Articles | Volume 15, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-4637-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-4637-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
04 Oct 2021
Research article |
| 04 Oct 2021
| 04 Oct 2021
High-resolution inventory to capture glacier disintegration in the Austrian Silvretta
Andrea Fischer
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research, Austrian Academy
of Sciences, Innrain 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Gabriele Schwaizer
ENVEO GmbH, Fürstenweg 176, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Bernd Seiser
Institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research, Austrian Academy
of Sciences, Innrain 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Kay Helfricht
Institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research, Austrian Academy
of Sciences, Innrain 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Martin Stocker-Waldhuber
Institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research, Austrian Academy
of Sciences, Innrain 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
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When glaciers become snow-free in summer, darker glacier ice is exposed. The ice surface is darker than snow and absorbs more radiation, which increases ice melt. We measured how much radiation is reflected at different wavelengths in the ablation zone of Jamtalferner, Austria. Due to impurities and water on the ice surface there are large variations in reflectance. Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 surface reflectance products do not capture the full range of reflectance found on the glacier.
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Short summary
Eastern Alpine glaciers have been receding since the Little Ice Age maximum, but until now the majority of glacier margins could be delineated unambiguously. Today the outlines of totally debris-covered glacier ice are fuzzy and raise the discussion if these features are still glaciers. We investigated the fate of glacier remnants with high-resolution elevation models, analyzing also thickness changes in buried ice. In the past 13 years, the 46 glaciers of Silvretta lost one-third of their area.
Eastern Alpine glaciers have been receding since the Little Ice Age maximum, but until now the...
