Université de Fribourg

A tipping point in refreezing accelerates mass loss of Greenland’s glaciers and ice caps

Noël, B. ; Berg, W. J van de ; Lhermitte, S. ; Wouters, B. ; Machguth, Horst ; Howat, I. ; Citterio, M. ; Moholdt, G. ; Lenaerts, J. T. M. ; Broeke, M. R. van den

In: Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, p. 14730

Melting of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) and its peripheral glaciers and ice caps (GICs) contributes about 43% to contemporary sea level rise. While patterns of GrIS mass loss are well studied, the spatial and temporal evolution of GICs mass loss and the acting processes have remained unclear. Here we use a novel, 1 km surface mass balance product, evaluated against in situ and remote...

Université de Fribourg

A daily, 1 km resolution data set of downscaled Greenland ice sheet surface mass balance (1958–2015)

Noël, Brice ; Berg, Willem Jan van de ; Machguth, Horst ; Lhermitte, Stef ; Howat, Ian ; Fettweis, Xavier ; Broeke, Michiel R. van den

In: The Cryosphere, 2016, vol. 10, no. 5, p. 2361–2377

This study presents a data set of daily, 1 km resolution Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) surface mass balance (SMB) covering the period 1958–2015. Applying corrections for elevation, bare ice albedo and accumulation bias, the high-resolution product is statistically downscaled from the native daily output of the polar regional climate model RACMO2.3 at 11 km. The data set includes all...

Université de Fribourg

Modelling glacier-bed overdeepenings and possible future lakes for the glaciers in the Himalaya—Karakoram region

Linsbauer, Andreas ; Frey, H. ; Haeberli, Winfried ; Machguth, Horst ; Azam, M. F. ; Allen, S.

In: Annals of Glaciology, 2016, vol. 57, no. 71, p. 119–130

Surface digital elevation models (DEMs) and slope-related estimates of glacier thickness enable modelling of glacier-bed topographies over large ice-covered areas. Due to the erosive power of glaciers, such bed topographies can contain numerous overdeepenings, which when exposed following glacier retreat may fill with water and form new lakes. In this study, the bed overdeepenings for ~28 000...

Université de Fribourg

The abandoned ice sheet base at Camp Century, Greenland, in a warming climate

Colgan, William ; Machguth, Horst ; MacFerrin, Mike ; Colgan, Jeff D. ; As, Dirk van ; MacGregor, Joseph A.

In: Geophysical Research Letters, 2016, vol. 43, no. 15, p. 8091–8096

In 1959 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built Camp Century beneath the surface of the northwestern Greenland Ice Sheet. There they studied the feasibility of deploying ballistic missiles within the ice sheet. The base and its wastes were abandoned with minimal decommissioning in 1967, under the assumption they would be preserved for eternity by perpetually accumulating snowfall. Here we show...

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

Estimating the volume of glaciers in the Himalayan–Karakoram region using different methods

Frey, H. ; Machguth, Horst ; Huss, Matthias ; Huggel, C. ; Bajracharya, S. ; Bolch, T. ; Kulkarni, A. ; Linsbauer, Andreas ; Salzmann, Nadine ; Stoffel, Markus

In: The Cryosphere, 2014, vol. 8, no. 6, p. 2313–2333

Ice volume estimates are crucial for assessing water reserves stored in glaciers. Due to its large glacier coverage, such estimates are of particular interest for the Himalayan–Karakoram (HK) region. In this study, different existing methodologies are used to estimate the ice reserves: three area–volume relations, one slope-dependent volume estimation method, and two ice-thickness...

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...

Université de Fribourg

The length of the world’s glaciers – a new approach for the global calculation of center lines

Machguth, Horst ; Huss, Matthias

In: The Cryosphere, 2014, vol. 8, no. 5, p. 1741–1755

Glacier length is an important measure of glacier geometry. Nevertheless, global glacier inventories are mostly lacking length data. Only recently semi-automated approaches to measure glacier length have been developed and applied regionally. Here we present a first global assessment of glacier length using an automated method that relies on glacier surface slope, distance to the glacier margins...

Université de Fribourg

The Swiss Alpine glaciers' response to the global '2 °C air temperature target'

Salzmann, Nadine ; Machguth, Horst ; Linsbauer, Andreas

In: Environmental Research Letters, 2012, vol. 7, no. 4, p. 044001

While there is general consensus that observed global mean air temperature has increased during the past few decades and will very likely continue to rise in the coming decades, the assessment of the effective impacts of increased global mean air temperature on a specific regional-scale system remains highly challenging. This study takes up the widely discussed concept of limiting global mean...

Université de Fribourg

Calculating distributed glacier mass balance for the Swiss Alps from regional climate model output: A methodical description and interpretation of the results

Machguth, Horst ; Paul, Frank ; Kotlarski, Sven ; Hoelzle, Martin

In: Journal of Geophysical Research, 2009, vol. 114, p. D19106

This study aims at giving a methodical description of the use of gridded output from a regional climate model (RCM) for the calculation of glacier mass balance distribution for the perimeter of the Swiss Alps. The mass balance model runs at daily steps and 100 m spatial resolution, while the regional model (REMO) RCM provides daily grids (∼18 km resolution) of dynamically downscaled reanalysis...