1987), ArcticDEM (2012–2015), and TanDEM-X (2010–2014)—provide the possibility to calculate elevation...

Université de Fribourg

Re-establishing glacier monitoring in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, Central Asia

Hoelzle, Martin ; Azisov, Erlan ; Barandun, Martina ; Huss, Matthias ; Farinotti, Daniel ; Gafurov, Abror ; Hagg, Wilfried ; Kenzhebaev, Ruslan ; Kronenberg, Marlene ; Machguth, Horst ; Merkushkin, Alexandr ; Moldobekov, Bolot ; Petrov, Maxim ; Saks, Tomas ; Salzmann, Nadine ; Schöne, Tilo ; Tarasov, Yuri ; Usubaliev, Ryskul ; Vorogushyn, Sergiy ; Yakovlev, Andrey ; Zemp, Michael

In: Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems, 2017, vol. 6, no. 2, p. 397–418

Glacier mass loss is among the clearest indicators of atmospheric warming. The observation of these changes is one of the major objectives of the international climate monitoring strategy developed by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS). Long-term glacier mass balance measurements are furthermore the basis for calibrating and validating models simulating future runoff of glacierised...

Université de Fribourg

Glacier monitoring and capacity building: important ingredients for sustainable mountain development

Nussbaumer, Samuel U. ; Hoelzle, Martin ; Hüsler, Fabia ; Huggel, Christian ; Salzmann, Nadine ; Zemp, Michael

In: Mountain Research and Development, 2017, vol. 37, no. 1, p. 141–152

Glacier observation data from major mountain regions of the world are key to improving our understanding of glacier changes: they deliver fundamental baseline information for climatological, hydrological, and hazard assessments. In many mountain ecosystems, as well as in the adjacent lowlands, glaciers play a crucial role in freshwater provision and regulation. This article first presents the...

Université de Fribourg

Historical analysis and visualization of the retreat of Findelengletscher, Switzerland, 1859–2010

Rastner, P. ; Joerg, P.C. ; Huss, Matthias ; Zemp, Michael

In: Global and Planetary Change, 2016, vol. 145, p. 67–77

Since the end of the Little Ice Age around 1850, glaciers in Europe have strongly retreated. Thanks to early topographic surveys in Switzerland, accurate maps are available, which enable us to trace glacier changes back in time. The earliest map for all of Switzerland that is usable for a detailed analysis is the Dufour map from around 1850 with subsequent topographic maps on a ~ 20 year...

Université de Fribourg

Mass balance re-analysis of Findelengletscher, Switzerland; benefits of extensive snow accumulation measurements

Sold, Leo ; Huss, Matthias ; Machguth, Horst ; Joerg, Philip C. ; Leysinger Vieli, Gwendolyn ; Linsbauer, Andreas ; Salzmann, Nadine ; Zemp, Michael ; Hoelzle, Martin

In: Front. Earth Sci. - Cryospheric Sciences, 2016, p. 18

A re-analysis is presented here of a 10 year mass balance series at Findelengletscher, a temperate mountain glacier in Switzerland. Calculating glacier-wide mass balance from the set of glaciological point balance observations using conventional approaches, such as the profile or contour method, resulted in significant deviations from the reference value given by the geodetic mass...

Université de Fribourg

Dendritic subglacial drainage systems in cold glaciers formed by cut-and-closure processes

Naegeli, Kathrin ; Lovell, Harold ; Zemp, Michael ; Benn, Douglas I.

In: Geografiska Annaler: Series A, Physical Geography, 2014, vol. 96, no. 4, p. 591–608

The routing and storage of meltwater and the configuration of drainage systems in glaciers exert a profound influence on glacier behaviour. However, little is known about the hydrological systems of cold glaciers, which form a significant proportion of the total glacier population in the climate sensitive region of the High Arctic. Using glacio-speleological techniques, we obtained direct access...

Université de Fribourg

A database of worldwide glacier thickness observations

Gärtner-Roer, Isabelle ; Naegeli, K. ; Huss, Matthias ; Knecht, T. ; Machguth, Horst ; Zemp, Michael

In: Global and Planetary Change, 2014, vol. 122, p. 330–344

One of the grand challenges in glacier research is to assess the total ice volume and its global distribution. Over the past few decades the compilation of a world glacier inventory has been well-advanced both in institutional set-up and in spatial coverage. The inventory is restricted to glacier surface observations. However, although thickness has been observed on many glaciers and ice caps...