Contenuto principale

WSL Pagina principale Neve e ghiaccioGhiacciai e calotte di ghiaccio polari

Ghiacciai e calotte di ghiaccio polari

Contenuto principale

I ghiacciai alpini modellano il nostro paesaggio e svolgono un ruolo importante per l'energia idroelettrica e per le forniture locali di acqua potabile. Come le regioni polari, sono particolarmente colpite dal riscaldamento globale. Stiamo facendo ricerche su queste regioni per prevedere gli sviluppi futuri.

Se le condizioni climatiche nelle regioni polari cambiano, ciò influenza il clima globale. Questo perché le correnti oceaniche, che regolano il clima, dipendono dallo scambio di calore tra le regioni polari e quelle tropicali. Anche i manti nevosi polari svolgono un ruolo importante nel clima globale, poiché riflettono circa il novanta per cento della luce solare. In confronto, l'acqua di mare irradia nello spazio solo il trenta per cento circa.

Nelle spedizioni nel continente più meridionale e in Groenlandia, stiamo osservando da vicino il manto nevoso antartico e artico. Perché se capiamo come la neve si trasforma in ghiaccio, possiamo ricostruire la storia climatica del passato in modo più affidabile di prima.

Con l'aiuto di stazioni di misurazione automatiche, registriamo i dati meteo e del vento nell'Antartide orientale. Questo ci permette di determinare dove e quanta neve si è depositata. Tutti questi dati alimentano il nostro modello del manto nevoso e del bilancio radiativo e migliorano i modelli climatici esistenti.

Fondazione dello Swiss Polar Institute

Per unire le forze nell'ambito della ricerca polare, nel 2016 abbiamo fondato insieme ad altre quattro istituzioni lo Swiss Polar Institute. L'obiettivo di questo istituto è promuovere la ricerca sui Poli e sulle regioni estreme.

Qual è l'impatto delle Alpi senza ghiaccio?

Le ricerche mostrano che i ghiacciai alpini si scioglieranno in gran parte entro la fine di questo secolo. Stiamo studiando gli effetti che ciò avrà sulla disponibilità di acqua (acqua potabile, energia idroelettrica, irrigazione). Stiamo anche utilizzando modelli computerizzati per simulare il pericolo di eruzioni di ghiacciai e valanghe di ghiaccio.

Temi

Ghiacciai alpini

Conoscere lo sviluppo dei ghiacciai è importante per le infrastrutture idroelettriche, la disponibilità di acqua e la gestione dei disastri naturali.

Manto nevoso nelle zone polare

Studiamo la neve polare e il suo "invecchiamento". Questi risultati aiutano a ricostruire il clima del passato e a migliorare le previsioni.

Monitoraggio ghiacciai svizzeri

Il glaciologo del WSL Matthias Huss è responsabile della sede di GLAMOS, una cooperazione tra l'ETH di Zurigo e le università di Zurigo e di Friburgo.

ULTERIORE INFORMAZIONI

Progetti

Evolution of small glaciers in the Himalayas

This research project sets out to shed light on key aspects related to small Himalayan glaciers, as well as to their hydrological relevance.

Potential of one decade of annual repeat altimetry

The so-called "Spezialbefliegungen" are a data set of very high-resolution aerial photographs and digital elevation models covering about 100 Swiss glaciers and proglacial areas.

Water pockets in Alpine glaciers

Glacier water pockets (GWPs) are elusive bodies of liquid water that can form within glaciers. The term is most often used in conjunction with glacier floods, which can happen when GWPs suddenly release their waters. This project sets out to fundamentally advance our understanding of GWPs.

Glide-snow avalanches

Glide-snow avalanches are considered unpredictable. It is presently unclear, where the water at the snow-soil interface comes from. By linking the two porous media, snow and soil, and assessing the mass and heat exchange across their interface, we will advance the predictability of glide avalanches.

Real-time cleansing of snow and weather data for operational avalanche forecasting

The data for avalanche forecasting need to be accessible in high quality as soon as these become available. Any measurement errors, anomalies and data gaps diminish forecast accuracy. We aim to develop algorithms for real-time data cleansing by applying state-of-the-art machine learning approaches.

RENOIR – Systematically deriving supraglacial debris thickness, properties, and changes

This project will systematically collect the measurements of physical properties needed to constrain the a new generation of debris thickness inversion methods, enabling high-accuracy global estimates of supraglacial debris thickness and its rate of change.

PAMIR

PAMIR is a multi-institutional, interdisciplinary scientific programme funded by the Swiss Polar Institute to understand the state, changes, and consequences of the cryosphere in the Pamir Mountains of Central Asia.

CCAMM II: Cascading Processes

The CCAMM cluster "Cascading Processes"develops knowledge and models that can be used to anticipate future cascading events. At "Spitze Stei", Kandersteg BE, we study the cascading processes: rock slope instability, debris flow, rock/snow avalanches and lake outburst floods.

TEMPEST - TEMPerature ESTimation for mountain glaciers

TEMPEST combines an unprecedented inventory of historic glacier meteorological datasets with dedicated measurements in the Swiss Alps to develop a new model of air temperature for mountain glaciers globally.

Climate and snow input at different spatial and temporal scales

Our project aims to collaborate with various proposed CAMM II projects within the clusters "Cascading processes' and "Early warning systems", providing meteorological, snow cover, ground temperature and snow melt data at different temporal and spatial scales.

EMERGE - Extreme droughts in mountain regions

EMERGE will investigate the impacts of historic megadroughts on water fluxes and ecosystems in mountain regions, and use this knowledge to develop stress-test scenarios for a possible future megadrought in the Swiss Alps.

Extreme Schneehöhen in der Schweiz

Räumlich hoch aufgelöste Schneehöhenkarten für Wiederkehrdauern von 10 bis 300 Jahren als Grundlage für die Bestimmung von Schneelasten und die Dimensionierung von Lawinenverbauungen und Bauwerken.

Discovering forgotten glacier images in a new glance (DEFOGGING)

This project sets out to guarantee long-term accessibility to a unique record of glacier photographs that have been collected over the years. Starting from a pool of over 50,000 images available at the project's host institution, the aim is to integrate these historic documents in the Image Archive

Copernicus Land Monitoring 2021-2025

Das vom BAFU finanzierte Projekt verfolgt die laufenden Entwicklungen im Bereich Copernicus Land Monitoring Services aktiv. Dies umfasst den wissenschaftlichen und technischen Support im Bereich Landbedeckung / Landnutzung auf schweizerischer und europäischer Ebene.

Hundred years of Swiss glacier changes from historical terrestrial images

The aim of this project is to process a unique archive of several thousand historical terrestrial images that have been acquired in the 1920s until 1940s by the Federal Office of Topography (swisstopo). A 3D-representation of the largest Swiss glaciers will be reconstructed from stereoscopic image pairs and using modern photogrammetric techniques. These will then be compared to modern topography and yield an estimate of the total ice volume change.

Experimental investigation of channelised subglacial flow and till dynamics (LEAD)

The goal of this project is to overcome these shortcomings by investigating the hydrological and mechanical conditions beneath a till-bedded glacier with physical experiments.

Projecting Sea-Level Rise: from Ice Sheets to Local Implications (PROTECT)

The overarching scientific objective of PROTECT is to assess and project changes in the land-based cryosphere with quantified uncertainties, to produce robust global, regional and local projections of SLR on a wide range of timescales.

Process-based modelling of global glacier changes (PROGGRES)

This project sets out to revise both the basis upon which global glacier changes estimates are computed, and the way these estimates can be interpreted. This will be done by harnessing recent advances in obtaining globally-complete glaciological data, and by including some hitherto unaccounted processes into global glacier projections.

4D-Antarctica

The 4D-Antarctica project focuses on creating and consolidating an unprecedented dataset composed of ice-sheet wide hydrology and lithospheric products, Earth Observation datasets, and state of the art ice-sheet and hydrology models for the whole of Antarctica.

HOPE - High-elevation precipitation in High-Mountain Asia

High-mountain precipitation is a key variable for simulating glacier runoff in High-Mountain Asia but is poorly known and difficult to measure directly. This project investigates the quantity, seasonality and variability of precipitation in selected catchments of High-Mountain Asia, and determines t

Snow-atmosphere interactions

The main objective of this study is to improve high-resolution seasonal snow cover predictions for large river basins in the Alps. Key to these improvements are the coupling of physically based models for both atmospheric and snow cover processes to better resolve processes that act at the snow - atmosphere interface.

Glacier lake outburst floods and englacial water flow

Glacier lake outburst floods (GLOFs) are a natural hazard characteristic of high alpine environments. This project sets out to take advantage of a unique situation emerging at Glacier de la Plaine Morte, Switzerland: With the aim of mitigating an annually-occurring GLOF, the local authorities have

Active/Passive REmote Sensing of Snow (APRESS)

APRESS erforscht Methoden der aktiven und passiven Mikrowellen-Fernerkundung (L- bis Ka-Band) in Anwendung auf schneebedeckte Böden.

ELBARA Radiometer in MOSAiC Expedition

An L-band ELBARA microwave Radiometer is used on the MOSAiC arctic expedition for close range sensing of sea ice properties.

Rescue, documentation and re-analysis of glacier monitoring data

Long-term glacier monitoring in Switzerland has resulted in some of the longest and most complete data series at the global scale. The direct observations of mass balance date back until the late 19th century and, at some sites, have been continued until today. The present project sets out to significantly advance the documentation of long-term glacier data within Swiss glacier monitoring activities.

Peru GROWS - Peruvian glacier retreat and its impact on water security

Peruvian glaciers are an important water resource for downstream populations and have shrunk significantly in recent decades in response to climatic change. This project investigates the impacts of ongoing and projected climatic change on glacier retreat and water resources in Peru's most glacierise

Ein Schweizer Beitrag zu MOSAiC

Die Energieflüsse auf Meereis sind in der Arktis sind extrem variabel, die Wärmeübertragung zwischen Ozean und arktischer Atmosphäre sind eine der wichtigen Gründe dafür. Die Forschungsprojekt MOSAiC will nun herauszufinden, welche Strahlungsflüsse diese saisonal beeinflussen.

WebSnow

Integration von Webkameradaten für die Ableitung von Schneedecke und Schneehöhe aus Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 und Pléiades Daten.

Understanding glaciers and hydrological changes in the Tibetan Plateau using high resolution monitoring and modelling

This collaboration with the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP), Delft University and Northumbria University is supported by the Royal Society (UK) and the European Space Agency (ESA). It aims to advance our understanding of the cryosphere and hydrology of high-elevation catchments on the Ti

RAVEN - Rapid mass loss of debris-covered glaciers in High-Mountain Asia

One of the most important questions of climate change impact research today is how glaciers are responding to global warming. ERC-funded, RAVEN aims to determine the role that debris-covered glaciers play in the water cycle of High Mountain Asia and better incorporate processes unique to debris-cove

SmallFlex: hydrologische Echtzeitvorhersagen für ein Kleinwasserkraftwerk

Bei diesem Projekt wird der Mehrwert von sehr kurzfristigen (< 6 Std.) und langfristigen (1 Monat) hydrologischen Vorhersagen für den Betrieb eines alpinen Kleinwasserkraftwerks (Gletsch-Oberwald) untersucht.

Improving avalanche forecasting with snow cover models

How would it change your picture of the avalanche danger, if you could look deep into the snowpack at any time and anywhere? We use snow cover models to improve our knowledge on the state of the snowpack to ultimately improve avalanche forecasting.

CRAMPON - Cryospheric Monitoring and Prediction Online

How much are Swiss glaciers melting right now? In the CRAMPON project we develop an operational modeling tool to nowcast and predict mass balance and runoff of all Swiss glaciers.

Expedition Princess Elisabeth

Nel corso dell’estate antartica 2016/17 si è svolta per la prima volta una spedizione indipendente dell’SLF in Antartide orientale, insieme al CRYOS-Lab del politecnico federale di Losanna.

Exploring the Hydropower potential of future ice-free basins on a global scale

In this project we analyze new landscapes which are emerging though glacier retreat, and identify locations which may be suitable for potential new water storages and hydropower production once glaciers have retreated.

Understanding the role of rock and debris-covered glaciers in the hydrological system of the Chilean Andes

The Andean cryosphere is an important water resource for downstream populations and is in steep decline as a result of recent climatic change. This project aims to improve our understanding of the quantity and seasonality of the contributions of rock and debris-covered glaciers to the hydrological s

MicroVegSnow

Um die Wettervorhersage und Katastrophenprävention zu verbessern, bestimmt die European Space Agency ESA weltweit den Wassergehalt in den oberen Bodenschichten. Ein Forschungsprojekt in den Schweizer Alpen soll nun aufzeigen, welchen Einfluss eine Schneedecke auf die Genauigkeit dieser Messungen ausübt.

Droni

Gli ultimi risultato lo dimostrano: con i droni è possibile rilevare in modo efficiente ed economico l’altezza del manto nevoso in montagna. Questa tecnologia apre alla nivologia strade completamente nuove.

Snowscat

Unser Ziel ist, dass Schneeschichten gesehen werden können, ohne dass ein Schneeprofil gegraben werden muss. Als Fernziel kann möglicherweise ein ähnliches Instrument von Satelliten aus eingesetzt werden.

The potential of UAV photogrammetry for hydro-glaciological forecasts

This study investigates (a) the impact of weather forecasts on the resulting runoff predictions and (b) the potential of the UAV photogrammetry to generate high-resolution digital elevation models, ice flow velocities, and snow heights.

Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS)

Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) is a European research infrastructure to quantify and understand the greenhouse gas balance of the European continent and of adjacent regions.

L'esperimento Dischma

Quali sono i processi che regolano l'accumulo della neve nell'ambiente alpino invernale? Come varia il bilancio energetico di un manto nevoso che si scioglie in primavera e perché alcune macchie di neve durano più a lungo di altre?

Mapping debris-covered glaciers and their features and characteristics

Supraglacial debris considerably alters the response of glaciers to changes in climate, yet debris-covered glaciers are notoriously difficult to delineate due to their fuzzy boundaries and spectral similarities to marginal moraines. Their surfaces are often characterized by supraglacial ponds and ex

Assestamento della neve

Perché la velocità di assestamento varia a seconda del tipo di neve? Gli esperimenti di laboratorio dimostrano che l’assestamento dipende dalla struttura della neve.

Miniere cilene di rame

Un modello numerico per la simulazione di valanghe aiuta i responsabili della sicurezza cileni a decidere quando è necessario chiudere la strada di accesso alle miniere di rame.

Greenland Climate Network

Network of 20 automatic weather stations (AWS) distributed over the Greenland ice sheet. Data are transmitted via satellite link on an hourly interval and updated.

Stability of Larsen C

This project focuses on Larsen C, the largest remaining ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula. Three automatic weather stations (AWS) installed in 2008 along a north-south transect. During the 2009 field season, extensive ice penetrating radar and kinematic GPS surveys were conducted along and across flow lines near each AWS station.

Maximum melt extent in Greenland

The total area of surface melt on the Greenland Ice Sheet broke all known records again in 2005 for the island as analysis of melt extent on the Greenland ice sheet using passive microwave satellite data show a very dramatic increasing melt trend since 1979 which appeared to be interrupted only in 1992 by the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo.

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Pubblicazioni

Farinotti, D.; Immerzeel, W.W.; De Kok, R.J.; Quincey, D.J.; Dehecq, A., 2020: Manifestations and mechanisms of the Karakoram glacier Anomaly. Nature Geoscience, 13, 1: 8-16. doi: 10.1038/s41561-019-0513-5

Zekollari, H.; Huss, M.; Farinotti, D., 2020: On the imbalance and response time of glaciers in the European Alps. Geophysical Research Letters, 47, 2: e2019GL085578 (9 pp.). doi: 10.1029/2019GL085578

Werder, M.A.; Huss, M.; Paul, F.; Dehecq, A.; Farinotti, D., 2020: A Bayesian ice thickness estimation model for large-scale applications. Journal of Glaciology, 66, 255: 137-152. doi: 10.1017/jog.2019.93

Farinotti, D.; Round, V.; Huss, M.; Compagno, L.; Zekollari, H., 2019: Large hydropower and water-storage potential in future glacier-free basins. Nature, 575, 7782: 341-344. doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1740-z

Delaney, I.; Werder, M.A.; Farinotti, D., 2019: A numerical model for fluvial transport of subglacial sediment. Journal of Geophysical Research F: Earth Surface, 124, 8: 2197-2223. doi: 10.1029/2019JF005004