Alpine Glaciology and Climate Dynamics
Core of the ACINN's Alpine glaciology focus is the open air laboratory Rofental (Ötztal Alps, Austria) hosting Hintereis- and Kesselwandferner. These two glaciers have been studied intensively over half a century providing precious observational data (annual mass balance, ice flow velocity, climatology) to test glaciological and hydrological methods. Similar to this, but shorter in the observational data, is the glaciological monitoring in the Ortles-Cevedale-Group (Italy).
Research and teaching in both regions aim at
- understanding drivers, processes (multi-scale atmospheric dynamics, energy and mass fluxes at the glacier-atmosphere interface, ice dynamics), and impacts (melt water runoff) of glacier changes
- combining system state information (annual glacier mass balances, glacier extents) with simple input information (meteorological observations) and bringing them to an improved level of understanding in terms of enhanced time, space and process resolution
- exploring longer time scales into the past (climate that caused earlier glacier extents) and possibly into the future (scenarios of future glacier extents and runoff)
Ongoing projects
- A physically based regional mass balance approach for the glaciers of Vinschgau – glacier contribution to water availability
- Glaciers-to-Rivers Sediment Transfer in Alpine Basins (GLORI)
- GLISTT
- High resolution spaceborne studies of mass balance processes on glaciers of the Khumbu Himal, Nepal (GlHima-Sat)
- Hintereisferner - an Open Air Laboratory
- Mass Balance of Hintereisferner
- Mass Balance of Kesselwandferner
- Modelling glacier length changes in Alps on the base of tree-ring based temperature reconstructions for the last 2500 years
- The mass balance of Langenferner / Vedretta Lunga
- The Upper Grindelwald Glacier as indicator for Holocene climate variability