Halving of Swiss glacier volume since 1931 observed from terrestrial image photogrammetry
The monitoring of glaciers in Switzerland has a long tradition, yet glacier changes during the 20th century are only known through sparse observations. Here, we estimate a halving of Swiss glacier volumes between 1931 and 2016 by mapping historical glacier elevation changes at high resolution. Our a...
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ftethz:oai:www.research-collection.ethz.ch:20.500.11850/533268 2023-05-15T18:32:09+02:00 Halving of Swiss glacier volume since 1931 observed from terrestrial image photogrammetry Schytt Holmlund, Erik Karl Eldar Dehecq, Amaury Hugonnet, Romain Hodel, Elias Huss, Matthias Bauder, Andreas Farinotti, Daniel 2022-02-17 application/application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/533268 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000533268 en eng Copernicus info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.5194/tc-2022-14 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/533268 doi:10.3929/ethz-b-000533268 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International CC-BY The Cryosphere Discussions info:eu-repo/semantics/workingPaper 2022 ftethz https://doi.org/20.500.11850/533268 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000533268 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2022-14 2023-02-13T01:06:30Z The monitoring of glaciers in Switzerland has a long tradition, yet glacier changes during the 20th century are only known through sparse observations. Here, we estimate a halving of Swiss glacier volumes between 1931 and 2016 by mapping historical glacier elevation changes at high resolution. Our analysis relies on a terrestrial image archive known as TerrA, which covers about 86 % of the Swiss glacierised area with 21,703 images acquired during the period 1916–1947 (1931 on average). We developed a semi-automated workflow to generate digital elevation models (DEMs) from these images, resulting in a 45 % total glacier coverage. Using the geodetic method, we estimate a Swiss-wide glacier mass balance of –0.52 ± 0.09 m w.e. a−1 between 1931 and 2016. This equates to a 51.5 ± 6.1 % loss in glacier volume. We find that low elevation, high debris cover, and gently sloping glacier termini are conductive to particularly high mass losses. In addition to these glacier-specific, quasi- centennial elevation changes, we present a new inventory of glacier outlines with known timestamps and complete attributes from around 1931. The fragmented spatial coverage and temporal heterogeneity of the TerrA archive are the largest sources of uncertainty in our glacier-specific estimates, reaching up to 0.50 m w.e. a−1. We suggest that the high-resolution mapping of historic surface elevations could unlock great potentials also for research fields other than glaciology. ISSN:1994-0432 ISSN:1994-0440 Report The Cryosphere The Cryosphere Discussions ETH Zürich Research Collection |
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Open Polar |
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ETH Zürich Research Collection |
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ftethz |
language |
English |
description |
The monitoring of glaciers in Switzerland has a long tradition, yet glacier changes during the 20th century are only known through sparse observations. Here, we estimate a halving of Swiss glacier volumes between 1931 and 2016 by mapping historical glacier elevation changes at high resolution. Our analysis relies on a terrestrial image archive known as TerrA, which covers about 86 % of the Swiss glacierised area with 21,703 images acquired during the period 1916–1947 (1931 on average). We developed a semi-automated workflow to generate digital elevation models (DEMs) from these images, resulting in a 45 % total glacier coverage. Using the geodetic method, we estimate a Swiss-wide glacier mass balance of –0.52 ± 0.09 m w.e. a−1 between 1931 and 2016. This equates to a 51.5 ± 6.1 % loss in glacier volume. We find that low elevation, high debris cover, and gently sloping glacier termini are conductive to particularly high mass losses. In addition to these glacier-specific, quasi- centennial elevation changes, we present a new inventory of glacier outlines with known timestamps and complete attributes from around 1931. The fragmented spatial coverage and temporal heterogeneity of the TerrA archive are the largest sources of uncertainty in our glacier-specific estimates, reaching up to 0.50 m w.e. a−1. We suggest that the high-resolution mapping of historic surface elevations could unlock great potentials also for research fields other than glaciology. ISSN:1994-0432 ISSN:1994-0440 |
format |
Report |
author |
Schytt Holmlund, Erik Karl Eldar Dehecq, Amaury Hugonnet, Romain Hodel, Elias Huss, Matthias Bauder, Andreas Farinotti, Daniel |
spellingShingle |
Schytt Holmlund, Erik Karl Eldar Dehecq, Amaury Hugonnet, Romain Hodel, Elias Huss, Matthias Bauder, Andreas Farinotti, Daniel Halving of Swiss glacier volume since 1931 observed from terrestrial image photogrammetry |
author_facet |
Schytt Holmlund, Erik Karl Eldar Dehecq, Amaury Hugonnet, Romain Hodel, Elias Huss, Matthias Bauder, Andreas Farinotti, Daniel |
author_sort |
Schytt Holmlund, Erik Karl Eldar |
title |
Halving of Swiss glacier volume since 1931 observed from terrestrial image photogrammetry |
title_short |
Halving of Swiss glacier volume since 1931 observed from terrestrial image photogrammetry |
title_full |
Halving of Swiss glacier volume since 1931 observed from terrestrial image photogrammetry |
title_fullStr |
Halving of Swiss glacier volume since 1931 observed from terrestrial image photogrammetry |
title_full_unstemmed |
Halving of Swiss glacier volume since 1931 observed from terrestrial image photogrammetry |
title_sort |
halving of swiss glacier volume since 1931 observed from terrestrial image photogrammetry |
publisher |
Copernicus |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/533268 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000533268 |
genre |
The Cryosphere The Cryosphere Discussions |
genre_facet |
The Cryosphere The Cryosphere Discussions |
op_source |
The Cryosphere Discussions |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.5194/tc-2022-14 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/533268 doi:10.3929/ethz-b-000533268 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/20.500.11850/533268 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000533268 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2022-14 |
_version_ |
1766216211222233088 |