Articles | Volume 17, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2285-2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2285-2023
Research article
 | 
08 Jun 2023
Research article |  | 08 Jun 2023

Constraining regional glacier reconstructions using past ice thickness of deglaciating areas – a case study in the European Alps

Christian Sommer, Johannes J. Fürst, Matthias Huss, and Matthias H. Braun

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Cited articles

Abermann, J., Kuhn, M., and Fischer, A.: Climatic controls of glacier distribution and glacier changes in Austria, Ann. Glaciol., 52, 83–90, https://doi.org/10.3189/172756411799096222, 2011. 
Anonymous: DHM25. Das digitale Höhenmodell der Schweiz, swisstopo, https://www.swisstopo.admin.ch/de/geodata/height/dhm25.html (last access: 29 July 2022), 1–15, 2005. 
Berthier, E., Arnaud, Y., Vincent, C., and Rémy, F.: Biases of SRTM in high-mountain areas: Implications for the monitoring of glacier volume changes, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L08502, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006GL025862, 2006. 
Braun, M. H., Malz, P., Sommer, C., Farías-Barahona, D., Sauter, T., Casassa, G., Soruco, A., Skvarca, P., and Seehaus, T. C.: Constraining glacier elevation and mass changes in South America, Nat. Clim. Change, 9, 130–136, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0375-7, 2019. 
Buckel, J. and Otto, J.-C.: The Austrian Glacier Inventory GI 4 (2015) in ArcGis (shapefile) format, PANGAEA [data set], https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.887415, 2018. 
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Short summary
Knowledge on the volume of glaciers is important to project future runoff. Here, we present a novel approach to reconstruct the regional ice thickness distribution from easily available remote-sensing data. We show that past ice thickness, derived from spaceborne glacier area and elevation datasets, can constrain the estimated ice thickness. Based on the unique glaciological database of the European Alps, the approach will be most beneficial in regions without direct thickness measurements.
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