PSTG-5 Meeting, Oberpfaffenhofen DE, 6 OCT 2015 World Glacier Monitoring by Satellites, Airplanes, and Fieldwork Part I (Zemp): the global terrestrial network for glaciers Part II (Paul): lessons learned from ESAs Glaciers_cci Michael Zemp & Frank Paul World Glacier Monitoring Service Department of Geography, University of Zurich Switzerland Fiddlers Ferry coal fired power station near Liverpool, England Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters Global climate is changing Visualization by P. Rastner and so are glaciers Photos by J. Alean Thames Barrier. photo from Wikimedia Commons Visualization by P. Rastner How much glacier ice is out there?How (fast) do glaciers change? and so are glaciers Bojinski et al. (2014), adapted from WMO (2011) intro organisation inventory fluctuations conclusion Bojinski et al. (2014), adapted from WMO (2011) intro organisation inventory fluctuations conclusion Global Terrestrial Network for Glaciers (GTN-G) Steering Committee Advisory BoardExecutive Board World Glacier Monitoring Service US National Snow and Ice Data Center Global Land Ice Measurements from Space 2.0 FTE1.0 FTE 0.1 FTE fluctuationsinventorydata hosting internationally coordinated glacier monitoring initiated in 1894 GTN-G established in 1998 scientific collaboration network WGMS, NSIDC, GLIMS GTN-G aims at combining: 1.in-situ & remotely sensed data 2.process understanding & global coverage 3.traditional observations & new technologies intro organisation inventory fluctuations conclusion Opportunities: o Bridging the gap between data providers and users Challenges: o Getting sustainable resources for monitoring within research system intro organisation inventory fluctuations conclusion Opportunities: o Long-term data storage o Linking different datasets through map-based interface Challenges: o Limited resources assigned to glacier datasets o No active data compilation Glacier inventories at US National Ice & Snow Data Center GLIMS WGI GLIMS other sources, often: -rough outlines -rough time stamp -limited attributes intro organisation inventory fluctuations conclusion Bridging the last mile (how to integrate the Randolph dataset) Fedtschenko => See Part II by Frank Paul intro organisation inventory fluctuations conclusion get entire database Data sources: WGMS intro organisation inventory fluctuations conclusion Opportunities: o Seasonal to annual data o Process understanding Challenges: o Limited number of in-situ programmes Data sources: WGMS intro organisation inventory fluctuations conclusion Opportunities: o Decadal data o Cal/Val; large sample Challenges: o No observer network o Hard to get data from publications Data sources: WGMS, Jacob et al intro organisation inventory fluctuations conclusion Opportunities: o Seasonal signal o Global coverage Challenges: o Low spatial resolution o Signal residual = glacier change? Elevation changes from ICESat Gardner et al. (2013) intro organisation inventory fluctuations conclusion Kb et al. (2013) Elevation changes from ICESat intro organisation inventory fluctuations conclusion Opportunities: o Seasonal to annual data o Covering entire mountain ranges Challenges: o Point information only o Mountain topography Jaber and Rott (2012) intro organisation inventory fluctuations conclusion Opportunities: o High spatial resolution o Covering entire mountain ranges Challenges: o Mountain topography o How bridging the last mile? intro organisation inventory fluctuations conclusion Conclusions for the Global Terrestrial Network for Glaciers: International coordination for 120 years. Strong at long-term storage of existing databases and at active compilation of glacier change data from in-situ network. Lack of resources for tapping the great potential in remote sensing! intro organisation inventory fluctuations conclusion From research to operations & research Horizon 2020