ESA CCI CMUG Integration Meeting, Exeter, UK 2-4 June 2014 The importance of observations for understanding the role of glaciers in the Earth climate system - Glaciers_cci contributions to the internationally coordinated glacier monitoring efforts Michael Zemp Director WGMS, PD Dr. sc. nat. World Glacier Monitoring Service, Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Switzerland

Fiddlers Ferry coal fired power station near Liverpool, England Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters Global climate is changing…

1862 Findelengletscher, Switzerland, at its Little Ice Age maximum extent …so are glaciers around the globe Visualization of Findelengletscher, Zermatt, by P. Rastner

1894 F.-A. Forel ( ) initiates internationally coordinated glacier observations in 1894 …so are glaciers around the globe Visualization of Findelengletscher, Zermatt, by P. Rastner

2010 ESA Glaciers_cci Phase 1 …so are glaciers around the globe Visualization of Findelengletscher, Zermatt, by P. Rastner

impacts of glaciers changes on hazards, run-off, and sea level Photos by J. Alean.Photos by Focus Online and J. Alean. Thames Barrier. Photo from Wikimedia Commons. Male, Maledives. Photo from photos4travel.

Huss et al. (2014) intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion Observations are essential for - setting initial model conditions - comparing scenario ensembles with real development

 Climate-glacier processes  Glacier distribution  Glacier change rates  Secondary impacts Grand challenges in climate-glacier research About 200,000 glaciers distributed over the globe. intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion

FoG WGMS WGI WGMS / NSIDC GLIMS NSIDC Glacier photos NSIDC Internationally coordinated glacier monitoring ¦ ¦ ¦

intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion

c. 1,000 pages of documentation but not (yet) much data products!

Randolph Glacier “Inventory” intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion Huss & Farinotti (2012)

Randolph Dataset 2.0 WGI GLIMS Randolph DCW Randolph Dataset  by A. Arendt et al. (2012) from different source  main purpose: global SLR modelling  vector outlines of different levels of detail and quality  limited meta-data (e.g., time stamp, elevation range, length, classification) How to bridge to last mile to GLIMS database? intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion

How (fast) are glaciers changing? Gardner et al. (2013) intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion

Data sources: WGMS intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion

Data sources: WGMS intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion

Data sources: WGMS, Jacob et al The Alps intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion

Elevation changes from ICESat Gardner et al. (2013) intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion

Kääb et al. (2013) Elevation changes from ICESat intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion

Jaber and Rott (2012) Opportunities: o High spatial resolution o Covering entire mountain ranges Challenges: o Mountain topography o How bridging the last mile? intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion

 Glaciers observations are a fundamental requirement for assessing climate change impacts on glacier hazards, runoff, and global sea level rise.  Growing number of remote sensing data have a great potential for boosting glacier monitoring but requires additional capacities at the international data centers to tap the full potential of these data and to truly link traditional methods with new technologies.  Thereto, the explicit focus of ESA’s Glaciers_cci on monitoring is highly appreciated.  Phase 2 hopefully will produce less documentation but more data products! intro ¦ glacier distribution ¦ glacier changes ¦ conclusion