Articles | Volume 19, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-5801-2025
© Author(s) 2025. 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-19-5801-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Machine learning improves seasonal mass balance prediction for unmonitored glaciers
Department of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), Sogndal, Norway
Jordi Bolibar
Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IRD, G-INP, Institut des Géosciences de l'Environnement, Grenoble, France
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands
Marijn van der Meer
Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology, and Glaciology (VAW), ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape Research (WSL), Sion, Switzerland
Liss Marie Andreassen
Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE), Oslo, Norway
Julian Peter Biesheuvel
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands
Thorben Dunse
Department of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), Sogndal, Norway
Matthias Huss
Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology, and Glaciology (VAW), ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape Research (WSL), Sion, Switzerland
Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
Fabien Maussion
Bristol Glaciology Centre, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
Department of Atmospheric and Cryospheric Sciences, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
David R. Rounce
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Brandon Tober
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Data sets
Glaciological point mass balance measurements for Norway 1962-2021 Hallgeir Elvehøy et al. https://doi.org/10.58059/sjse-6w92
Model code and software
khsjursen/ML_MB_Norway: v1.0.0 Kamilla Hauknes Sjursen https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15021796
Short summary
Understanding glacier mass changes is crucial for assessing freshwater availability in many regions of the world. We present the Mass Balance Machine, a machine learning model that learns from sparse measurements of glacier mass change to make predictions on unmonitored glaciers. Using data from Norway, we show that the model provides accurate estimates of mass changes at different spatiotemporal scales. Our findings show that machine learning can be a valuable tool to improve such predictions.
Understanding glacier mass changes is crucial for assessing freshwater availability in many...