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The importance of observations for understanding the role of glaciers in the

Earth climate system-

Glaciers_cci contributions to the internationally coordinated glacier monitoring efforts

Michael Zemp

Director WGMS, PD Dr. sc. nat.

World Glacier Monitoring Service,Department of Geography, University of Zurich,

Switzerland

Fiddlers Ferry coal fired power station near Liverpool, England Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

Global climate is changing…

1862

Findelengletscher, Switzerland, at its Little Ice Age maximum extent

…so are glaciers around the globe

Visualization of Findelengletscher, Zermatt, by P. Rastner

1894

F.-A. Forel (1841-1912) initiates internationally coordinated glacier observations in 1894

…so are glaciers around the globe

Visualization of Findelengletscher, Zermatt, by P. Rastner

2010

ESA Glaciers_cci Phase 1

…so are glaciers around the globe

Visualization of Findelengletscher, Zermatt, by P. Rastner

impacts of glaciers changes on hazards, run-off, and sea level

Photos by J. Alean.Photos by Focus Online and J. Alean.

Thames Barrier. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

Male, Maledives.Photo from photos4travel.

Huss et al. (2014)

intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion

Observations are essential for- setting initial model conditions

- comparing scenario ensembles with real development

Climate-glacier processes

Glacier distribution

Glacier change rates

Secondary impacts

Grand challenges in climate-glacier research

About 200,000 glaciersdistributed over the globe.

intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion

FoGWGMS

WGIWGMS / NSIDC

GLIMSNSIDC

Glacier photosNSIDC

Internationally coordinated glacier monitoring

www.wgms.ch ¦ www.nsidc.org ¦ www.glims.org ¦ www.gtn-g.org

intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion

intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion

c. 1,000 pages of documentationbut

not (yet) much data products!

Randolph Glacier “Inventory”

intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion

Huss & Farinotti (2012)

Randolph Dataset 2.0

WGI

GLIMS

Randolph

DCW

Randolph Dataset by A. Arendt et al. (2012) from different source main purpose: global SLR modelling vector outlines of different levels of detail and quality limited meta-data (e.g., time stamp, elevation range, length, classification)

How to bridge to last mile to GLIMS database?

intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion

How (fast) are glaciers changing?

Gardner et al. (2013)

intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion

Data sources: WGMS

intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion

Data sources: WGMS

intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion

Data sources: WGMS, Jacob et al. 2012

The Alps

intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion

Elevation changes from ICESat

Gardner et al. (2013)

intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion

Kääb et al. (2013)

Elevation changes from ICESat

intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion

www.dlr.de Floricioiu, Jaber and Rott (2012)

Opportunities:oHigh spatial resolutionoCovering entire mountain rangesChallenges:oMountain topographyoHow bridging the last mile?

intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion

Glaciers observations are a fundamental requirement for assessing climate change impacts on glacier hazards, runoff, and global sea level rise.

Growing number of remote sensing data have a great potential for boosting glacier monitoring but requires additional capacities at the international data centers to tap the full potential of these data and to truly link traditional methods with new technologies.

Thereto, the explicit focus of ESA’s Glaciers_cci on monitoring is highly appreciated.

Phase 2 hopefully will produceless documentation but more data products!

intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion