News
The World Glacier Monitoring Service call for data
The WGMS regularly compiles and publishes standardized data on glacier changes in length, area, volume, and mass based on in-situ and remotely sensed observations. A corresponding call-for-data is annually sent out through the National Correspondents of the WGMS who organize the collection and submission of the glacier data within their country. The data submission deadline is 1 December 2024.
Image: MRISevere melting of glaciers despite heavy snowfall at high altitudes
After the extreme circumstances encountered in 2022 and 2023, no relief is in sight for Swiss glaciers. Despite exceptionally large volumes of snow during the winter, a combination of temperatures in July and August that at times reached record levels and dust from the Sahara resulted in a loss of 2.5% of the glacier volume. This was reported by the Swiss Commission for Cryosphere Observation of the Swiss Academy of Sciences on Tuesday.
Image: Matthias HussHow the microstructure of snow in the Arctic influences sea ice and the global climate
Amy R. Macfarlane will be awarded the Prix de Quervain 2024 for her excellent and innovative doctoral dissertation at the ETH Zurich and the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF. Her research serves as a base to reduce major uncertainties on sea ice modelling and to improve the quality of global climate models predictions. For this, she applied a wide variety of instruments to measure the microstructure of snow in high resolution directly in the Arctic for the first time.
Image: Calle Schöning