ISSN 0019–1043 Ice

News Bulletin of the International Glaciological Society

Number 167 1st Issue 2015

Contents

2 From the Editor 15 International Glaciological Society 4 Recent work 15 Journal of Glaciology 4 Austria 17 Annals of Glaciology 56(69) 4 Monitoring of Alpine glaciers 18 Annals of Glaciology 56(70) 7 Tropical glaciers 18 Annals of Glaciology 57(71) 7 Arctic 19 Report from the Nordic Branch Meeting, 8 Antarctica October/November 2014 9 Ice caves 24 News 9 Remote sensing 24 Obituary: Charles Swithinbank 1926–2014 10 Applied glaciology 27 Obituary: Robert H Thomas 1937–2015 10 Glacier hydrology 32 Glaciological diary 11 Permafrost/Rock glaciers 36 New members 12 Glacier modelling 12 Ice–atmosphere interactions 13 Ecology/Biology 13 Other 13 Databases 14 Abbreviations

Cover picture: Fox Glacier, New Zealand. Photograph by Brad Parsk.

EXCLUSION CLAUSE. While care is taken to provide accurate accounts and information in this Newsletter, neither the editor nor the International Glaciological Society undertakes any liability for omissions or errors.

1 From the Editor

Dear IGS member

Since the last issue of ICE came out, we have wit- members and the glaciological community as a nessed the devastating earthquake in Nepal. It whole. You can expect to see some of these changes was particularly poignant for the IGS as we had being implemented at the beginning of next year. very recently had a very successful and enjoyable Things are already happening on other fronts. symposium in Kathmandu. We met up with old All our archive issues dating back to 1947 are friends and made new ones. We enjoyed the fan- being­ converted to XML and members will soon tastic hospitality of the local people and we got to be able to view those old papers using modern see some fantastic sights. So it was a great shock techniques and display platforms. We will be to us to hear of the devastation and loss of life; for moving all IGS publications to one common several days we were worrying about the safety of point of access, be it the very latest papers or the colleagues and friends. It was a relief to see them oldest. We will of course be producing all new slowly declaring themselves safe on a Facebook papers as PDFs and also as XML which can then page set up for that purpose. be funnelled through various templates in order As more and more images appeared it was to optimise the viewing of all articles, according heartbreaking to see how the lovely places we had to your viewing platform, be it a large-screen visited had been reduced to rubble. Where we had monitor, a tablet or smartphone or even a Kindle. been sitting with some wonderful buildings in the In addition, we are planning a complete revamp background we could now see the same viewpoint of our website and to introduce new features that but nothing but rubble and destruction. we trust will be a benefit to our members and the It was comforting to see the glaciological whole glaciological community. community rally around and provide some valu- To finish off, let me tell you where we are at able support using their expertise to evaluate the in the publishing situation and analyse potential hazards and doing what they do best to use their specialised skills Journal 227 (June) Annals 70 and knowledge of modern technology to help - 14 papers online - 21 papers accepted their fellow human beings move towards a safer - further 2 typeset - 19 papers online community. Some individual glaciologists and - 1 more typeset Journal 228 (July/ environmental organisations started to collect - 2 more being revised funds in an effort to alleviate the pain and suffer- August) and 229 ing of the Nepalese people. May that effort long (September/October) Annals 71 continue and I am already looking forward to the - 18 accepted - 15 papers accepted next IGS symposium in Nepal in some years time - 6 typeset - 2 papers online - 5 more typeset when we will learn about the rebuilding of the Annals 69 - 30 under review country we had come to love so dearly. - 47 papers accepted - 48 rejected But let us move closer to home. The IGS has been - 45 online working hard moving towards Gold Open Access. - 2 more typeset Annals 72 Several members have taken part in this effort and - 3 other possibles - 26 papers submitted we are beginning to see and evaluate the various options for moving forward. We hope that during We are getting a steady stream of papers submit- the IGS Annual General Meeting planned for the ted, on a par with previous years. Cambridge symposium we will be able to present But the really enjoyable news is that our members with some choices. One thing is certain: membership is the highest it has ever been and the IGS will be going through some important we are very optimistic in breaking the 1000 bar- changes, which hopefully will benefit both our rier in the not so distant future.

Magnús Már Magnússon Secretary General 2 Assistant Professor (Tenure Track) of Glaciology

→ The Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering (www.baug.ethz.ch) at ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, WSL (www.wsl.ch) invite applications for the above-mentioned assistant professorship.

→ The assistant professor will lead a research group to be shared between the Depart- ment of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, with a strong research focus on alpine glaciology. The new assistant professor will be expected to teach undergraduate and graduate level courses, to maintain an active research programme, and to contribute to the departmental service. The research group will be located at the Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology at ETH campus Hönggerberg in Zurich as well as at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research in Birmensdorf.

→ The successful candidate should hold a doctoral degree in civil or environmental engineering or a related discipline and should have expertise in physical glaciology. Relevant research areas include, but are not limited to, dynamic behavior of mountain glaciers, sub-glacial processes, fracture growth and mechanical failure in glacier ice, glacier hazards and climate-glacier interactions. We are particularly interested in individuals who combine acquisition and interpretation of data with theoretical work. The development and use of numerical models (e.g. ice flow, ice fracturing, glacier hydraulics) to combine research and engineering problems with observations is also a desired research direction. The selected candidate should establish an attractive teaching programme and must be committed to excellence in education, as well as promote, execute and apply modern teaching methods.

→ The new assistant professor will be expected to teach undergraduate level courses (German or English) and graduate level courses (English).

→ This assistant professorship has been established to promote the careers of younger scientists. The initial appointment is for four years with the possibility of renewal for an additional three-year period and promotion to a permanent position.

→ Please apply online at www.facultyaffairs.ethz.ch

→ Applications should include a curriculum vitae, a list of publications, and a state- ment of future research and teaching interests. The letter of application should be addressed to the President of ETH Zurich, Prof. Dr. Lino Guzzella. The closing date for applications is 30 September 2015. ETH Zurich is an equal opportunity and family friendly employer, and is further responsive to the needs of dual career couples. We specifically encourage women to apply.

3 Recent work

Austria

MONITORING OF ALPINE GLACIERS flow velocity can be calculated. Kesselwandferner advanced in the late 1970s and early 1980s; the Long-term monitoring of length changes of maximum ice flow velocities reached more than Austrian glaciers 100 m a–1 at that time, decreasing to a few meters Andrea Fischer (OEAV) per year today. The time series of flow velocities Since 1891, the length changes of Austria’s glaciers at Äusseres Hochebenkar rock glacier started as have been monitored regularly. The results are early as 1937. In contrast to the velocity record published in the journal of the Austrian Alpine at Kesselwandferner, which showed a significant Club. Currently about 100 glaciers are surveyed velocity decrease, the Hochebenkar rock glacier annually. On Pasterzenkees, Hintereisferner and accelerated during recent years. in the Ankogel Group, ice flow velocities and http://www.gletscher-klima.at (German only) thickness changes have been measured. http://www.alpenverein.at/portal/museum-kultur/ Glacier change monitoring in the Hohe Tauern gletschermessdienst/index.php (German only) Range Heinz Slupetzky (HDS and US), Hans Wiesenegger Long-term mass-balance monitoring on Austrian (HDS) glaciers 2014 was the 50th year of continuous mass bal- Long-term glacier monitoring has been contin- ance measurements on Stubacher Sonnblickkees. ued. Hintereisferner (Oetztal Alps, Austria) is With extrapolations, the series starts in the year still one of the Austrian bench mark glaciers. Its 1959. 3-D terrestrial laser scanning allows the mass balance has been monitored by IMGI and production of DTMs which give a documenta- HDT using the direct glaciological method since tion of the rapidly changing topography. A main 1953. The Austrian glacier monitoring has been goal in recent years was to secure the continu- considerably extended; mass balance studies are ation of the series in face of the withdrawal of supplemented by ice velocity, ice thickness and Heinz Slupetzky, who has conducted the mass length measurements. Additionally, meteoro- balance measurements since 1963. Therefore two logical stations and precipitation measurement automatic cameras were installed by the HDS. networks in the vicinity of these glaciers as well US/IFFB agreed to take over the responsibility as energy balance/boundary layer studies above for the measurements in cooperation with HDS. the glacier surface have been carried out. Details A collaboration between HDS and IGF focusses concerning the different glaciers are found below: on digitizing of the collected material of the gla- Glacier mass-balance studies Hintereis- and ciological investigations since 1960 and to make Kesselwandferner, Ötztal Alps, Austria it partly available via PANGAEA. The collection Rainer Prinz, Stephan Galos, Georg Kaser, PI (all of Heinz Slupetzky was moved from FGGUS to IMGI) the HDS into an archive. The runoff of a major The long-term glacier mass balance series of part of the Stubacher Sonnblickkees is recorded Hintereis- and Kesselwandferner (since 1953) are at the outlet of the Unterer Eisboden Lake (HDS). being continued in cooperation with the HDT by The water balance in the catchment area of the applying the glaciological method. Results are reservoir Weißsee – with the Stubacher Sonn- reported to the WGMS. In addition, one to two blickkees – has been estimated every year. At the ALS per year are available since 2001 (from IGI) Obersulzbachkees in the western Hohe Tauern and comparison studies are under way. the runoff has been recorded at the hydrological http://imgi.uibk.ac.at/research/ice-and-climate/ station Kees-Obersulzbach (HDS) since 1988 and projects/hef in 2009 a new runoff station was built and was named ‘Tuerkische Zeltstadt’; the catchment area Measurements of flow velocity at Kesselwand­ is considerably (~55%) glacierized. The long-term ferner and Hochebenkar rock glacier, Ötztal Alps series of ice velocity measurements (FHNB, US) Martin Stocker-Waldhuber, Lea Hartl, Heralt on the Oedenwinkelkees, Hohe Tauern Range, Schneider ( all VGK) Austria, has been continued with re-surveys every The ice-flow velocity of Kesselwandferner has been 2 years in recent years. Since only small changes measured since 1964/65 by using a number of stakes, have been observed the measuring interval will so that horizontal and vertical components of ice be 3 years in future. At present, the measurements 4 are under the responsibility of IGF. Heinz Slu- Measurements of ablation and ice flow velocities petzky finished the glacier length measurements on the glacier tongues of Taschachferner and in the Hohe Tauern Range, mainly in the Stubach Gepatschferner Valley, within the long-term monitoring of length K. Helfricht (alpS), K. Schneider (alpS), M. Stocker- changes of Austrian glaciers of the OEAV, which Waldhuber (IGF), M. Kuhn (IMGI) he carried out as principal investigator from 1960 Ablation stakes are monitored on the glacier (the first years together with Werner Slupetzky). tongues of Taschachferner and Gepatschferner (Ötztal Alps, Tyrol, Austria). Initially, three Mass balance monitoring at Langenferner, Italian ablation stakes were drilled on each glacier Alps tongue in 2009. On Gepatschferner the number Stephan Galos (IMGI), Rainer Prinz (IMGI), Georg of stakes was increased to 20 in 2012. Ablation Kaser (IMGI) and Roberto Dinale (HAB) amounts are determined three to six times within Langenferner is a small valley glacier with an area of one ablation season. Displacements of the stakes 1.65 km² (2012), located at the head of the Martell are recorded using DGPS. Valley in the Ortles–Cevedale Group. The glacier Project: H03 MUSICALS_A, alpS spans from 3390 to 2710 m, an altitudinal range PROSA: PAK 736/1, SCHM 472/17-1 (K.-H. representative for glaciers of the region. Langenferner Schmidt) & I894-N24 (M. Kuhn) has been subject to detailed glaciological observations performed by the IMGI in close collaboration with Pasterze Glacier: Glacial, proglacial, and the HAB since the hydrological year 2003/04. paraglacial monitoring at the largest glacier in Mass balance data are reported to the WGMS. Austria Apart from the application of the fixed date direct Gerhard Karl Lieb (UniGraz), Andreas Kellerer- glaciological method resulting in winter, summer Pirklbauer (UniGraz), Michael Avian (TU Graz/ and annual mass balances, the geodetic method UniGraz), Viktor Kaufmann (TU Graz), Ruth is applied using repeated airborne laser-scanning Drescher-Schneider (Kainbach/Graz) data. Meteorological conditions are recorded at Glaciological research at Pasterze Glacier, at several weather stations in the vicinity of the glacier about 17 km² the largest glacier in Austria, has maintained by the HAB. Two new weather stations been carried out by members of the University on the glacier surface facilitate detailed studies on of Graz since the 1950s. About 10 years ago, the energy balance and thus allow a sophisticated members of the Graz University of Technology meteorological and climatic interpretation of the joined these research activities. Relevant projects direct glaciological measurements. at Pasterze Glacier have been funded recently http://imgi.uibk.ac.at/research/ice-and-climate/ for instance by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) projects/langenferner (ALPCHANGE), the European Union (PermaNET), and the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Several A regional network for monitoring the glaciers of different techniques have been applied since Vinschgau, South Tyrol, Italy then to understand glacial but also proglacial Stephan Galos (IMGI), Christoph Klug (IGI), and paraglacial processes and dynamics. Apart Lorenzo Rieg (IGI), Rudolf Sailer (IGI) and Roberto from the annual glaciological campaign at Pas- Dinale (HAB) , Georg Kaser (IMGI; PI) terze (carried out within the glacier monitoring Additionally to the ongoing detailed mass program of OEAV), different spaceborne, air- balance programme at Langenferner, a regional borne and terrestrial remote sensing approaches observational network for the glaciers has been (SAR-Interferometry, airborne laser scanning, established in the Vinschgau, an inner Alpine terrestrial laser scanning, aerial photogramme- valley characterized by low precipitation amounts try, GPS, DGPS, tachymetry) have been used for and intensive agriculture relying on irrigation. To glacier monitoring (quantifying changes in vol- evaluate the glacier melt contribution to total river ume, velocity and glacier terminus) but also for discharge within the study region, a physically detecting morphological changes in the recently based energy and mass-balance model will be deglaciated areas (proglacial landscape dynam- developed at Langenferner and transformed to ics) as well as adjacent rock faces (paraglacial the catchment-scale. Hence, ablation stakes rock slope adjustments). Another research focus have been installed at nine glaciers in the study at Pasterze Glacier is the pronounced supraglacial region (the northern part of the Ortles–Cevedale debris cover regarding evolution, characteristics, Group and the southern part of the Ötztal Alps). thermal regime and effect on ablation. Related Furthermore, data from ALS campaigns are used to the receding glacier, organic material (peat to investigate current (2005–13) changes in area lumps, wood fragments) has been retrieved and and volume of all glaciers in the region. investigated (partly in cooperation with Univer- http://imgi.uibk.ac.at/research/ice-and-climate/ sity of Innsbruck; Kurt Nicolussi) in the proglacial projects/vinschglac

5 area, further deciphering the Holocene landscape balance measurements are complemented by a dynamics of the large ice mass. Finally, also the network of automatic cameras that monitor the morphological effects of ice avalanches at an receding snow cover. adjacent glacier (in cooperation with US; Heinz www.mountainresearch.at Slupetzky) have been studied recently. Mass balance of Hallstätter Glacier, Dachstein Glacier monitoring in the Schober mountains, massif Hohe Tauern range, Austria Lea Hartl (IGF), Martin Stocker Waldhuber (IGF), Gerhard Karl Lieb (UniGraz), Andreas Kellerer- Klaus Reingruber (BS) Pirklbauer (UniGraz), Michael Avian (TU Graz/ The mass balance monitoring at Hallstätter UniGraz), Viktor Kaufmann (TU Graz), Michael Glacier is a follow-up project o the first glacier Krobath (UBZ Graz) monitoring done by Simony in the mid-19th Glaciers in the Schober Mountains are small (largest century at the so-called Karls-Eisfeld. This mass ca. 0.75 km²) and characterized by a pronounced balance series is the eastern- and northernmost supraglacial debris cover. Furthermore, rock glacier monitoring series in the Eastern Alps and glaciers (as surface expressions of mountain perma­ is sponsored by the Hydrological Service of the frost) and permafrost are widespread and therefore Upper Austrian Federal Government and the interesting glacier-permafrost relationships exist in Energie AG company. this mountain range. In particular since the onset www.dachsteingletscher.info (German only) of the ALPCHANGE project in 2006, different Mass balance measurements on Jamtalferner, methodical approaches as described in the Silvretta previous section (remote sensing, ground tem­ Andrea Fischer (VGK) perature monitoring, sedimentological studies) Jamtalferner in the Silvretta is the westernmost as well as climatological and geophysical Austrian glacier with annual time series of direct measurements have been applied in order to gain a mass balance measurements. Monitoring started in better understanding of glaciers, rock glaciers, and 1988/89 and includes approximately 20 ablation permafrost. The research was carried out within the stakes, 6 snow pits, winter and summer balance projects ALPCHANGE; PermaNET, permAfrost and as well as precipitation measurements. The several smaller projects. nearest weather station was located in the village Research related to permafrost and of Galtür, since autumn 2013 a new automatic periglacial processes: weather station (AWS) has been operating next (http://ipa.arcticportal.org/reports-2011/672/598. to the Jamtal hut, maintained by the Avalanche html) Contact: [email protected] Warning Service and the Hydrological Survey of Mass-balance measurements on Mullwitzkees, the Tyrolean Government (HDT). Hohe Tauern www.gletscher-klima.at (German only) M. Stocker-Waldhuber (IGF), A. Fischer (IGF) The Eiskarglacier in the Carnic Alps Mullwitzkees is situated in the Hohe Tauern massif Gerhard Hohenwarter (ZAMG) within the core zone of the Hohe Tauern National The Eiskar-Glacier (2200 m a.s.l.) - the Park. It is exposed to the south and covers an area southernmost glacier in Austria - is embedded in of approximately 3 km². Direct measurements of a cirque of the north face of Kellerwand in the winter and summer mass balance were started Carnic Alps. Since 1992, the Eiskar has been in 2006 including ca. 13 ablation stakes, 3 snow part of the official glacier monitoring program pits and measurements of precipitation and of the Austrian Alpine Club (OEAV) with annual temperature. The project is funded by the Hohe measurements. Additional to the annual length Tauern National Park and the HDT. measurements, which have shown no significant [email protected] change since 2008, the thickness of the glacier Glacier monitoring of Venedigerkees was measured with Geo-RADAR in 2010. Bernd Seiser, Hans Wiesenegger, Christian Although the glacier covers an area of only 0.16 Mitterer (IGF) km2, an ice thickness of up to 50 m is reached. At the forefield of the former Obersulzbachkees In contrast to the large glaciers in the Alps this in Hohe Tauern, the Hydrographical Survey small glacier is fed by avalanches. Therefore of Salzburg (HDS) installed a hydrological winter precipitation is highly important. In order monitoring device with a runoff gauge. Two to estimate winter accumulation, an automatic years ago, direct and indirect measurements of weather station (AWS) has been installed in mass balance at the easternmost tributary to the autumn 2011, which measures snow height, former Obersulzbachkees glacier system, the air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, Venedigerkees, were added. The direct mass and wind direction. In the last three winters, the

6 station collected data continuously. However, Measuring penitentes with an XBox Kinect since February 2014 no data are available because Lindsey Nicholson (IMGI) and Shelley MacDonell the weather station had been completely covered (CEAZA, Chile) by snow since then. Unfortunately, the beginning Penitentes, which are spikes of snow or ice that of the melt season revealed that the AWS has not can reach several metres in height, are widespread survived the last winter with extraordinarily high in the semi-arid Andes. Measuring penitentes accumulation (mean value: 8-9 m snow height, is problematic due to the difficult access and max: 13 m!). Preparations for mass balance complex surface topography, and without good measurements have been going on since 2011. measurements it is difficult to evaluate how So far, this project could not be realized due to well existing mass and energy balance models lack of financial resources. The Eiskar-Glacier, as perform over penitentes. Funded by a National an example for a low level cirque glacier fed by Geographic Waitt Grant this research aims to avalanches in the Southern Alps, had a small mass test the performance of the Xbox Kinect sensor loss, but no significant decrease in length in the as a mobile means of generating high resolution last 6 years. In the last 100 years, only two more digital terrain models of penitentes fields and their winter periods were found that had similarly large change through time. amounts of precipitation as the winter 2013/14. Contact: [email protected] Thus a positive mass balance and another year Multi-scale analyses of the climate-glacier with no length change can be expected for the relationship on tropical Lewis Glacier, Mount year 2014. Kenya, East Africa Contact: [email protected] Lindsey Nicholson, Rainer Prinz, Georg Kaser (PI) (IMGI) TROPICAL GLACIERS Since September 2009 an automatic weather station (AWS) has been operating near Lewis Atmospheric observations and glacier mass Glacier on Mt. Kenya at an altitude of 4800 balance modelling in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru m. Together with historical and recent mass Wolfgang Gurgiser, Ben Marzeion, Marlis Hofer, balance observations this is the basis to force, Martin Großhauser, Stephan Galos, Georg Kaser optimize and validate process-based physical (PI) (all IMGI) energy, mass balance and limited area climate During the past years, automatic weather stations models to understand drivers, processes and have been operated at three glaciated catchments impacts of glacier changes at various scales. in the Peruvian Andes. The high-resolution data Combining this with results from recent studies have been used for statistical downscaling and are on nearby Kilimanjaro glaciers has the potential generally useful for developing methods to link for revealing a sophisticated history of the climate atmospheric conditions in the boundary layer to in the tropical mid-troposphere, where routine atmospheric model data or satellite observations. meteorological measurements are very rare. For one study site (Shallap Glacier), AWS data http://imgi.uibk.ac.at/research/ice-and-climate/ and stake readings (evaluation) have been used projects/kenya to model spatial distributed glacier mass balance with a process based model at high temporal res- olution. The results were used as reference to test ARCTIC mass balance models of low complexity. Svalbard glaciers and climate change (SvalGlac) Vulnerability to water scarcity and glacier fed Friedrich Obleitner (PI, IMGI) , Tobias Sauter water availability in the tropical Callejón de (IMGI) Huaylas, Peru The project focuses on the energy and mass balance Wolfgang Gurgiser (IMGI), Kathrin Schneider of an Arctic glacier (Kongsvegen, Svalbard) and (IGH), Georg Kaser (IMGI),/Martina Neuburger their interactions with the atmospheric boundary (IGH) Co-Pis layer. The approach is mainly based on extensive Runoff from glaciers is the dominant contribu- meteorological and glaciological observations tor to river discharge in the tropical Cordillera and numerical modelling. Simulations are Blanca, Peru, during the dry season. In a joint ef- performed in local and spatially distributed fort, glaciologists and social geographers aim at modes aiming at better understanding of the identifying present-day and potential future dis- seasonal evolution of atmospheric and subsurface crepancies between water availability and water exchange processes and the associated response demand as experienced differently by different of the glacier to changes of the meso-scale user communities along a tributary valley of the atmospheric conditions. This also considers the Rio Santa, Cordillera Blanca, Peru. skill of different meteorological data sets and

7 methods to derive spatially distributed data for model (AMUNDSEN) has been set up and ap- initialisation and forcing of snow/ice energy propriately parameterized for the simulation of balance models. The effort is supported by the local glacier energy and mass balance. These investigation of the distribution and structure of modelling efforts have been carried out in close snow across the glacier, which is of particular cooperation with the Central Institute for Meteor- importance for investigation of processes related ology and Geodynamics (ZAMG) in Vienna and to e.g. snow redistribution or internal refreezing complement a monitoring programme that has and their impact on the energy and mass been initiated by the ZAMG in the International balance of the glacier. The project is embedded Polar Year 2007. In the framework of expeditions in an international research network focusing carried out as part of the projects Glacier-MEMO on the sensitivity of Svalbard glaciers to climate (Glacier and Mass and Energy Balance Modelling change. Funding: FWF – Fonds zur Förderung at Freya Glacier) and FreyEx (The Freya Glacier der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (grant I 369- Experiment), automatic weather stations have B17); ESF – European Science Foundation been installed on the glacier surface and in its (PolarClimate); Österreichische Gesellschaft für vicinity, increasing the amount of meteorologi- Polarforschung (Julius-Payer-Stipendium 2010); cal information at the study site. Using these data Wissenschaftlich-Technisches Abkommen mit within numerical modelling experiments, the Frankreich 2014-15 (grant FR 10/2014). Duration: regionalisation of meteorological point observa- 2010 - 2014 tions as well as the simulation of the glacier mass http://imgi.uibk.ac.at/research/atmospheric-dyna- balance could be significantly improved. mics/projects/svalglac ; www. svalglac.eu Detection of GLOF trigger mechanisms from Mass balance monitoring Freyaglacier (NE- seismic and GPS monitoring (AP-Olsen Ice Cap, Greenland) NE-Greenland) Wolfgang Schoener, Bernhard Hynek (ZAMG) Daniel Binder, Wolfgang Schoener (ZAMG) Freyaglacier is a 7 km² large valley glacier in The ice-dammed lake at the A.P. Olsen Ice Tyrolerfjord (NE-Greenland) on Clavering Island Cap (NE-Greenland) represents an ideal site for in short distance to the Danish Zackenberg process-orientated studies of GLOF dynamics research station. A mass balance monitoring was under cold-based glacier hydrology due to the initiated as part of the Austrian contribution to the excellent logistics of the nearby Zackenberg International Polar Year in 2007/08, with the aim to research station (74°28’N, 20°34’W). An ice- better quantify the reaction of Greenland marginal free side valley is blocked by the South-East glaciers to climate change. First measurements of outlet glacier of AP Olsen Ice Cap; impounded mass- and energy balance at Freyaglacier were waters from precipitation and melt processes carried out already within the pioneering work of form a classic marginal, ice-dammed lake, which H W:son Ahlmann in the late 1930s, unfortunately currently exhibits annual outburst floods. Since stopped by World War 2. The direct glaciological the glacial stream drains into the Zackenberg method is used for estimating the annual balance River, the Zackenberg Research Station is directly of the glacier based on a network of ablation affected by the outburst floods. In 2012 a stakes and measurements of accumulation using simultaneous GPS and passive seismic network GPR, depth sondes and snow pits. In some years was installed in order to identify fundamental it was also possible to measure the winter balance relations between the observed surface of the glacier. In summer 2011 the observations kinematics, en- and subglacial processes and were improved through installation of an features before and during the outburst floods. automatic weather station (AWS) at the glacier. As a first result, an impressive outburst in August Currently, Freyaglacier and the nearby A.P. Olsen 2012, which was observed on-site during a field Ice Cap (measured by GEUS) are the only sites trip, was well documented by the network. with direct observations of glacier mass balance Contact: [email protected]. wolfgang. in NE-Greenland. [email protected], Contact: [email protected], bern- [email protected] ANTARCTICA Mass balance modelling at Freya glacier (NE- Stable isotopes and precipitation regime at Greenland) Antarctic deep drilling sites Ulrich Strasser (IGI), Thomas Marke (IGI), Florian E. Schlosser (IMGI), A. Dittmann (IMGI) Hanzer (alpS) For a correct palaeoclimatologic interpretation of With the central aim to investigate climate change stable water isotopes from ice cores the atmospheric impacts on Freya glacier, a small valley glacier in processes that determine moisture transport and NE-Greenland, a distributed, physically based precipitation formation and their role for isotope snow-hydrological energy and mass balance 8 fractionation have to be better understood. At documentary evidence shows a large reduction in the deep ice core drilling site ‘Dome C’, East ice since the end of the ‘Little Ice Age’, i.e. since Antarctica, fresh snow samples have been taken the second half of the 19th century. Recognizing since 2006. These samples have been analysed the urgency of this matter, this multi-disciplinary crystallographically, which enables us to clearly pilot study focussed on dynamically ventilated ice distinguish between blowing snow, diamond caves and attempted to (a) gain a better physical dust, and ‘synoptic precipitation’. Also the stable understanding of underground ice dynamics, (b) oxygen/hydrogen isotope ratios of the snow to develop constraints on the fate of alpine ice samples were measured, including measurements caves, and (c) to assess the unexplored potential of 17-O. This is the first and only multi-year of this ice as a paleoclimate archive in the Alps. fresh-snow data series from an Antarctic deep Extensive observations have been performed drilling site. The Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction in one of the largest ice caves cut in Triassic System (AMPS) employs Polar WRF for aviation limestones of the western edge of Tennengebirge weather forecasts in Antarctica. Precipitation at (Eisriesenwelt, Salzburg) and related results Dome C is temporally dominated by diamond have been collected in a special issue of The dust. However, comparatively large amounts of Cryosphere (TC). precipitation are observed during several ‘high- Funding: Austrian Academy of Sciences, research precipitation’ events per year, caused by synoptic program Alpenforschung activity in the circumpolar trough and related Duration: 2006-2009 advection of relatively warm and moist air from http://quaternary.uibk.ac.at/Research/Current- lower latitudes to the interior of Antarctica. AMPS Research/Climate-of-the-past-cave-deposits/ archive data are used to investigate the synoptic Ice-Caves.aspx situations that lead to ‘high-precipitation’ events at Dome C; in particular, possible moisture sources REMOTE SENSING are determined using back-trajectories. With this meteorological information, the isotope ratios are Remote sensing of glaciers, ice sheets and calculated using two different isotope models, the seasonal snow Mixed Cloud Isotope Model, a simple Rayleigh- Helmut Rott, Thomas Nagler, Gabriele Bippus, type model, and the LMDZ-iso (Laboratoire de Ursula Blumthaler, Markus Hetzenecker, Petra Météorologie Dynamique Zoom), a General Malcher, Elisabeth Ripper, Roman Sandner, Kilian Circulation Model (GCM) with implementation of Scharrer, Karl Voglmeier, Jan Wuite (ENVEO) stable isotopes. The results are compared to the Main activities at ENVEO IT GmbH are devoted measured stable isotope ratios of the fresh snow to the development of methods for retrieval samples. of physical properties of land ice and snow Cooperation: NCAR (National Center for from Earth observation (EO) satellite data, the Atmospheric Research), Boulder, CO, USA, generation of satellite-based data sets on snow LSCE (Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et and ice parameters, and the application of these de l’Environnement), Gif-sur-Yvette, France, data for studies of ice dynamics, glacier mass University of Triest, Italy. balance, and snow climatology and hydrology. Funding: FWF (Austrian Science Fund) (P24223) The inversion of EO data is based on in-house http://imgi.uibk.ac.at/research/iceclim/polar-me- developed software for processing of radar (SAR) teorology data and optical imagery. Maps of ice sheet and glacier motion are produced for ESA (European ICE CAVES Space Agency) Climate Change Initiative (CCI) projects ‘Ice-Sheet CCI’ (led by Technical Austrian ice caves (AUSTRO*ICE*CAVES*2100) University Denmark) and ‘Glacier CCI’ (led by Christoph Spötl (PI, Inst. of Geology Innsbruck), D. Univ. Zürich). In the ESA project GlacAPI ‘Multi- Wagenbach (Heidelberg Academy of Sciences), sensor analysis of glacier response to climate B. May (Heidelberg Academy of Sciences), F. change on the Antarctic Peninsula’, detailed Obleitner (IMGI), W. Schöner and G. Weyss analysis of surface motion, volume change, (ZAMG), M. Behm (Technical University Vienna), and mass balance and their temporal changes R. Pavuza (Museum of Natural History, Vienna), since ice shelf disintegration are performed for A. Rettenbacher (Eisriesenwelt GmbH) outlet glaciers to Larsen-A and –B embayments. The Eastern Alps host a great number of spectacular ENVEO is involved in two other ESA projects on underground glaciers, which are among the Antarctic glaciology, led by University of Leeds: largest of their kind on Earth and some of which the project ‘CryoSat & Cryosphere’, studying ice are top tourist attractions. The fate of these ice sheet grounding zones with altimeter and SAR caves in a warming world is unknown, but sensors, and the project ‘Antarctic Peninsula Mass

9 Balance’, aimed at reducing the uncertainty of APPLIED GLACIOLOGY API mass balance using three different satellite Stability of firn overhangs and safety aspects based techniques. Regarding seasonal snow cover, ENVEO contributed to the ESA project Heinz Slupetzky (FGGUS), Wolfgang Fellin (IIE), GlobSnow (led by Finnish Meteorological Stefan Ghetta (IIE) Institute), in which multi-year data sets on extent Deposits of snow avalanches from the winter and physical properties of the global snow cover sometimes remain at the end of the summer. The were generated for climate studies. ENVEO has boundaries of these deposits may form overhang- been leading an international team on scientific ing walls due to melting processes. Such walls are and methodological developments for a candidate attractive for ice climbers to train their skills. Mo- satellite mission of the ESA Explorer Programme, tivated by a deadly accident in 2006, the tensile applying a dual frequency (Ku- and X-band) strength of firn samples collected immediately after SAR sensor for spatially detailed measurements the incident was determined. A standard engineer- of snow water equivalent. The activities include ing stability model for the maximal overhang of theoretical studies on radar signal interaction walls loaded by persons climbing at the front side with snow, development of inversion algorithms was developed. A review of documented failures for snow parameters, and algorithm validation in and accidents revealed that the collapse of these field experiments with airborne and ground based overhangs were initiated by a damage of the side radar sensors. In preparation of sustainable EO wall of the overhang in the upper part or on the based snow and ice services, ENVEO leads the top of the deposit, i.e. an initial crack in the ten- Project CryoLand of the 7th Framework Programme sile zone of the structure; sometimes the accidents of the European Union, in which regional to happened without any apparent external reason. A continental scale products on snow, glaciers, and video documentation of a field test clearly verified fresh water ice are generated for specific users as the easiness of triggering a collapse by hammering well as for the public. an ice axe into the upper part of a side wall of an www.enveo.at overhang, followed by a rapid crack propagation starting from the place where the initial damage Comparison of snow depths derived from occurred. Summarizing all investigations, it can be multi-temporal lidar surveys with snow depths recommended that when climbing on free stand- calculated from GPR measurements on glacier ing overhangs at avalanche deposits the following surface precautions should be taken: the inclination must K. Helfricht (alpS, IMGI), M. Kuhn (IMGI), M. deviate less than 25 degrees from the plumb line Keuschnig (alpS, DGG US), A. Heilig (CGG and the structure must not be damaged by using BASH, IEP Univ. of Heidelberg) ice axes or crampons on the top or on the side of Surface elevation changes derived from multi- the firn walls. temporal airborne laser scanning (ALS) surveys were compared to snow depths calculated from 35.4 km of ground penetrating radar (GPR) profiles on the GLACIER HYDROLOGY four glaciers Hintereisferner, Kesselwandferner, Improved runoff simulations for glacierized Gepatschferner and Vernagt­ferner in the Ötztal catchments in the Ötztal Alps (Austria) using Alps (Tyrol, Austria). The study aimed to evaluate airborne laser scanning and energy and mass the effect of the summation of snow densification balance modelling and ice flow to ALS-derived snow depth on the Florian Hanzer, Kay Helfricht, Katrin Schneider glaciers in the study area. A Landsat 5 image was (alpS), Ulrich Strasser, Thomas Marke (IGI), used to distinguish between snow covered area Michael Kuhn (IMGI) and bare ice areas of the glaciers at the end of the Within the alpS/COMET project MUSICALS, the ablation season. In present accumulation areas, ALS spatial and temporal variations of water, snow and surface elevation changes differ from snow depths ice resources in the catchments of the Gepatsch calculated from GPR measurements by −0.4 m on reservoir (Ötztal Alps, Austria) and their impact on average with a mean standard deviation of 0.34 m. reservoir inflow were investigated. High-resolu- Differences between ALS derived surface elevation tion airborne laser scanning (ALS) measurements changes and snow depths calculated from GPR of the study area were used to derive a set of end- measurements are distinctly smaller along the of-season snow water equivalent (SWE) maps. profiles conducted in central parts and the tongues These SWE distributions along with station-based of the glacier surfaces with a mean difference of snow depth observations and glacier mass balance 0.004 m and a standard deviation of 0.27 m. measurements were used to calibrate and validate Project: H03 MUSICALS_A, alpS a distributed physically based snow-hydrological energy and mass balance model (AMUNDSEN). Runoff was simulated using a linear reservoir cas- 10 cade approach. In a follow-up project, climate including: change scenarios and a glacier evolution model • Uncertainty originating from the temporal will be utilized in order to apply the model setup changes of degree-day factor as the result of for long-term runoff forecasts. systematic changes of the surface energy bal- ance of glaciers or snow fields (in particular Hydrological modelling of environmental changes of radiation balance) systems. Karsten Schulz, Hubert Holzmann (Institute for • Uncertainty originating from temporal and Water Management, Hydrology and Hydraulic spatial changes of accumulation patterns dur- Engineering (IWHW), BOKU). ing winter One main focus of the Institute for Water • Uncertainty originating from the temporal Management, Hydrology and Hydraulic change of spatial features of the high alpine Engineering (IWHW) is hydrological modelling climate (temperature lapse rate, precipitation of environmental systems. In this frame, different increase with elevation, precipitation correc- hydrological model concepts have been applied tion factor) and developed. For alpine environments the melt process of snow and ice can form a significant • Uncertainty originating from temporal changes balance component and thus has to be considered of glacier size, glacier topography (Volume-ar- in the models. Typical applications of hydrological ea scaling) and glacier elevation. models are (operational) runoff forecasting, impact Contact: [email protected], bern- studies of land use change or climate change. For [email protected] short term applications a static approach regarding glacier extent can be sufficient, whereas climate change impact studies represent a projection PERMAFROST/ROCK GLACIERS into the future and require dynamic approaches. Monitoring of rock glaciers in the Oetztal Alps In the models, predominantly conceptual Karl Krainer (Inst. of Geology, Univ. of Innsbruck) assumptions are used, where the climatic drivers The monitoring program on the hydrology of active are precipitation, temperature and radiation. Melt rock glaciers and permafrost-affected catchments rates are computed by means of index based in the Ötztal Alps was continued in 2013 to study models (temperature and/or radiation index); the impact of climate change on the discharge mass transport (ice movement) is considered by pattern and water chemistry in high alpine regions conceptual transfer between elevation layers. (Project „Permafrost and Climate Change’ of the These rather simple concepts are reliable for Austrian Academy of Sciences). The monitoring coarser spatial scales as used in hydrological programme includes discharge measurements modelling of river basins. In the future, IWHW at several automatic gauging stations (including also intends to adapt existing concepts for water temperature and electrical conductivity) smaller scales, where detailed monitoring data and chemical analyses of water samples from of glaciological processes are required. Therefore several rock glacier springs (anions, cations, co-operations with glaciological experimentalists heavy metals). At selected rock glacier springs would be welcome and highly appreciated. with extremely high electrical conductivity, water Contact: Karsten Schulz, (Prof., head of institute) samples were taken daily by using an automatic – [email protected]; Hubert Holzmann, water sampler from June until October. Modelling (Dr., assoc. Prof.) – [email protected] of the distribution of permafrost in the Tyrolean Uncertainties of future stream-flow scenarios Alps (based on the rock glacier inventory and for snow- and ice dominated catchments in the additional data) was also started last year. A Austrian Alps detailed analysis of two cores was finished in Wolfgang Schoener, Bernhard Hynek (ZAMG) 2013. The cores were drilled at rock glacier The project aims to compute stream-flow Lazaun in the southern Ötztal Alps (Schnals scenarios for glaciated catchment areas in the Valley, South Tyrol, Italy): Analysis included the Austrian Alps through forcing of a hydrological amount of ice, electrical conductivity, pH, anions, model with climate model runs from Regional cations, heavy metals, stable isotopes, palynology Climate Models. Scenario runs cover the period and radiocarbon-dating (project PERMAQUA, until 2070 for two catchment areas (Goldbergkees Interreg IV – Italy-Austria). and Obere Salzach in the Austrian Alps). In Cooperations exist with TU Vienna (M. Rogger/G. particular the project focusses on quantifying the Blöschl/E. Brückl), ZAMG (H. Hausmann), Office uncertainty of scenario model runs for the future for Geology and Building materials testing, considering the uncertainties from both hydro- Autonomous Province of Bolzano (V. Mair/K. glaciological modelling and climate modelling, Lang/D. Tonidandel), and Univ. Innsbruck: Institute

11 of Botany, (J.-N. Haas), IMGI, (U. Nickus), Institute model has been used to reconstruct (based on of Mineralogy and Petrology (R. Tessadri/P. Tropper), climate observations and climate reconstruction Institute of Ecology (H. Thies) and Institute of from GCMs) and project the glacier contribution Geography (R. Sailer/E. Bollmann). to sea-level rise, to estimate the equilibrium global Contact: [email protected] glacier mass for a number of global temperature anomalies, and to determine the effect of glacier Permafrostmonitoring Sonnblick retreat to higher altitudes, and changing glacier Stefan Reisenhofer, Claudia Riedl, Wolfgang surface areas, on the sensitivities of glaciers to Schoener (all ZAMG) climate change. The Sonnblick Observatory (3105m a.s.l., Contact: [email protected] Austrian Alps) is a research station involved in a series of international observational programmes of the atmosphere, the cryosphere and recently ICE–ATMOSPHERE INTERACTIONS the biosphere. In 2006, the observation of Modelling of snow cover-atmosphere interactions spatio-temporal patterns of permafrost has been Sascha Bellaire, Mathias W. Rotach (IMGI) started capturing both permafrost at the summit The project SAINT (Snow cover Atmosphere of Sonnblick as well as permafrost in the debris INTeractions) aims at providing an improved cover of two slopes with different aspect (North understanding of snow cover - atmosphere and South, with an area of about 1.5 km² for each interactions in complex snow covered terrain. test field). The monitoring covers measurements By coupling a high-resolution numerical weather in boreholes and at the ground surface by prediction model (COSMO) with a high-resolution geophysical methods (ground penetrating snow cover model (SNOWPACK) this project radar (GPR), seismic measurements) and laser also aims at providing a better representation of scanning, respectively. Additionally, extensive snow in numerical weather and climate models. meteorological measurements are available Especially the components of the surface energy from the Sonnblick Observatory. First results balance, which has a direct influence on the for the summit area of Sonnblick based on GPR snow cover evolution, will be measured within measurements show a thickness of the debris the framework of the so-called i-Box project, cover of about 2.5 m, of which approximately which comprises a network of high-resolution the uppermost 1.5 m are the active layer (derived meteorological stations located in complex alpine from borehole temperatures). From borehole terrain. Hence, predicted fluxes (COSMO) will tomography a thickness of joint bedrock with be compared to measured fluxes for validation. open, probably ice-filled joints, down to a depth Possible benefits of using a complex snow cover of about 9 m was derived. Measurements from the model (SNOWPACK) instead of a simplified ground surface temperature network from the two snow cover model – as currently implemented slope sites indicate that permafrost is probable in in COSMO – will be assessed. Winter field the Sonnblick region at elevations above 2500 m campaigns will provide the required field data a.s.l. for north-facing slopes and above 2750 m for validation of such a model chain, which a.s.l. for south-facing slopes. could become a useful operational tool for e.g. Contact: [email protected], claudia. avalanche or hydrological warning services. [email protected], [email protected] Contact: [email protected] SNOWGRID – Operational, spatially-distributed Glacier Modelling snow cover modeling in Austria Global scale glacier mass balance modeling Marc Olefs, Wolfgang Schoener (ZAMG) Ben Marzeion (IMGI), Alex Jarosch (IMGI/U. of A new physically-based and spatially distributed Iceland), Marlis Hofer (IMGI), Jonathan Gregory snow cover model is currently in development at (U. of Reading/Met Office) the Austrian national weather service ZAMG. The During the past years, a simple model for the model is driven with gridded meteorological input surface mass balance of glaciers and ice caps data of the integrated nowcasting model INCA (8.1 was developed. With the objective to be able to – 17.7°E; 45.8 - 49.5°N) that uses remote sensing reconstruct and project mass balances on any and radar data as well as ground observations and glacier, the calibration procedure relies on the is operated by ZAMG. Additional data from remote similarity of past climate anomalies experienced sensing and ground measurements are used to by neighbouring glaciers, rather than assuming validate and calibrate the model output consisting similar climate sensitivities of neighbouring mainly of snow height and snow water equivalent glaciers. This procedure makes the calibration maps in a spatial resolution of 100 m and a time independent on the existence of direct mass resolution of 15 minutes in near real-time. Its balance observations of the modeled glacier. The energy balance mode contains partly newly 12 developed schemes (e.g. radiation, cloudiness) spots for mainly microbial communities but also based on high quality solar and terrestrial radiation metazoans such as springtails or tardigrades. data, satellite products and ground measurements. Cryoconite holes resemble mini lakes and harbor Snow physical properties and snow cover a variety of organisms, which can show activities dynamics are currently incorporated in the model comparable to temperate soils despite harsh living based on a simple 2-layer scheme, as the primary conditions. To assess the ecological potential of focus of the model are fast calculations on the glaciers, superficial measurements can give large grid and to accurately represent the spatial assumptions about organic production on a global distribution of the snow mass and depth (and not scale. To achieve a higher resolution of data a non- its detailed microstructural behavior), which is of invasive instrument has been developed called great interest for authorities and the general public. L.I.F.E. (laser induced fluorescence emission) Snow extent from SNOWGRID together with to quantify photosynthetic active pigments on satellite data is also used to evaluate the effect of glacial surfaces. initializing a numerical weather prediction model In englacial systems which are accessible - such such as AROME (high resolution weather forecast as the Natur Eispalast at Hintertuxer Glacier – model) using a real snow distribution instead photosynthesis takes place under artificial light of climatological estimates as it is operationally sources that are responsible for the growth of done. The snow model is developed in close so called Lampenflora consisting mainly algae, collaboration with regional avalanche warning ciliates and bacteria of airborne origin or by centers and practitioners. introduction via melt water. Under the concept of Contact: [email protected], wolfgang.sch- Sparkling Science projects, where universities and [email protected] schools are bridged, school kids are included in field work on glaciers. Empirical-statistical downscaling for data-sparse, Contact: [email protected] glaciated mountain ranges Marlis Hofer (IMGI), Ben Marzeion (IMGI), Stephan Galos (IMGI), Thomas Mölg (IMGI, OTHER Technische Universität Berlin) Mass exchange and motion of glacier tongues and During the past few years, an empirical-statistical subglacial sediments, under present conditions downscaling (ESD) framework for data-sparse, and conditions of ongoing rapid deglaciation glaciated mountain ranges was developed. The M. Stocker-Waldhuber (IGG Halle, IGF, IMGI), goal of the ESD framework was to correct data M. Kuhn (IMGI), K. H. Schmidt (IGG Halle), D. available by large-scale atmospheric models Morche (IGG Halle) (here, reanalysis data), to better account for local- With the purpose to detect glacial and subglacial scale atmospheric variability at, or near mountain mass exchange including the erosion of the glaciers. Since observations are generally sparse bedrock of the Gepatschferner, direct and for glaciated mountain sites, the major challenge indirect glaciological and geodetic methods are was to establish statistically significant ESD transfer conducted. These measurements belong to the functions based on the small observational records. subproject ‘Glaciology and Geomorphology’, The ESD framework was applied to daily and sub- which is part of the DFG/FWF joint project daily time series of air temperature, and specific PROSA (Proglacial Systems of the Alps). Within humidity, measured at several automatic weather this project all relief changes within the catchment stations in the Cordillera Blanca (Peru). The ESD of the river Fagge including Gepatschferner and model skill showed high interannual variations, Weißseeferner down to the beginning of the with higher values during the wet season, than backwater of the Gepatsch reservoir (Ötztal Alps) during the dry season. ERA-interim reanalysis data are being investigated. by the ECMWF outperformed several other global Contact: [email protected]; reanalysis data sets as predictors. http://www.ku.de/mgf/geographie/prosa/start/ Contact: [email protected]

Ecology/Biology DATABASES 3P Clim Biological activity in glacier ice Andrea Fischer (IGF), Bernd Seiser (IGF) Birgit Sattler, Philipp Larch, Barbara Post, Klemens The Interreg project 3P Clim aims at combining Weisleitner, Jakub Zarsky ( all IEI) climate and glacier data for the regions of Tyrol, During the past years, various glaciers in Bozen (Bolzano), and Veneto in an online map. Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine regions have been It will include basic topographic information for investigated for biological activity on supraglacial all glaciers of the regions, and for some glaciers habitats. Glaciers can be considered as hot 13 also time series of length changes and actual and MEMO Mass and Energy balance historical images. Modelling www.mountainresearch.at GLOF Glacier lake outburst flood GPR Ground-penetrating radar Glaciological data base Tyrol/Salzburg GPS Global Positioning System Andrea Fischer (VGK) HAB Hydrology Department of the The provinces of Tyrol and Salzburg have a long autonomous province of South history in glaciological research. The majority of Tyrol, Italy the data collected since the first image of a glacier HDS Hydrological Survey of Salzburg was drawn in 1601 is currently not digitally HDT Hydrological Survey of Tirol catalogued, except for the most recent data. IEI Inst. of Ecology, University of Within this project, data are searched for, listed, Innsbruck summarized, and published at the data base of IEP Institute of Environmental Physics, AWI, www.pangaea.de. University of Heidelberg www.gletscher-klima.at (German only) IFFB IFFB Geoinformatik-Z_GIS, University of Salzburg Abbreviations IGF Institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research, Austrian ALS Airborn Laser Scanning Academy of Sciences alpS Centre for Climate Change IGG Institute for Geosciences and Adaptation Geography, Physical Geography, AMPS Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction Martin-Luther-University of Halle- System Wittenberg, Germany AMUNDSEN Alpine Multiscale Numerical IGH Institute of Geography, University Distributed Simulation Engine of Hamburg API Antarctic Peninsula IGI Institute of Geography, University AWS Automatic Weather Station of Innsbruck BOKU Univ. of Natural Resources and IIE Institute for Infrastructure Life Sciences Engineering, University of Salzburg BS BlueSky Wetteranalysen IMGI Institute of Meteorology and CCI Climate change initiative Geophysics, University of Innsbruck CEAZA Centro de Estudios Avanzados en IPA International Permafrost Association Zonas Áridas IWHW Inst. For Water Management, CGG BASH Commission for Geodesy and Hydrology and Hydraulic Glaciology, Bavarian Academy of Engineering Sciences and Humanities L.I.F.E. Laser induced fluorescence COSMO Consortium for Small-scale emission Modeling LMD Laboratoire de Météorologie DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Dynamique DGGUS Department of Geography and NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Geology, University of Salzburg Research, Boulder, CO, USA DGPS Differential GPS OEAV Austrian Alpine Club DTM Digital Terrain Model PROSA Proglacial Systems of the Alps ENVEO Environmental Earth Observation SAINT Snow cover Atmosphere Information Technology GmbH, Interactions Innsbruck SAR Synthetic aperture radar ESA European Space Agency TC The Cryosphere ESD Empirical-statistical downscaling UBZ Graz Umwelt-Bildungs-Zentrum ESF European Science Foundation Steiermark FGGUS Fachbereich Geographie und US University of Salzburg Geologie, Universität Salzburg VGK Verein Gletscher Klima FHNB Fachhochschule Neubrandenburg, WGMS World Glacier Monitoring Service Germany WRF Weather Research and Forecasting FreyEX Freya Glacier Experiment Model FWF Austrian Science Fund ZAMG Central Institute for Meteorology GCM General Circulation Model and Geodynamics GEUS Geological Survey of Denmark

and Greenland Elisabeth Schlosser

14 International Glaciological Society

JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGY

Papers accepted for publication between 1 January and 30 April 2015. The papers are listed in alphabetical order by first author. Some of these papers have already been published.

Othmar Buser, Perry Bartelt Christian Kienholz, Sam Herreid, Justin L. Rich, An energy-based method to calculate streamwise Anthony A. Arendt, Regine Hock, density variations in snow avalanches Evan W. Burgess Derivation and analysis of a complete modern- P. Jay Fleisher date glacier inventory for Alaska and northwest Lacuna band (surface depressions) occurrence Canada and conditions of formation, Bering Glacier, Alaska J. Kingslake Chaotic dynamics of a glaciohydraulic model Gao Tanguang, Kang Shichang, Lan Cuo, Zhang Tingjun, Zhang Guoshuai, Zhang Yulan, Mika R. Kwok, C. Haas Sillanpää Effects of radar side-lobes on snow depth Simulation and analysis of glacier runoff and retrievals from Operation IceBridge mass balance in the Nam Co basin, southern Poul-Henrik Larsen, Marc Overgaard Hansen, Tibetan Plateau Jørgen Buus-Hinkler, Klaus Harnvig Krane, Alexandra L. Giese, Robert L. Hawley Carsten Sønderskov Reconstructing thermal properties of firn at Field tracking (GPS) of ten icebergs in Eastern Summit, Greenland, from a temperature profile Baffin Bay offshore Upernavik, northwest time series Greenland Wanqin Guo, Shiyin Liu, Junli Xu, Lizong Wu, Harold Lovell, Edward J. Fleming, Donghui Shangguan, Xiaojun Yao, Junfeng Wei, Douglas I. Benn, Bryn Hubbard, Sven Lukas, Weijia Bao, Pengchun Yu, Qiao Liu, Zongli Jiang Kathrin Naegeli The second Chinese glacier inventory: data, Former dynamic behaviour of a cold-based methods and results valley glacier on Svalbard revealed by basal ice and structural glaciology investigations Jordan C. Hanson, Steven W. Barwick, Eric C. Berg, Dave Z. Besson, Thorin J. Duffin, Douglas R. MacAyeal, Olga V. Sergienko, Spencer R. Klein, Stuart A. Kleinfelder, Alison F. Banwell Corey Reed, Mahshid Roumi, A model of viscoelastic ice-shelf flexure Thorsten Stezelberger, Joulien Tatar, M.H. Masiokas, S. Delgado, P. Pitte, E. Berthier, James A. Walker, Liang Zou R. Villalba, P. Skvarca, L. Ruiz, J. Ukita, Radar absorption, basal reflection, thickness and T. Yamanokuchi, T. Tadono, S. Marinsek, polarization measurements from the Ross Ice Shelf F. Couvreux, L. Zalazar Sam Herreid, Francesca Pellicciotti, Alvaro Inventory and recent changes of small glaciers on Ayala, Anna Chesnokova, Christian Kienholz, the northeast margin of the Southern Patagonia Joseph Shea, Arun Shrestha Icefield, Argentina Satellite observations show no net change in the Elizabeth M. Morris, Duncan J. Wingham percentage of supraglacial debris-covered area in Uncertainty in mass-balance trends derived northern Pakistan from 1977 to 2014 from altimetry: a case study along the EGIG line, Matthias Huss, Laurie Dhulst, Andreas Bauder central Greenland New long-term mass balance series for the Swiss Anais J. Orsi, Kenji Kawamura, Alps John M. Fegyveresi, Melissa Headly, Joseph H. Kennedy, Erin C. Pettit Richard B. Alley, Jeff Severinghaus The response of fabric variations to simple shear Differentiating bubble-free layers from melt and migration recrystallization layers in ice cores using noble gases

15 Myrto Pirli, Kenichi Matsuoka, Johannes Victor C. Tsai, Andrew L. Stewart, Schweitzer, Geir Moholdt Andrew F. Thompson Seismic signals from large, tabular icebergs Marine ice-sheet profiles and stability under drifting along the Dronning Maud Land coast, Coulomb basal conditions Antarctica, and their significance for iceberg C. Vincent, E. Thibert, O. Gagliardini, monitoring A. Legchenko, A. Gilbert, S. Garambois, D. Price, J. Beckers, R. Ricker, N. Kurtz, T. Condom, J.M. Baltassat, J.F. Girard W. Rack, C. Haas, V. Helm, S. Hendricks, Mechanisms of subglacial cavity filling in Tête G. Leonard, P.J. Langhorne Rousse glacier Evaluation of CryoSat-2 derived sea-ice freeboard Denis Voytenko, Alon Stern, David M. Holland, over fast ice in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica Timothy H. Dixon, Knut Christianson, Heidi Sevestre, Douglas I. Benn Ryan T. Walker Climatic and geometric controls on the global Tidally driven ice speed variation at Helheim distribution of surge-type glaciers: implications Glacier, Greenland, observed with terrestrial for a unifying model of surging radar interferometry Sharon B. Sneed, Paul A. Mayewski, L.M. Wake, S.J. Marshall W.G. Sayre, Michael J. Handley, Assessment of current methods of positive Andrei V. Kurbatov, Kendrick C. Taylor, degree-day calculation using in situ observations Pascal Bohleber, Dietmar Wagenbach, from glaciated regions Tobias Erhardt, Nicole E. Spaulding Alexandra Waechter, Luke Copland, New LA-ICP-MS cryocell and calibration Emilie Herdes technique for sub-millimeter analysis of ice cores Modern glacier velocities across the Icefield Scott A. Snyder, Erland M. Schulson, Ranges, St Elias Mountains, and variability at Carl E. Renshaw selected glaciers from 1959 to 2012 The role of damage and recrystallization in the Meilin Zhu, Tandong Yao, Wei Yang, elastic properties of columnar ice Fabien Maussion, Eva Huintjes, Shenghai Li Shin Sugiyama, Daiki Sakakibara, Shun Tsutaki, Comparison of energy and mass balance Mihiro Maruyama, Takanobu Sawagaki between Zhadang and Parlung No.4 Glaciers on Glacier dynamics near the calving front of the Tibetan Plateau Bowdoin Glacier, northwestern Greenland

16 ANNALS OF GLACIOLOGY 56(69)

The following papers have been selected for publication in Annals of Glaciology 56(69) (thematic issue on Sea ice in a changing environment), edited by Petra Heil

Agneta Fransson, Melissa Chierici, Andrew R. Mahoney, Hajo Eicken, Katarina Abrahamsson, Maria Andersson, Yasushi Fukamachi, Kay I. Ohshima, Anna Granfors, Katarina Gårdfeldt, Daisuke Simizu, Chandra Kambhamettu, Anders Torstensson, Angela Wulff M.V. Rohith, Stefan Hendricks, Joshua Jones

CO2-system development in young sea ice and Taking a look at both sides of the ice: CO2 gas exchange at ice/air interface mediated comparison of ice thickness and drift speed as by brine and frost flowers in Kongsfjorden, observed from moored, airborne and shore- Spitsbergen based instruments near Barrow, Alaska Cathleen A. Geiger, Hans-Reinhard Müller, Yoshimasa Matsumura, Kay I. Ohshima Jesse Samluk, E. Rachel Bernstein, Lagrangian modelling of frazil ice in the ocean Jacqueline A. Richter-Menge Walter N. Meier, Florence Fetterer, J. Scott Impact of spatial aliasing on sea-ice thickness Stewart, Sean Helfrich measurements How do sea ice concentrations from operational Cathleen A. Geiger, Peter Wadhams, data compare with passive microwave Hans-Reinhard Müller, estimates?: Implications for improved model Jacqueline A. Richter-Menge, Jesse Samluk, evaluations and forecasting Tracy L. Deliberty, Victoria Corradina Ioanna Merkouriadi, Matti Leppäranta On the uncertainty of sea-ice isostasy Influence of sea ice on the seasonal variability Masato Ito, Kay I. Ohshima, Yasushi Fukamachi, of hydrography and heat content in Tvärminne, Daisuke Simizu, Katsushi Iwamoto, Gulf of Finland Yoshimasa Matsumura, Andrew R. Mahoney, Fabien Montiel, Vernon A. Squire, Luke G. Hajo Eicken Bennetts Observations of supercooled water and frazil Reflection and transmission of ocean wave ice formation in an Arctic coastal polynya from spectra by a band of randomly distributed ice moorings and satellite imagery floes Alison Kohout, Bill Penrose, Scott Penrose, Jesse P. Samluk, Cathleen A. Geiger, Chester Michael Williams Weiss, James Kolodzey A device for measuring wave-induced motion of Full-physics 3-D heterogeneous simulations of ice floes in the Antarctic marginal ice zone electromagnetic induction fields on level and Kazuya Kusahara, Tatsuru Sato, Akira Oka, deformed sea ice Takashi Obase, Ralf Greve, Ayako Abeouchi, Lars H. Smedsrud, Torge Martin Hiroyasu Hasumi Modelling the Antarctic marine cryosphere at the Grease ice in basin-scale sea-ice ocean models Last Glacial Maximum

J.V. Lukovich, J.K. Hutchings, D.G. Barber On sea-ice dynamical regimes in the Arctic Sarah M. Mager, Gregory H. Leonard, Andrew G. Pauling, Inga J. Smith A framework for estimating anchor ice extent at potential formation sites in McMurdo Sound, More papers for Annals 56(69) will be listed in Antarctica the next issue

17 ANNALS OF GLACIOLOGY 56(70)

The following papers have been selected for publication in Annals of Glaciology 56(70) (thematic issue on Contribution of glaciers and ice sheets to sea level change), edited by Richard Hindmarsh and Frank Pattyn

Lionel Benoit, Amaury Dehecq, Ha-Thai Pham, Sebastian Marinsek, Evgeniy Ermolin Flavien Vernier, Emmanuel Trouvé, Luc Moreau, Ten year mass balance by glaciological and Olivier Martin, Christian Thom, geodetic methods of Glaciar Bahía del Diablo, Marc Pierrot-Deseilligny, Pierre Briole Vega Island, Antarctic Peninsula Multi-method monitoring of Glacier d’Argentière Brooke Medley, Stefan R.M. Ligtenberg, glacier dynamics Ian R. Joughin, Michiel R. van den Broeke, William Colgan, Jason E. Box, Sivaprasad Gogineni, Sophie Nowicki Morten L. Andersen, Xavier Fettweis, Antarctic firn compaction rates from repeat-track Beáta Csathó, Robert S. Fausto, Dirk van As, airborne radar data. Part 1: methods John Wahr Alvaro Soruco, Christian Vincent, Greenland high-elevation mass balance: Antoine Rabatel, Bernard Francou, inference and implication of reference period Emmanuel Thibert, Jean Emmanuel Sicart, (1961–90) imbalance Thomas Condom Victoria Lee, Stephen L. Cornford, Contribution of glacier runoff to water resources Antony J. Payne of La Paz city, Bolivia (16°S) Initialization of an ice-sheet model for present- Andrew Zammit-Mangion, Jonathan L. Bamber, day Greenland Nana Schoen, Jonathan C. Rougier Stefan R.M. Ligtenberg, Brooke Medley, A data-driven approach for assessing ice-sheet Michiel R. van den Broeke, mass balance in space and time Peter Kuipers Munneke

Antarctic firn compaction rates from repeat-track More papers for Annals 56(70) will be listed in airborne radar data. Part 2: firn model evaluation the next issue

ANNALS OF GLACIOLOGY 57(71)

The following papers have been selected for publication in Annals of Glaciology 57(70) (thematic issue on Glaciology in High Mountain Asia), edited by Graham Cogley

J. Graham Cogley Marlene Kronenberg, Martina Barandun, Glacier shrinkage across high-mountain Asia Martin Hoelzle, Matthias Huss, Daniel Farinotti, Erlan Azisov, Ryskul Usubaliev, Arbor Gafurov, Lucas Earl, Alex S. Gardner Dmitry Petrakov, Andreas Kääb A satellite-derived glacier inventory for North Mass-balance reconstruction for Glacier No. Asia 354, Tien Shan, from 2003 to 2014 Wenfeng Huang, Runling Li, Hongwei Han, Evan S. Miles, Francesca Pellicciotti, Ian C. Willis, Fujun Niu, Qingbai Wu, Wenke Wang Jakob F. Steiner, Pascal Buri, Neil S. Arnold Ice processes and surface ablation in a shallow Refined energy-balance modelling of a thermokarst lake in the Central Qinghai-Tibet supraglacial pond, Langtang Khola, Nepal Plateau Aparna Shukla, Iram Ali Azamat Kaldybayev, Yaning Chen, A hierarchical knowledge-based classification Evgeniy Vilesov for glacier terrain mapping: a case study from Glacier change in the Karatal River Basin, Kolahoi Glacier, Kashmir Himalaya Zhetysu (Dzhungar) Alatau, Kazakhstan

More papers for Annals 57(71) will be listed in the next issue

18 Nordic Branch Meeting 2014 Mýrdalur, Iceland, 30 October–1 November 2014

Of the five hosting countries of the IGS Nordic The Icelandic breeze brought every one back to branch (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and life and eventually inside, except for a few who Sweden), Iceland is the most eagerly awaited host, enjoyed horizontal rain and gliding off higher as much for the thrilling glacio-volcanic research terrain. It suddenly made sense that Icelandic as for the radical changes of scenery and weather. houses looked sober from the outside. Inside, the On Thursday 30 October, approximately 85 welcoming committee was animated and happily participants gathered in front of Askja, the Natural badging the participants, who in settled for the Science building of the Háskóli Íslands (Univer- 3-day conference. sity of Iceland). A large number had already met Under the auspices of Katla, Magnús Magnús­­­­ during the previous few days at the well-attend- son and the local organizers (Alexander Jarosch ed beginner Elmer course held at the Icelandic and Eyjólfur Magnússon), the meeting was offi- Met Office and the annual meeting of SVALI, a cially opened. The first session offered a refresh- Nordic Centre of Excellence that involves nearly ing overview of the state and fate of glaciers from all Fenno-scandinavian glaciological research Svalbard to mainland Norway, passing by Sweden, groups. The crowd was on the cheerful side, al- Greenland and Iceland. May glaciologists become though the weather was mild and rainy and the an endangered species. Nevertheless, glaciers and wind was chilly. Two buses and a few rental cars ice are still causing trouble and the audience was left in the morning for the 2½hour journey to reminded of cryosphere-related accidents. As Jack Vik, a village south of Mýrdalsjökull. Once out Kohler summarized it, ‘Ice Kills’ – not only humans, of Reykjavík, we quickly reached the lava fields, but also Svalbard reindeer. This session must have nicely blanketed with snow and punctuated with been cursed, as the meeting mysteriously lost one vents emitting steam and other gases. An hour lat- of its speakers, Andy Russell. We were still within er, we were within sight of Eyjafjallajökull, along the 5% acceptable loss rate and the meeting con- the flanks of which waterfalls were pouring down. tinued with Jonathan Ryan presenting an impres- At this point, the weather deteriorated ‘slightly’. sive UAV show for extracting elevation changes at Water was going in all directions, flowing up as glacier termini in Greenland. Outside the meeting easily as it was falling. Driving became a dance, hall, UAVs would not have lasted very long. Win- swinging from British-side driving to continen- dows bulged with each turbulent gust. The poster tal-side driving. Arrival and unloading at Hotel session included 33 posters and took place in the Dyrholaey was accomplished at great speed.

The first talk given by a student was Jonathan Jack Kohler´s talk on ‘Extreme icing events in Ryan´s presentation on ‘Using UAVs to investi- snowpack in High Arctic site’ started with a very gate a tidewater glacier in Greenland’, amassing drastic slide. The following slide had the title ‘Ice the innovative uses people find for what is a gives life’ to give us all some hope.. relatively new technology. 19 A short, refreshing break outside the Hotel Dyrholaey and conference hall. The winners of the IGS Nordic Branch Ýmir student award 2014. Best poster award went to protected corridors of the hotel. Iceland was well Pierre-Marie Lefeuvre (better known as PiM). represented, with nine posters discussing mass bal- Because of the very stiff competition the IGSNB ance, tefra effect on albedo, palaeo-reconstruction awards committee decided to give the best and glacial isostatic adjustment. Discussing the oral presentation award jointly to two students, exciting developments at Bárðarbunga caldera, Hrafnhildur Hannesdóttir and Vikram Goel. Here Bergur Einarsson noted that this summer’s erup- are the winners and the committee. Left to right: tion strangely has not caused any jökulhlaup. No Olivier Gagliardini, PiM, Vikram, Hrafnhildur, increase in discharge was seen in the neighbour- Guðfinna Aðalgeirsdóttir (better known as Tollý) ing catchments, although depressions formed at and Liss Marie Andreassen. the glacier surface, possibly indicating subglacial drainage. It may be the start of a quest for the missing water of Bárðarbunga. The session also presentations (later awarded). Exceptionally this had several posters about the glaciers in Kongs­ year, they were awarded to two PhD students: fjorden, Svalbard, with a particular focus on the Hrafnhildur Hannesdóttir, for her study on ice dynamics of Kronebreen (Penelope How, Silje orographic precipitation in southeast Vatnajökull, Smith-Johnsen and Dorothée Vallot) as well as firn Iceland, and Vikram Goel, for his work on ice and precipitation patterns in the accumulation rises in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. The last zone (Ward van Pelt and Ankit Pramanik). Other presentation of the day was most inspiring and works focused on snow accumulation from GPR discussed opportunities for outreach activities, study, palaeo-reconstruction (Henry Patton), fast such as those Andreas Ahlstrøm and Signe Hillerup full-Stokes modelling of the Barents Sea ice sheet have created with isskolen.dk (http://isskolen.dk/ (James Lea), and building an extensive mass-bal- wp/?page_id=7477). A message to take home: ance database for the Greenland ice sheet (Horst Outreach is a crucial job for any glaciologist – it Machguth). The poster session was informal and conveys interest in our field to future generations, busy with presenting and discussing from start to and funding agencies value more and more such finish and beyond. As the horses in the field hud- output from projects. In the same spirit and as an dled together for shelter, we eventually gathered invited presentation, geophysicist Magnús Tumi and enjoyed a light dinner. The night was short for Gudmundsson gave the participants an update many. The wind didn’t give the participants any let- on the latest eruption at Bárðarbunga. Although up. The peak of the storm hit Hotel Dyrholaey early it has received much less press coverage than in the morning and reached a maximum speed of the last eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, the volume 43 m s–1. You were well-advised to hold the door of lava produced is the largest (<2 km3) since the and brace yourself when passing from one building Laki eruption of 1783 (14.7 km3), which is famous to another. for causing famine in Europe and ultimately the The morning session offered insights on many French revolution. The dataset being currently aspects of modelling glacier components to obtain collected at the surface of Bárðarbunga, including runoff, glacier geometry, velocity and damage. The GPS located in the currently collapsing caldera, audience particularly appreciated the statistical is remarkable and noteworthy. This was the last modelling of snow runoff from masters student presentation of a long day of scientific discussion, Ingunn Weltzien. The Friday after­noon was also which continued during the banquet and spilled rich in quality and ended with the best student into the night at the hotel bar.

20 on retrieving DEMs from combining historical airborne images with LiDAR and on improving CryoSat-2 elevation accuracy, respectively. The two last talks from Kirsty Langley and Geir Mo- holdt invited the audience to a glacier quiz and kept us all alert until the end of the meeting and the start of the weekend excursions. After some clarification about payments for the trips, which were confusing for both par- ticipants and organizers, the buses headed to Gígjökull, located on the north face of Eyjafjalla- jökull. The drive took longer than expected, espe- cially the last 15 km. The bus was of the same type as a city bus and had to be carefully and slowly coaxed across rivers and eroded banks. Nonethe- less, Tómas Johanesson, our enthusiastic guide, entertained the passengers by explaining how the outwash plain was remodelled during the 2009 eruption after two jökulhlaups. This valley in its autumn colours was particularly dramatic, and is famous in the Icelandic sagas. Tómas explained Andy Russell (Newcastle University) presenting that, in Njáls Saga, Gunnar Hámundarson, a geomorphological evidence of the jökulhlaup virtuous warrior forced into exile after a clan war, events at Gígjökull following the last volcanic looked back as he left the valley, was struck by eruption below Eyafjellajökull. Photo: Solveig the beauty of the landscape and resolved to stay Havstad Winsvold. on his land even though he knew it meant certain death. This produced the most beautiful poem in all the sagas, according to our guide, who The last day of the conference felt short and recited the original version. The bus finally had focused. First on glacier surface processes: Sergey to stop by a river 1 km before our destination. We Marchenko presented the problems in extrapolat- hiked from there up the impressive moraine for an ing cores to infer surface stratigraphy; Charalam- overview of the remaining bits of Gígjökull. The pos Charalampidis showed the significant effect of glacier suffered severely during the eruption and water retention in increasing snowpack tempera- jökulhlaups, which eroded a deep canyon into ture in Greenland’s accumulation zone. The final its west-side. After scrambling down to the gla- session on geodetic mass balance was original in cier front and the canyon, we caught up with the terms both of research and entertainment. Joaquin bus and had one last stop, at the Eyjafjallajökull Belart and Johan Nilsson offered insightful talks Visitor Centre, before heading to our hotel.

The landscape that prevented the exile of the warrior Gunnar Hámundarson in Njáls Saga. He could not bring himself to leave such a beautiful place. Photo: Solveig Havstad Winsvold.

21 Panoramic view of Gígjökull from the heights of the lateral moraine. Photo: Ingunn Weltzien.

The next day, plans were changed to rescue team. We were no different from the accommodate the weather. The organizers had tourists. This was also demonstrated at our next contacted a local guide, whose family once stop, at Sólheimajökull, which the group seemed lived on an isolated rocky outcrop sticking out of to enjoy. Sólheimajökull is an outlet glacier of the outwash plain of Mýrdalsjökull. This island, Mýrdalsjökull, studied by the Universities of although connected to road N1, looks like a Iceland and Edinburgh, and is one of the glaciers stranded iceberg surrounded by a sea of black monitored by the Extreme Ice Survey (http:// sand, with wave-like dunes. Battered by wind and extremeicesurvey.org/). The retreat of the glacier rain, our guide led us to the top, where the tomb has led to the formation of a proglacial lake and of his ancestors lies. When the island was still forced the guiding companies to search for new inhabited, the residents preferred the relatively access points a kilometre upstream from where quieter southern side. The southern cliffs offered they used to walk on the ice. Back on the bus, a spectacular view of the island and the sand dunes. Several ventured right to the cliff edge for an unforgettable picture, despite the warnings of our colleague Ágúst Þór Gunnlaugsson, Icelandic masters student, who is a member of the national

From the proglacial lagoon to the ash mounds Lunch break inside a former volcanic cavity. and fractured surface of Sólheimajökull. Photo: Photo: Solveig Havstad Winsvold. Solveig Havstad Winsvold. 22 Walking back from the margins of Sólheimajökull. Photo: Ingunn Weltzien.

Masters students enjoying the weather. Photo: Ingunn Weltzien.

we stopped at Skógafoss, a large waterfall flowing down from the upper plateau. After such an arduous trip, the local organizers had the great idea of taking us to an Icelandic pool in Selfoss. After being warned that in Iceland pools are not about swimming, but about relaxing, the 40 participants stormed into the small local bath. This was definitely the highlight of the trip and it felt so good to finish our Icelandic journey bathing in a heitur pottur (hot pot)!

Intense discussion at the top of the waterfall Pierre-Marie (PiM) Lefeuvre Skógafoss. Photo: Ingunn Weltzien.

23 News

Obituary: Charles Swithinbank, 1926–2014

Charles Winthrop Molesworth Swithinbank, a distinguished polar glaciologist, died on 27 May 2014 aged 87. His career, exceeding six decades, covered the major period of the development of his science and its many practical applications. In total he spent three winters, more than 20 field seasons, in both polar regions, and made many briefer visits. He was born in Burma on 17 November 1926; an autobiographical work explained why ‘a fairly normal young man should find such an abnormal occupation [as a glaciologist]’, noting his mother’s advice, ‘Don’t get stuck in an office like your father.’ In his 80th year Charles returned to Burma, now Myanmar, for a holiday, making an extensive tour during which he revisited places he remembered from childhood. His education began in Britain at the age of 7 during which he began boarding at Bryanston School, Dorset, on the same date as, 5 years later, the Second World War began. Towards the end of the war he enlisted in the Royal Navy, coincidentally in the same week as D-Day. He served 2½ years in the navy during which he visited Spitsbergen where the Arctic landscape left a lasting impression. In 1946 he entered Pembroke College, Oxford, where he read geography. In the next year he was a member of the Oxford University Exploration Club expedition to Vatnajökull, Iceland, man-hauling. His autobiography then notes he was asked if he wanted to go to Antarctica and, as he wrote, ‘it took me a fraction of a second to reply. In that Following this, Charles moved to Cambridge second the course of my life was changed forever.’ and the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI). Thus, after training in Swedish Lapland, he At this meeting place for polar specialists became a member of the Norwegian–British– Charles described how after a ‘pub crawl’ he Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 1949–1952. met a colleague and, by fortunate coincidence, During two winters and three summers, based this resulted in a 30 year association with US at Maudheim, Dronning Maud Land, he polar and glaciological research. This began in was surveying glaciological features which the University of Michigan, investigating the includedmaking pioneer studies of the thickness dynamics of the Ross Ice Shelf. Thus, in 1960, of the Antarctic ice sheet. he was back in the Antarctic at the time when In 1952 he was back in Oxford completing international cooperation under the Antarctic his Antarctic results for a doctorate awarded in Treaty was beginning. His work involved extensive 1955. In the next year his research concerned the field travelling, during which he visited Roald distribution of pack ice in the Northwest Passage Amundsen’s 1912 cairn on Mount Betty. for the Defence Research Board of Canada. While In 1963, after three Antarctic seasons, he in North America he met Vilhjalmur Stefansson, moved back to Cambridge with a research who introduced him to his specialist polar library. appointment with SPRI, an association that There he met Mary Fellows, who became his wife continued for the rest of his life. By arrangement in 1960. with SPRI, the Royal Society and the British 24 Antarctic Survey (BAS), from 1963–1965, under his administrative duties but made a point of the provisions of the Antarctic Treaty, Charles continuing research. In 1978/79 he was back was the British exchange scientist with the Soviet in McMurdo remeasuring the Byrd Glacier and Antarctic Expeditions. He wintered with them at comparing results from those obtained 11 years Novolazarevskaya station, again studying glacial previously. movements. While there he learnt Russian as a In 1982, suddenly and unexpectedly, Charles fourth language. became involved with the Argentinian invasions On his return to Cambridge he worked with of South Georgia and the Falkland Islands the radio-echosounding programme of SPRI by providing specialist advice to the British surveying the depths of the Antarctic ice sheet government. One of the consequences was an by ‘radio-glaciology’. In 1967 he worked from appreciation, by government, of the importance the BAS base ‘Adelaide’ with a series of flights to the country of the Antarctic regions, with the measuring the ice depth to bedrock, the beginning result of an approximate doubling of funds for of a programme that eventually covered the entire British Antarctic research. continent, with much international cooperation. Among Charles’s continuing projects were In the next summer this continued from McMurdo reconnaissance surveys from satellite imagery station, cooperating with the US Antarctic and its application to glaciological research. This Research Program. provided major contributions to series of Antarctic Back to the Northwest Passage, in 1969 charts. In 1988 he completed a Satellite Image Charles was an observer during the voyage Atlas of Glaciers of the World, published by the of Manhattan, an ice-strengthened oil tanker, United States Geological Survey, a culmination experimentally assessing the practicability of of observations from decades of satellite imagery. its use for the transport of crude oil. The logistic During 1983, liaison between the Chilean and economic aspects were such that the Alaska Air Force and BAS developed, includeing the pipeline turned out to be a more practicable possibility of wheeled landings on inland ice. method. Radio-echo surveys also continued, much in Sea-ice observations continued in 1971, cooperation with the USA, which provided large but from below. Charles was aboard HMS aircraft-deploying depots for the smaller, more Dreadnought, a nuclear powered submarine of versatile, British Twin Otter aircraft. In 1985/86 the Royal Navy that, incidentally, was the first Charles spent his last field season with BAS. He British submarine to reach the North Pole. The retired in November 1986. voyage was the beginning of a long period of A combination of extra time available after naval cooperation for SPRI. On 3 March 1971 retirement, knowledge of bare ice areas, liaison the submarine surfaced and Charles stood at the with the Chilean Air Force, and several other North Pole. Later that summer he was again in interested parties led to a major project. This was the Arctic, involved with experimental airborne the investigation of the practicability of landing radio-echo surveys over Greenland, Ellesmere wheeled aircraft on the snow-free ice of the Island and the Arctic Ocean. The base for these Antarctic interior. The result was the beginning of flights was the USA’s station in Thule. summer flights from Punta Arenas to a base camp During the 1971/72 austral summer Charles at Patriot Hills, high on the ice sheet, which began was again involved with radio-echo traverses in 1988. They were able to extend flights, using ski- working from the Adelaide Island base of BAS. equipped aircraft, to the South Pole, the vicinity Results from these surveys gave early indications of Mount Vinson and elsewhere. This began to of the substantial depletion of several major ice open the Antarctic interior to mountaineers, shelves. skiers, other sportsmen, tourists and various non- In 1974 Charles was appointed as the head governmental visitors. Once their practicability of the Earth Sciences Division of the BAS, which was proven, inter- and intracontinental flights was based at SPRI until 1976, when all divisions began as a part of several national programmes, of BAS consolidated in a new headquarters often in cooperation. just outside Cambridge. Charles held this post, Charles always travelled widely beyond the responsible for Antarctic glaciology, geophysics polar regions, lecturing at international meetings, and geology, until he retired in 1986. universities and other specialized organizations. In early 1975, while flying near the Ellsworth His subjects ranged as widely as living on Mars, Mountains on radio-echo surveys, Charles noticed experience gathered on Antarctic stations being large areas of snow-free ice, which suggested relevant to living on planetary bases. He was also possibilities of landing wheeled aircraft. At an accomplished lecturer on passenger voyages this time, as a division head of a government to many Arctic regions, including the North Pole, scientific body, he also noted the increase in and to the Antarctic, where he also made several

25 visits to the South Pole. Privately, many of his Falkland Islands Association, Friends of Scott excursions were to other glaciated parts of the Polar Research Institute, Geographical Club, world, including much of Russia, the Himalaya International Commission on Snow and Ice, and Tibet. International Glaciological Society (President Charles wrote four autobiographical books: 1963–66 and 1981–84), James Caird Society, An Alien in Antarctica: Reflections upon Forty Old Antarctic Explorers Association, Royal Years of Exploration and Research on the Geographical Society, South Georgia Association Frozen Continent (1997), Forty Years on Ice: A (President 2007–12) and Trans-Antarctic lifetime of Exploration and Research in the Polar Association. Regions (1998), Foothold on Antarctica: The First Charles Swithinbank’s awards include the International Expedition (1949–1952) (1999), and Norwegian Medal of Merit (1952) the Polar Medal Vodka on Ice: A Year with the Russians in Antarctica (1956), the Retzius Medal of Sweden (1966), the (2002). Each of these is well illustrated from his Patron’s Medal of the Royal Geographical Society extensive catalogued collection of photographic (1971) and the Mungo Park Medal of the Royal material (now bequeathed to SPRI). In 2010, he Scottish Geographical Society (1990). In 2013 was interviewed for the Oral History of British he was decorated with the MBE. His name is Science project of the British Library, providing commemorated by six toponyms in Australian, 83 minutes of detailed reminiscences. The SPRI British, New Zealand and Norwegian regions of library records 135 of his publications, and its Antarctica (four being ‘Swithinbank’ features and archives and museum have also been enhanced two for ‘Charles’). by material he has donated. Academically and He married, in 1960, Mary Fellows (née Stew- socially SPRI also benefited from his advice and art), with whom he had a daughter and a son, and guidance to many students, visiting scholars, adopted her daughter from a previous marriage. numerous other visitors, and members of staff. At the conclusion of his autobiography Forty Such an active life led to membership of many Years on Ice he wrote: ‘I have heard it said that organizations dealing with polar and associated today, with easier access to high latitudes, the subjects, often as a committee member and challenge has gone out of polar fieldwork. Those occasionally as President. These include the who believe it should stay at home – to avoid American Geographical Society, Antarctic Club being disillusioned.’ (President 1998), Antarctic Heritage Trust (UK), Arctic Club (President 2007), Arctic Association of North America, British Antarctic Survey Club, Bob Headland

26 Obituary: Robert H. Thomas, 1937–2015

Robert H. (Bob) Thomas was born 1 June 1937 in Hoylake, UK. He died on 2 February 2015 in Gorzow, Poland, from the effects of a stroke that he suffered in early January. He was 77. Bob is survived by his wife, Dr Roma Thomas, MD, five children (Conrad and Emma with Roma Thomas, James and Clare from a previous marriage with Ursula Chojnacka, and a daughter Kate from his first marriage with Pamela); and four grand- children (Emmanuelle, Charlotte, Zachary and Jasper). Bob’s interest in glaciology began during a 2 year Antarctic deployment (1960–1961) as a meteorological observer at Faraday Station, on Galindez Island, where he found himself intrigued by the flow of nearby ice caps. Spending his free time learning to survey stake networks with optical surveying equipment, he developed a deep respect for the power of observation in interpreting the moving glacier ice all around him. Later in life he would say, ‘My driving principle was to measure everything I could about ice.’ Following his deployment to Faraday Station, and after traveling for a time through South America, Bob returned to the UK intent on becoming a professional glaciologist. He returned to Antarctica in 1966/67 as a field assistant with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) team at Halley Bay Station. Sir Vivian Fuchs ran BAS at the time, and this discovery has since been the foundation and those assigned to the station, which they stone upon which I have built a hypothesis found buried under 10 m of snow on the edge of describing the stability of the Antarctic ice sheet the Brunt Ice Shelf, still possessed the British spirit under attack from climate warming. In this of exploration. scenario, the ice shelves are the dams that prevent At Halley Bay, Bob was true to his driving accelerated discharge of much of the ice sheet principle and ‘measured the hell out of the Brunt into the ocean. Weakening of the peripheral ice Ice Shelf and its adjoining bit of ice sheet’. As shelves would open a door to greatly accelerated he gathered more data from his stake networks discharge of much of the inland ice sheet into the and strain rosettes, he began to notice that the ocean, resulting in sea-level rise. strain rates along a flow line leading from the Bob’s work with the Brunt Ice Shelf data, which inland ice sheet and across the grounding line he acquired using optical survey instruments, to the calving front of the ice shelf were strongly tape measures and dog sleds, led him to publish influenced by a patch of grounded ice shelf called his theory of ice-shelf buttressing of the inland ice the McDonald Ice Rumples (then called the Gin sheet feeding the shelves. Bottle). Bob boldly drew a connection between The concept of ice-shelf buttressing, that the the ice rumples, the flow of the ice shelf and flow forward flow of inland ice across grounding lines across the grounding line. Bob explained this is resisted by the floating ice shelves seaward of connection years later: grounding lines, because of their confinement Afterwards [after returning from Halley Bay], in embayments whose margins provide shear back in Cambridge, I was able to use all these resistance, with additional resistance provided measurements to show how important the Gin by high points on the sea floor that intersect the Bottle was to the existence of the Brunt Ice Shelf, bottom surfaces of the floating shelves forming ice rises, became a major theme of his life’s

27 work. It is writ large today; Bob’s phrase ‘ice- shelf buttressing’ is the subtitle of a section of the 2013 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5). Armed with his data from the Brunt Ice Shelf, Bob began work on a PhD at the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) in Cambridge, England. There he was exposed to the local luminaries of UK glaciology – his thesis was mentored by Charles W.M. Swithinbank (1926–2014) and Gordon deQ. Robin (1927–2004) – and, in addition, to prominent visitors well known for advancing glaciological research. They included Johannes Weertman (of Northwestern University, USA), who had formulated the first quantitative description of ice-shelf flow and was working on Bob Thomas surveying Jakobshavn Isbræ, West his soon-to-be-published paper showing that a Greenland, 1976 marine ice sheet such as that of West Antarctica is not necessarily stable, and William F. (Bill) Budd (of the University of Melbourne, Australia), who Antarctic geophysics, to form a subproject called – in addition to his many contributions to the the Ross Ice Shelf Geophysical and Glaciological physics of ice deformation and flow – was an early Survey (RIGGS). Earlier, Charles and Ned A. developer of computational ice sheet modeling. Ostenso had discovered – from analysis of the Bob completed and defended his PhD extensive seismic data they acquired during a series dissertation, entitled ‘The dynamics of the Brunt of long traverses across the inland West Antarctic Ice Shelf, Coates Land, Antarctica’, in 1972. It was ice sheet (WAIS) during 1957–60 – that WAIS is published as British Antarctic Survey Scientific a marine ice sheet grounded far below sea level. Report No. 79 in 1973. Bob, Charles Bentley and their graduate Bob expressed an iconoclastic view of students planned and carried out a full and Antarctic field work: it was that, in the wake of systematic survey of the glaciology and geophysics the International Geophysical Year (IGY, 1 July of the ~487 000 km2 Ross Ice Shelf, including 1957–31 December 1958), much of what was ice-shelf thicknesses, gravity anomalies, strain going on in Antarctica was simply mapping ‘what rosettes from which principal strain rates and flow was there’. He believed early in his career that velocities were subsequently derived, surface field work should be strategic, designed to answer accumulation rates, and 10 m temperatures on a scientific questions beyond simply making maps. 50 km grid. They used De Havilland Twin Otter One of his ideas was to follow-up on how ice aircraft support and fly-in camps to accomplish shelves influence the flow of ice streams – ice the survey during 1973–78. sheet analogies to ocean currents – across their While working with Charles Bentley grounding lines. The great ice streams of the Marie on RIGGS, Bob moved, at the invitation of Byrd Land sector of the West Antarctic ice sheet glaciologist Terence J. Hughes (of the University that discharged into the Ross Ice Shelf had then of Maine), from the University of Nebraska, which been discovered through an airborne radar-survey was hosting the Ross Ice Shelf Project, to the program carried out, in part, by his mentors and Institute for Quaternary Studies at the University of colleagues at SPRI. Maine. There he joined Terence, glacial geologist Bob’s progressive views of what an observ- George H. Denton and mathematician/numerical ational program in glaciology could deliver were analyst David H. Schilling (on sabbatical from the noticed by the scientists who were organizing what University of Wisconsin–Barron County) who, would become the most ambitious field survey in addition to working on problems of present to date of a large component of the Antarctic ice flow in Antarctica and Greenland, were also Ice Sheet: the Ross Ice Shelf. In 1973 he was participating in the multi-university NSF-funded hired by the Ross Ice Shelf Project (RISP) Office, Climate: Long Range Investigation, Mapping, and with support from H. Jay Zwally, then program Prediction (CLIMAP) project. Douglas R. MacAyeal manager for Antarctic and Arctic glaciology in the (whose BS in physics was from Brown University) US National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of joined Bob as an MS graduate student in physics, Polar Programs. carried out field work with him on the Ross Ice Bob teamed with Charles R. Bentley (of the Shelf and developed the first comprehensive University of Wisconsin Madison), a pioneer of finite element model of a large component of

28 the Antarctic ice sheet, the Ross Ice Shelf. Craig the Ross Ice Shelf Project motivated initiation S. Lingle (whose BS in electrical engineering was of the first field research on the ice streams from the University of Washington) joined Terence discharging from the inland West Antarctic ice as an MS graduate student in geological sciences, sheet into the Ross Ice Shelf, about which little worked on the CLIMAP ice sheet reconstruction, was then known. While at NASA/GSFC, Bob then subsequently worked with Terence, Bob and developed a successful proposal to NSF for a Ronald Kollmeyer (of the US Coast Guard) on a broad-scale study of the great ice streams of the Coast Guard-supported survey of the floating, Siple Coast. iceberg-calving Jakobshavns in West Greenland. In 1983, however, W. Stanley (Stan) Wilson, Over a period of about 5 years, Bob’s interaction then manager of the NASA oceans program, offered with the University of Maine group resulted in Bob a position at NASA Headquarters managing some of the best forward thinking that guides the polar oceans component of his program. ice sheet glaciology to this day. His disciplined Bob accepted, moved to NASA HQ, and Robert observations and thinking about the Brunt and Bindschadler became principal investigator of the Ross ice shelves culminated, in the late 1970s West Antarctic ice stream project. Bob worked at and early 1980s, in a prolific series of papers on NASA HQ until 1998, except for 1986–87 when marine ice sheet instability, ice-stream grounding- Kenneth C. (Ken) Jezek (of Byrd Polar Research line dynamics and the controlling roles of the ice Center, Ohio State University) managed the polar shelves. These included a 1979 paper published oceans program. in Nature in which, with Timothy J.O. Sanderson Bob continued the work of his predecessor, (then of the British Antarctic Survey) and Keith E. Frank Carsey (who returned to NASA’s Jet Rose (then of SPRI), Bob suggested, based on his Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California), time-dependent ice-stream grounding-line model and was instrumental in guiding development of (developed in collaboration with David Schilling), algorithms for passive-microwave remote sensing, that substantial degradation and thinning of the with a particular focus on sea-ice products. Ross Ice Shelf could result in disintegration of This ultimately led to establishing the National WAIS in a few centuries, resulting in a mean sea- Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of level rise of 5 m. Colorado, under the leadership of Roger Barry, as In this, Bob was among a handful of visionary a Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) – the glaciologists who responded to the proposition US national archive that is providing the world first put forward by John H. Mercer (1922–87) in with sobering views of how rapidly Arctic sea ice 1968, then in a paper published in Nature in 1978, is shrinking in response to greenhouse warming that irreversible retreat of the West Antarctic ice of the climate. sheet could be initiated by greenhouse warming At NASA HQ, Bob was able to use his of the Earth’s climate. position as a program manager to advance Bob’s ventures into theoretical ice-sheet glaciology. Lacking support from either the glaciology must have been satisfying, but he always climate or terrestrial programs, Bob convinced maintained a conviction that field observations his oceanographic colleagues to expand the polar were critical for progress in understanding how oceans program to include glaciological research. ice sheet stability and sea-level rise would be His work led NASA to recognize the importance of linked to future climate changes. the research he was funding, which led to today’s In 1980 Bob joined the glaciologists of cryospheric sciences program. Additionally, the the Oceans and Ice Branch of the Laboratory funding support he provided resulted in a new for Hydrospheric Processes at NASA Goddard generation of glaciologists becoming established. Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, Shortly after he arrived at NASA HQ, Bob where H. Jay Zwally – following work with the advocated for and pushed development of the data from prototype radar altimeter satellites – Alaska SAR Facility (ASF) at the Geophysical recognized the potential of the radar altimetry Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, for the acquired, during the (unfortunately-abbreviated) reception and processing of synthetic aperture 100 day Seasat mission in 1978, for ice sheet radar (SAR) data acquired by the European mapping and as a baseline for future altimetry Space Agency’s satellite ERS-1 (launched in measurements of ice sheet elevation changes. July 1991), and the Canadian Space Agency’s Robert A. Bindschadler was also working in the (CSA) satellite Radarsat (launched by NASA in Oceans and Ice Branch. There, Bob developed a November 1995), as well as subsequent satellites new method for using satellite radar altimetry to carrying all-weather day/night SARs. ASF was also map the margins of floating Antarctic ice shelves. established as the US DAAC for SAR data. These During this period, the extensive earlier data, processed at ASF and elsewhere, have been measurements of the Thomas–Bentley team during crucial for the earth sciences. A new technology,

29 repeat-pass spaceborne SAR interferometry traverse around the entire ice sheet along the (InSAR), quickly evolved and has enabled highly- 2000 m contour, automatic weather stations, a accurate measurement of velocity fields over vast shallow ice-coring program, GPS stations for areas of the polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. measuring velocity and uplift, use of satellite data, In exchange for launching Radarsat, NASA and extensive airborne remote sensing. gained access to the data for use by US scientists. In The iron horse of PARCA was NASA’s P-3B addition, CSA agreed to twice rotate the normally 4-engine turboprop Orion, which carried the right (north)-looking Radarsat temporarily so Airborne Terrain Mapper (ATM), a laser altimetry/ it was left (south)-looking, to enable NASA to GPS-coupled system flown by Bill Krabill (of carry out the first and second Antarctic Mapping NASA Wallops Flight Facility) and his group, Missions (AMM-1, 9 September–20 October along with the coherent deep- and shallow-ice 1997, and AMM-2, 3 September–17 November sounding radars developed by electrical engineer 2000). Kenneth Jezek was principal investigator Sivaprasad (Prasad) Gogineni (of the University for this large and technically-challenging project. of Kansas) and his graduate students. The ATM John Crawford (of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory) measured ice surface elevations to an accuracy and his colleagues assisted with mission planning of 10 cm, which enabled re-measurement after and showed CSA how to control the orbit to 5 years to determine changes in the surface obtain better interferometric data. ASF processed elevations. There were many. After demonstrating the resulting huge volumes of SAR data. AMM- that his coherent radars could sound deep ice 1 resulted in the first high-accuracy spaceborne effectively, Prasad Gogineni received PARCA SAR-derived map of the entire Antarctic ice sheet. support, then, later, NSF support that enabled AMM-2 yielded the velocity field over most of the him and his graduate students to develop the ice sheet via InSAR and speckle tracking. Both most advanced ice-sounding and -imaging radars were important advances for Antarctic glaciology. extant. Flying the ATM and the radars on the The Alaska SAR Facility, more recently same aircraft yielded concurrent and colocated renamed the Alaska Satellite Facility, continues to measurements of surface elevations and ice process synthetic aperture radar data for a broad thicknesses, and a new map, including several range of scientists, including glaciologists, and new discoveries, of the ice sheet bed. continues to serve as the US DAAC for SAR data. With his large science team, Bob accomplished Bob also contributed to the shaping of the his challenging and complex goal of measuring, US Global Climate Change Program, and was for the first time, the mass balance of the entire on the science team for the ICESat laser altimetry Greenland Ice Sheet, including a broad suite of mission. ICESat, which flew 13 January 2003–14 physical properties related to its mass balance, August 2010, provided a global, high-accuracy, within 5 years. The PARCA results showed the ice spaceborne laser-derived elevation dataset for sheet was changing in many ways and, overall, purposes that included measuring the mass thinning and losing mass. balances of the ice sheets. Simultaneously, in Bob retired from NASA in 1998 but continued meetings with Jay Zwally’s altimetry group, his energetic work in polar glaciology. During Bob argued for the advantages of airborne 1999–2000 he continued to write and publish laser altimetry after development of kinematic papers based on PARCA results. During 2001–03, differential GPS which, for the first time, enabled he returned to the concept of force balance he precise aircraft positioning during long airborne had formulated in the late 1970s and applied it campaigns for data acquisition. to explain the retreats of Pine Island Glacier in Bob’s management of the burgeoning polar West Antarctica and Jakobshavns Isbræ in West oceans program at NASA was not just about Greenland. In 2002 Bob published, with Eric getting the funding in place. He was also a key Rignot (then of Jet Propulsion Laboratory, now of participant in some of the research programs. Most the University of California Irvine), a heavily cited notable was the Program for Arctic Research and review paper in Science on the mass balances of Climate Assessment (PARCA), organized and led the polar ice sheets. by Bob, which had the ambitious and technically When Waleed Abdalati (manager of NASA’s challenging goal of measuring the mass balance, cryospheric sciences program, 2000–04) then unknown, of the entire Greenland ice sheet established, in fall 2002, a cooperative project and the physical properties of the ice sheet with the Centro Estudios Cientificos de Valdivia contributing to its mass balance. (CECS, or Center for Scientific Studies, a private PARCA began in 1993. Over 50 scientists non-profit corporation in Valdivia, Chile, led participated from a broad cross-section of by Claudio Bunster, winner of Chile’s National universities, government laboratories and other Prize in Exact Sciences) – a project that included organizations across the USA. It included a logistical support from the Chilean Navy – Bob

30 acted as science advisor and lead in the field. in the bureaucratic pressure cooker of program This program made measurements of ice surface management are able to return to high-level elevations and elevation changes, bed elevations research in a rapidly evolving field. Impressively, and ice thicknesses, using airborne surveys carried Bob accomplished that. He remained at the top out with a Chilean Navy P-3, in conjunction with of his field, working and publishing actively, long satellite laser altimetry, where Pine Island and after retiring from NASA. Thwaites Glaciers enter Pine Island Bay in the One might speculate that Bob’s professional Amundsen Sea. life was driven by a search for higher-order This reconnaissance campaign resulted in meaning in cryospheric science. He started as a a 2004 paper published in Science by Bob, glaciologist at a time when making maps of ‘what Eric Rignot, and 10 others, showing that the was there’ was considered sufficient purpose. Amundsen Sea ice streams are thinning and Throughout his life, he far surpassed this ethos accelerating; their deep beds offer unlimited and pursued a harder path requiring bold steps potential for irreversible retreat, and the process and risky choices to advance glaciology. From the is most likely driven by increased basal melting perspective of 2015, it is clear that Bob succeeded of their ice shelves caused by warming ocean in navigating this harder path. water, thereby reducing their buttressing effects. During the first half of his professional career The campaign demonstrated the feasibility of as a glaciologist, Bob not only experienced working in the remote Amundsen Sea sector of but to a large degree led the transition of polar West Antarctica, which is not characterized by glaciology from local studies conducted by dog- pleasant weather, and encouraged NSF to fund sled with a theodolite and measuring tape to a tight grid of radar flight lines in this region, broad-scale studies of the ice sheets using modern starting in 2004, in preparation for a major study high-resolution remote sensing technology. His that included drilling an ice core to bedrock near approach was reflected during his younger days, the West Antarctic divide. when he scaled up his study of the small Brunt This work, which was followed by another Ice Shelf to the huge Ross Ice Shelf, and during NASA/CECS campaign in 2008, has continued his later years to an even greater extent when he to the present with projects such as NASA’s promoted, as a program manager, and personally Operation IceBridge, which is yielding evidence brought to bear the vast high-technology that irreversible retreat of the grounding lines of resources of NASA to understand the physics of the major Amundsen Sea ice streams may be in the changing Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. progress. Bob Thomas was often feisty and antagonistic During 2005–07 Bob was involved with the during scientific deliberations, but he was never Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change false to his principles or unwilling to listen to the (IPCC); he was among the nine lead authors of genuine ideas of others. He had an encouraging Chapter 4, entitled ‘Observations: changes in way with younger scientists. His legacy is not just snow, ice, and frozen ground’, in Working Group his science or the NASA program he established, I, of the 2007 IPCC 4th Assessment Report (AR4). but includes the new generation of glaciologists As such he was honored, along with the IPCC as he enabled, empowered and pushed to be the a whole and former US Vice-President Al Gore, best they can be. with the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. All of us will miss him greatly. As a co-author with mathematician/ocean­ ographer David M. Holland (of New York University) and three others, Bob published a paper in 2008, in Nature, on acceleration of Jakobshavns Isbræ triggered by warm subsurface ocean waters – in essence, the first solid paper on the role of the ocean in driving the Greenland ice sheet into negative Craig S. Lingle and Douglas R. MacAyeal, mass balance. with contributions from many colleagues Few people who spend more than 10 years

31 Glaciological diary ** IGS sponsored * IGS co-sponsored

2015 16 March 2015 2–4 February 2015 International Online Conference (webinar): CESM Land Ice and Polar Climate Working New Perspectives in the Polar Sciences Group Winter Meetings Contact Rachel Downey [rachel.v.downey@ Boulder, Colorado, USA gmail.com] Websites: https://www2.cesm.ucar.edu/ Website: http://apecs.arcticportal.org/news/ working-groups/pcwg and https://www2. apecs-news cesm.ucar.edu/working-groups/liwg 23–26 March 2015 4–7 February 2015 Workshop on the Dynamics and Mass Symposium: The evolution of mountain Budget of Arctic Glaciers/IASC Network on permafrost Arctic Glaciology Annual Meeting Sion, Switzerland Obergurgl, Austria Website: http://www.temps-symposium.ch/ Website: http://www.iasc.info/nag/ program.php?language=en 23–27 March 2015 8–14 February 2015 Workshop: Dynamics of Atmosphere–Ice– 1st European Snow Science Winter School Ocean Interactions in the High Latitudes Sodankylä, Finland Rosendal, Norway Website: http://www.slf.ch/dienstleistungen/ Website: http://highlatdynamics.b.uib.no/ events/snowschool/index_EN www.iasc.info/nag/ 13–20 February 2015 23–27 March 2015 Arctic Science Partnership: Field course on Deutsche Physicalisches Gesellschaft: DPG Snow Covered Sea Ice Spring Meeting (GEOG 7400 Field Topics in Arctic System) Heidelberg, Germany Nuuk, Greenland Website: http://www.dpg-physik.de/ Contact John Iacozza [john.iacozza@ veranstaltungen/tagungen/ umanitoba.ca] 24–26 March 2015 Website: http://www.asp-net.org/content/field- 11th Annual Polar Technology Conference schools Denver, Colorado, USA 23–27 February 2015 Contact: [register@ International Snow and Avalanche Course polartechnologyconference.org] Davos, Switzerland Website: http://polartechnologyconference.org/ Contact: Stephan Harvey 25–26 March 2015 Website: http://www.igsoc.org:8000/ Royal Geographical Society–IBG symposia/www.slf.ch/more/training/ Postgraduate Forum Mid-Term Conference symposia/2015/kathmandu/ Sheffield, UK 23–27 February 2015 Website: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/ Workshop: Measurements of ice structures geography/phd/conference by means of image analysis 30 March–1 April 2015 Bremerhavn, Germany MicroDIce conference Website: http://www.awi.de/index. Microstructural evolution during HT php?id=7415 deformation: advances in the characterization 2–6 March 2015 techniques and consequences to physical **International Symposium on Himalayan properties glaciology 8–10 April 2015 Kathmandu, Nepal GLACINDIA: Stakeholder Workshop on Contact: Secretary General, International Identifying Climate Change Information Needs Glaciological Society Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India Website: http://www.igsoc.org:8000/ Website: http://www.climate-service-center. symposia/2015/kathmandu/ de/058047/index_0058047.html

32 8–10 April 2015 31 May–4 June 2015 Polar Predictability Workshop Polar Meteorology and Oceanography (49th University of Reading, Reading, UK Congress of the Canadian Meteorological Website: http://www.climate-cryosphere.org/ and Oceanographic Society/3th American wcrp/pcpi/meetings/1228-seaice-reading2015 Meteorological Society Conference) Whistler, British Columbia, Canada 12–17 April 2015 Website: http://congress.cmos.ca/ European Geosciences Union: General Assembly 2015 2–5 June 2015 Vienna, Austria 7th International Conference on Arctic Website: http://www.egu2015.eu/ Margins – ICAM VII Trondheim, Norway 20–22 April 2015 Contact: Tove Aune Students In Polar Research Conference Website: http://www.ngu.no/aktiviteter/7th- Brno, Czech Republic international-conference-arctic-margins- Website: http://polar.sci.muni.cz/en/news/ icam-2015 students-in-polar-research-conference-1 2–5 June 2015 21–25 April 2015 Workshop: Ilulissat Climate Days Annual Meeting of the Association of Ilulissat, Greenland American Geographers Website: http://www.polar.dtu.dk/english/ Chicago, Illinois, USA Ilulissat-Climate-Days Website: http://www.aag.org/cs/ annualmeeting 8–9 June 2015 International Polar Remote Sensing 23–30 April 2015 Workshop Arctic Science Summit Week, ASSW 2015 Beijing, China Toyama, Japan Contact: Xiao Cheng 23–25 April: ASSW Business Meetings 27–30 April: ISAR-4 and ICARP III Symposium 8–12 June 2015 Website: http://www.assw2015.org/ Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) Week 27–9 May 2015 Workshop 1: Assessing the State of the Alpine Glaciology Meeting Climate of the Southern Ocean Milan, Italy Workshop 2: Implementing a Southern Ocean Contact: Claudio Smiraglia/ Observing System Guglielmina Diolaiuti/Roberto Azzoni Hobart, Tasmania, Australia Website: http://soos.aq/news/current-news/ 18–22 May 2015 205-soosweek ‘PAST Gateways’ (Palaeo-Arctic Spatial and 9–11 June 2015 Temporal Gateways) Third International 72nd Eastern Snow Conference: Recent Conference Advances in Snow Remote Sensing Potsdam, Germany Jouvence, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada Website: http://http/www.awi.de/ Website: http://www.easternsnow.org/annual_ pastgateways2015 meeting.html 26–29 May 2015 21–26 June 2015 Workshop: GIA Modeling 2015 **International Symposium on the Hydrology Fairbanks, Alaska, USA of Glaciers and Ice Sheets Website: http://www.gia2015.org/ Iceland 31 May–4 June 2015 Contact: Secretary General, International Creep 2015 conference Glaciological Society Toulouse, France Website: http://www.igsoc.org:8000/ Contact: Maurine Montagnat 22 June–2 July 2015 26th Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) General Assembly Prague, Czech Republic Website: http://www.iugg2015prague.com/

33 22–25 June 2015 23–29 August 2015 31st International Association of Innsbruck Summer School of Alpine Sedimentologists Meeting of Sedimentology Research (InnSAR) on Surface–Atmosphere Krakow, Poland Exchange over Mountainous Terrain Website: https://www.sedimentologists.org/ Innsbruck, Austria ims2015www.iugg2015prague.com/ Website: http://www.uibk.ac.at/congress/ innsar/ 28 June–31 July 2015 CIDER summer program: Solid Earth 2–3 September 2015 Dynamics and Climate – Mantle Interactions *International Glaciological Society British with the Hydrosphere & Carbosphere Branch Meeting 2015 Berkeley, California, USA Department of Geography, Durham Website: http://www.deep-earth.org/ University,​UK summer15.shtml Contact: C.R. Stokes 2–4 July 2015 *SIRG – Snow and Ice Research Group New 2–4 September 2015 Zealand Annual Meeting World Symposium on Climate Change Cass Field Station, New Zealand Adaptation: special session on ‘Arctic Contact Wolfgang Rack Manchester, UK Website: http://sirg.org.nz/about/workshop- Website: http://www.haw-hamburg.de/en/ proceedings/ wscca-2015.html 13–17 July 2015 6–10 September 2015 SCAR: XII International Symposium on 6th International Conference on Polar & Antarctic Earth Sciences Alpine Microbiology Goa, India Ceské Budejovice, Czech Republic Website: http://www.isaes2015goa.in/ Website: http://polaralpinemicrobiology2015. prf.jcu.cz/pages/indexfor 22–25 July 2015 PALSEA2 2015 Workshop: Data-Model 8–19 September 2015 Integration and Comparison Karthaus 2015 Tokyo, Japan A basic introduction to the dynamics of Contact Glenn Milne [[email protected]] glaciers and ice sheets with a focus on ice- climate interactions, meant for PhD students 27 July–2 August 2015 working on (or soon to start working on) a International Union for Quaternary Research glaciology-related climate project Congress: XIX INQUA 2015 Contact: Hans Oerlemans [[email protected]] Nagoya, Japan Website: http://www.projects.science.uu.nl/ Website: http://inqua2015.jp/ iceclimate/karthaus/ 16–21 August 2015 18–24 September 2015 **International Symposium on Contemporary Interdisciplinary Polar Studies in Svalbard Ice-Sheet Dynamics: ocean interaction, (IPSiS) Meeting meltwater and non-linear effects Svalbard Cambridge, UK Scientific Conference: Longyearbyen, 20–21 Contact: Secretary General, International September Glaciological Society Field Workshops for young researchers: Website: http://www.igsoc.org:8000/ Longyearbyen area, 18–19 September; symposia/2015/cambridge/ Hornsund, 22–24 September 2015 17–19 August 2015 6–8 November 2015 Canadian Quaternary Association biennial 9th Graduate Climate Conference meeting (CANQUA 2015) Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada Website: http://www. Website: http://canqua2015.com/ graduateclimateconference.com/

34 10–13 November 2015 2017 1st Central European Polar Meeting 13–17 February, 2017 Vienna, Austria International Symposium on the Southern Contact: Marion Rothmüller [cepm2015@ Cryosphere: Climate Drivers and Global polarresearch.at] Connections Website: http://www.polarresearch.at/ Wellington, New Zealand conference Contacts: Secretary General, International Glaciological Society (IGS); Secretary 2016 General, International Association of 20–24 June 2016 Cryospheric Sciences (IACS) (Chair of Local Eleventh International Conference on Organizing Committee); Director, Climate Permafrost (ICOP 2016) and Cryosphere (CliC) Potsdam, Germany Website: http://icop2016.org August/September 2017 **International Symposium on Polar Sea Ice, June/July 2016 Polar Climate and Polar Change **International Symposium on Interactions Boulder, Colorado, USA of Ice Sheets and Glaciers with the Ocean Contact: Secretary General, International La Jolla, California, USA Glaciological Society Contact: Secretary General, International Glaciological Society 2018 15-27 June 2018 SCAR/IASC Conference Davos, Switzerland Contact: SCAR Secretariat [[email protected]]

35 New members

Ms Emily Anderson Mr Alex E.W. Gyorffy Centre for Hydrology, University of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford Saskatchewan 1 Crick Road, Oxford OX2 6QJ, UK 117 Science Place, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Tel +4 (0) 7876785729 S7N5C8, Canada [email protected] [email protected] Mr Konstanze Haubner Assistant Professor Ívar Örn Benediktsson Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Department of Geology, Lund University Svensenga 58, Oslo NO-0882, Norway Sölvegatan 12, SE-223 62 Lund, Sweden Tel +4722963096 Tel +3548616224 [email protected] [email protected] Mrs Tone B. Husebye Mr Steven Bernsen Norwegian Meteorological Institute Portland State University Svensenga 58, NO-0882 Oslo, Norway 4109 SE Taylor St, Portland, OR 97214, USA Tel +47 22963096 Tel +1 805 252 8711 [email protected] [email protected] Mr Sverrir Aðalsteinn Jónsson Assistant Professor Robert Bialik Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland Hydrology and Hydrodynamics, Institute of Sturlugata 7, IS-101 Reykjavík, Iceland Geophysics PAS [email protected] ul. Ksiecia Janusza 64, PL-01-452 Warszawa, Mr Janis Karušs Poland Geography and Earth Sciences, University of Tel + 48 22 6915 864 Latvia [email protected] Raina bulvaris 19, LV-1586 Riga, Latvia Dr Marco Brogioni Tel +37128220717 IFAC-CNR [email protected] Via Madonna del piano, 10, c/o IFAC-CNR, Dr Gerhard Kuhn I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy Marine Geoscience, Alfred-Wegener-Institut Tel +390555226432 Am Alten Hafen 26, D-27568 Bremerhaven, [email protected] Germany Mr Frazer Christie [email protected] School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh Mr Toby Meierbachtol Drummond Street, Edinburgh EH8 9XP, UK Department of Geosciences, University of [email protected] Montana Dr S. Emily Collier 32 Campus Dr, Missoula, MT 59812, USA Gneisenaustrasse 34, D-10961 Berlin, Germany Tel +1 406 239 0885 Tel +491747086411 [email protected] [email protected] Mr Jean Louis Mugnier Mr Cooper Elsworth ISTerre, CNRS Geophysics, Stanford University Université Savoie Mont Blanc, Campus 397 Panama Mall, Stanford, CA 94305, USA scientifique, Batiment belledonne, [email protected] F-73376 Le Bourget du Lac, France jemug@univ savoie.fr Dr Michel Gay Image Processing, CNRS-GIPSA-lab Mr Sathiyaseelan Rengaraju 11 rue des Mathématiques, F-38402 Saint- Atmospheric Sciences, Indian Institute of Martin-d’Hères Cedex, France Technology Delhi michel.gay@gipsa lab.grenoble inp.fr # 311, Block VI, CAS, IIT Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi, Delhi 110016, India Tel +91-9582840364

36 Dr Asa K. Rennermalm Ms Laura Stevens Department of Geography, Rutgers University Marine Geology and Geophysics, 54 Joyce Kilmer Avenue, MIT/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Piscataway, NJ 08854-8045, USA 360 Woods Hole Rd, MS 24, Tel +1 8484454731 Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA [email protected] Tel +1 508 289 3544 Ms Allison Ring [email protected] University of Maryland Mr Victor C. Tsai 10203 Baltimore Ave, Apt 6205, California Institute of Technology College Park, MD 20740, USA 1200 E. California Blvd, MS 252-21, [email protected] Pasadena, CA 91125, USA Ms Kiya Riverman [email protected] 217 Crestmont Ave, State College. PA 16801, USA Mr Donald E. Voigt Tel +1 5417608530 Dept. of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State [email protected] University Ms Samira Samini 209 Deike Building, University Park, PA 16802, Geography, University of Calgary USA #3-169 Rockyledge View NW, Calgary, Alberta Tel 814-865-3732 T3B 6G2, Canada [email protected] Tel +14039180837 [email protected]

37