Temperatures rise. Ice melts. Rivers flow.
About the TEMPEST project
As global temperatures continue to rise, the world’s glaciers are subject to increased melting and greater risk of disappearing. The processes which control glacier loss are generally well understood , but the weather conditions that drive these processes is typically not known. This is because there are too many glaciers to monitor them all… and it is very difficult to maintain weather stations on those that are monitored. Because of this we have to make many assumptions about what the weather conditions on a glacier are like, especially how ‘warm’ or cold it is. TEMPEST is a two year postdoctoral research project aimed at improving our estimation of temperatures on mountain glaciers. It will combine a wealth of existing meteorological datasets with new, dedicated measurements on glaciers in the Swiss Alps.
Why?
Glaciers are crucial components of the global water cycle, storing freshwater in mountain (or high latitude) regions that can supply rivers upon which millions of people rely. In order to estimate how much glacier are melting and will melt into the future, we require new (or updated) methods of estimating the temperature on the glacier. A 1°C change in the atmosphere may produce a smaller change (e.g. 0.5°C) near to the glacier surface (Fig. 1), but the size of the glacier or local effects in the mountains (valley winds, surface characterstics) can all affect this temperature sensitivity (sometimes referred to as climatic sensitivity).
Fig. 1: A schematic for different air flows on a glacier and its impact on air temperatures above the surface. Sensitivity to external temperatures (red line) are exemplified based upon previous publications (blue lines).
How?
In order to constrain how temperatures over glaciers respond to external warming, the project will involve the installation of several temperature loggers along the length of distinct Alpine glaciers (Fig. 1). Because local conditions over glaciers can modify the sensitivity of temperature to external climate, we need to monitor as much of the glacier area as possible to understand where and why it changes. To compliment these measurements and to explore the control of local winds on this temperature change, a number of low cost wind sensors will also be installed toward the terminus of the glaciers.
Where?
In order to develop a suitable parameterisation for temperature estimation, several existing meteorological datasets on glaciers around the world will be combined with focused datasets on glaciers in the Swiss Alps [Read More Here].
Project Synergies
Advancements in our ability to estimate glacier air temperatures has the potential to improve simulations of glacier melt, river discharge and interactions with other elements of mountain ecosystems (such as vegetation dynamics). The outputs from this project aim to serve many modelling frameworks of scientific community, but will notably link with modelling efforts of the High Mountain Glaciers and Hydrology research group at WSL and its ongoing projects. Several of these projects work to combine diverse data and knowledge of high mountain systems and piece together their functioning using powerful land surface modelling tools.
TEMPEST 