Background and Overview

Dufourkarte MTB 1862 history ¦ organisation ¦ monitoring strategy ¦ website ¦ datasets

1862 Louis Agassiz Ice auger of Agassiz & Desor, Swiss Alpine Museum, Bern Agassiz publishes his Ice Age theories in the 1840s Visualization by P. Rastner history ¦ organisation ¦ monitoring strategy ¦ website ¦ datasets

1894 F.-A. Forel ( ) initiates internationally coordinated glacier observations in 1894 Visualization by P. Rastner history ¦ organisation ¦ monitoring strategy ¦ website ¦ datasets

1940s Onset of glacier-wide mass balance measurement programmes Tarfala Research Station Photo by S. Nussbaumer Visualization by P. Rastner history ¦ organisation ¦ monitoring strategy ¦ website ¦ datasets

First consideration of the need for a World Glacier Inventory Visualization by P. Rastner history ¦ organisation ¦ monitoring strategy ¦ website ¦ datasets

st World Climate Conference brings the climate change issue on the political agenda Visualization by P. Rastner history ¦ organisation ¦ monitoring strategy ¦ website ¦ datasets

1986 Merger of PSFG and TTS/WGI into the World Glacier Monitoring Service Visualization by P. Rastner history ¦ organisation ¦ monitoring strategy ¦ website ¦ datasets

1988 Foundation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Visualization by P. Rastner history ¦ organisation ¦ monitoring strategy ¦ website ¦ datasets

1990 First Assessment Report (FAR) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Visualization by P. Rastner history ¦ organisation ¦ monitoring strategy ¦ website ¦ datasets

1992 Foundation of the UNFCCC and of GCOS Visualization by P. Rastner history ¦ organisation ¦ monitoring strategy ¦ website ¦ datasets

1998 Establishment of GTN-G under the lead of the WGMS Visualization by P. Rastner history ¦ organisation ¦ monitoring strategy ¦ website ¦ datasets

today Evaluation of GTN-G and its operational bodies (WGMS, NSIDC, GLIMS) Visualization by P. Rastner history ¦ organisation ¦ monitoring strategy ¦ website ¦ datasets

Global Terrestrial Network for Glaciers (GTN-G) Steering Committee Advisory BoardExecutive Board World Glacier Monitoring Service US National Snow and Ice Data Center Global Land Ice Measurements from Space 2.0 FTE0.1 FTE fluctuationsinventorydata hosting

SKYVIEW TERRAINVIEW history ¦ organisation ¦ monitoring strategy ¦ website ¦ datasets

GCOSGTOS TOPC ICSU WDS IUGG IACS UNFAO UNEPUNESCO WMO GLIMS RC CRYOCLIM GFCS IPCC GEOSS UNFCCC CliC EKK SCNAT WCRP ICSI IAHS CIG GRID/ARENDAL DEWA IHP CCS GK SEP SAC VAW/ETH CRYONET GTN-H GTN-P ICIMOD NVE PAGES NCCR-C FAGS WDC-G GTN-G WGMS GLIMS NSIDC PSFG TTS/WGI FoG GMBB GPC SCAR GLACIODYN CRYOCLIM GLOBGLACIER GLACIER_CCI WCRP GEO GCW GTN-G operating in between an international sky of acronyms and a scientific herd of buffalo history ¦ organisation ¦ monitoring strategy ¦ website ¦ datasets

relevant feasable understandable useful future-oriented coherent …observations must be …corresponding strategies must be …and the resulting products must be cost-effective „policy-related monitoring“ means that… history ¦ organisation ¦ monitoring strategy ¦ website ¦ datasets

GCOS Tiered Monitoring System A multi-level, integrative strategy combining: local process understanding with global coverage, in-situ measurements with remote sensing, and traditional observations with new technologies history ¦ organisation ¦ monitoring strategy ¦ website ¦ datasets

Global Terrestrial Network for Glaciers: strategy integrated / tiered observing strategy Tier 1: multi-component obs. system across environmental gradients Tier 2: process understanding and model calibration => extensive energy & mass balance studies Tier 3: regional indicators => mass change (stakes&pits, photogrammetry, LIDAR) Tier 4: regional representativeness => cumulative length change; DEM differencing Tier 5: global coverage => inventories (remote sensing/geoinformatics) main goals of long-term observations:  process understanding  model validation  change detection  impact assessments change detection:  rate of change  acceleration trends  pre-industrial variability  change patterns Haeberli et al. (2000) history ¦ organisation ¦ monitoring strategy ¦ website ¦ datasets

time base inventory repeat inventory fluctuations of glaciers mass balance length change area/volume/thickness change space glacier inventories mass balance length change area/volume/thickness change Time and space history ¦ organisation ¦ monitoring strategy ¦ website ¦ datasets

FoG WGMS WGI WGMS / NSIDC GLIMS NSIDC Glacier photos NSIDC One-stop data-portal on ¦ ¦ ¦

GTN-G datasets  WGMS (2013, and earlier versions): Fluctuations of Glaciers Database. World Glacier Monitoring Service, Zurich, Switzerland. DOI: /wgms-fog  WGMS and NSIDC (1989, updated 2012): World Glacier Inventory. Compiled and made available by the World Glacier Monitoring Service, Zurich, Switzerland, and the National Snow and Ice Data Center, Boulder CO, USA. DOI: /N5/NSIDC- WGI  NSIDC (2002, updated 2009): Glacier Photograph Collection. National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology, Boulder, Colorado, USA. DOI: /N5/NSIDC-GPC  GLIMS and NSIDC (2005, updated 2012). GLIMS Glacier Database. National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology, Boulder, Colorado, USA. DOI: /N5V98602  NSIDC (2014, and earlier versions): Glacier observations from NASA's Operation IceBridge Aircraft Missions.  Arendt et al. (2013): Randolph Glacier Inventory (v3.2): A dataset of global glacier outlines. Global Land Ice Measurements from Space, Boulder, Colorado, USA. history ¦ organisation ¦ monitoring strategy ¦ website ¦ datasets

GTN-G data policy  Endorsement of ICSU’s fundamental principal of full and open exchange of data and information for scientific and educational purposes.  One-year retention period is granted to allow all investigators and data contributors time to properly analyse, document, and publish their data and results before submitting them in standardized formats to GTN-G.  All data submitted to GTN-G are considered public domain for non- commercial use and are made digitally available at no costs.  The use of data and information from GTN-G requires acknowledgement to the respective GTN-G operational bodies (WGMS, NSIDC, GLIMS) and/or the original investigators and sponsoring agencies according to the available meta-information.  All GTN-G datasets come with citation recommendations and digital object identifiers. history ¦ organisation ¦ monitoring strategy ¦ website ¦ datasets

120 years of internationally coordinated glacier monitoring GTN-G is today’s organisational framework for the glacier data centers and services ¦ ¦ ¦ compilation and dissemination of standardized data about glacier distribution and changes