Ice and Climate

Glaciological and climate research in the Alps, the Polar Regions, the Himalayas and the Tropics has a long tradition at our institute. The annual mass balance series of Hintereisferner and Kesselwandferner in the Ötztal Alps which were established by our institute extend back to 1952 and therefore are among the longest full glacier mass balance records in the world. In recent decades, glaciers gained increasing public interest as their rapid changes around the world are a prominent feature of the ongoing global climate change. Modern research at the ACINN aims to improve our understanding of the linkages between changing glaciers and the underlying forcings. These may be atmospheric processes influenced by a changing climate but also glacier dynamics or geomorphological features such as debris cover. Our group uniquely combines the expertise of accurately monitoring glaciological and meteorological processes, as well as the competence of putting the measurements into a greater context by developing and using state of the art atmospheric and glaciological numerical models.

Ongoing projects

•   The Influ­ence of Trop­i­cal Cyclones on Kil­i­man­jaro’s Glaciers
•   KmMoun­tain­sA­nal­y­sis: Anal­y­sis of Moun­tain Cli­mate at the Kilome­tre-Scale Res­o­lu­tion
•   LAT­TICE: Land-ter­mi­nat­ing ice cliffs in North Green­land: pro­cess­es, divers and their rela­tion to regional cli­mate
•   Atmospheric drivers of glacier change
•   PROVIDE: Paris Agree­ment Over­shoot­ing – Rev­ersibil­i­ty, Cli­mate Impacts and Adap­ta­tion Needs
•   Certainties and uncertainties in the future surface mass balance of mountain glaciers
•   INTER­ACT: Inter­na­tional Net­work for Ter­res­trial Research and Mon­i­tor­ing in the Arc­tic
•   Austrian Glacier Inventory
•   Mass Balance of Kesselwandferner
•   Mass Balance of Hintereisferner

Completed projects

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