In: Nature, 2019, vol. 575, no. 7782, p. 341–344
Climate change is causing widespread glacier retreat1, and much attention is devoted to negative impacts such as diminishing water resources2, shifts in runoff seasonality3, and increases in cryosphere-related hazards4. Here we focus on a different aspect, and explore the water-storage and hydropower potential of areas that are expected to become ice-free during the course of this century....
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In: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 2019, vol. 23, no. 11, p. 4471–4489
Extreme low and high flows can have negative economic, social, and ecological effects and are expected to become more severe in many regions due to climate change. Besides low and high flows, the whole flow regime, i.e., annual hydrograph comprised of monthly mean flows, is subject to changes. Knowledge on future changes in flow regimes is important since regimes contain information on both ...
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In: Journal of Glaciology, 2019, vol. 65, no. 253, p. 869–872
We model the future evolution of the largest glacier of the European Alps – Great Aletsch Glacier, Switzerland – during the 21st century. For that purpose we use a detailed three-dimensional model, which combines full Stokes ice dynamics and surface mass balance forced with the most recent climate projections (CH2018), as well as with climate data of the last decades. As a result, all...
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In: Journal of Glaciology, 2019, vol. 65, no. 251, p. 453–467
Global-scale 21st-century glacier mass change projections from six published global glacier models are systematically compared as part of the Glacier Model Intercomparison Project. In total 214 projections of annual glacier mass and area forced by 25 General Circulation Models (GCMs) and four Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) emission scenarios and aggregated into 19 glacier ...
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In: Earth’s Future, 2019, vol. 7, no. 4, p. 469–479
Since 1972, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Convention aims to identify and protect sites of Outstanding Universal Value for future generations. However, growing impacts of climate change are of the utmost concern for the integrity of many sites. Here, we inventory the glaciers present in natural World Heritage sites for the first...
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In: Frontiers in Earth Science, 2019, vol. 7, p. -
Knowledge on ice thickness distribution and total ice volume is a prerequisite for computing future glacier change for both glaciological and hydrological applications. Various ice thickness estimation methods have been developed but regional differences in fundamental model parameters are substantial. Parameters calibrated with measured data at specific points in time and space can vary when...
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In: The Cryosphere, 2019, vol. 13, no. 4, p. 1125–1146
Glaciers in the European Alps play an important role in the hydrological cycle, act as a source for hydroelectricity and have a large touristic importance. The future evolution of these glaciers is driven by surface mass balance and ice flow processes, of which the latter is to date not included explicitly in regional glacier projections for the Alps. Here, we model the future evolution of...
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In: Nature, 2019, vol. 568, no. 7752, p. 382–386
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In: Nature Geoscience, 2019, vol. 12, no. 3, p. 168–173
Knowledge of the ice thickness distribution of the world’s glaciers is a fundamental prerequisite for a range of studies. Projections of future glacier change, estimates of the available freshwater resources or assessments of potential sea-level rise all need glacier ice thickness to be accurately constrained. Previous estimates of global glacier volumes are mostly based on scaling...
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In: Journal of Water and Climate Change, 2019, vol. 10, no. 1, p. 167–180
Yarkant River is a tributary of Tarim River in China, and the basin lacks observational data. To investigate past climatic variations and predict future climate changes, precipitation, air temperature and runoff data from Kaqun hydrological station are analysed at monthly and seasonal scales using detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA). Results show that DFA scaling exponents of monthly...
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