Snow Cover Dynamics and Mass Balance on Mountain Glaciers

冰川导致海平面上升，并影响当地和区域的供水。此外，它们是气候变化的非常明显的指标。山区冰川及其质量变化特别难以测量和探测，主要是因为后勤条件不方便。因此，我们每年只报告少数冰川的整体质量平衡信息，研究人员据此推断较大和未观察到的区域具有相当大的不确定性。这种不令人满意的情况下，可以大大改善时，分析质量和能量通量，驱动冰川变化使用（空间）分布式建模在高时间分辨率。需要克服的最大未知数是积雪从降水发展到风引起的再分布和致密化，最后是退化。积雪的季节性持续时间取决于这些过程，并通过其对阳光的高反射率，控制着冰川的健康状况。理论和对过程的理解已经很先进，模型已经准备好进行测试和使用，但缺少相应的测量。我们将把来自因斯布鲁克大学、埃尔朗根-纽伦堡大学和萨斯喀彻温大学的团队成员的专业知识与奥地利奥兹塔尔阿尔卑斯山的后勤合适、数据丰富、设备齐全的Hintereisferner相结合，开发和校准模型工具，推动质量平衡研究在冰川学上向前迈出一大步。我们的目标是减少估计海平面上升和区域供水的不确定性，并获得一个研究工具，使我们能够了解冰川气候的相互作用，在世界各地不同的山地冰川设置的全部复杂性。

Glaciers contribute to sea level rise and to local and regional water supply. Moreover, they are highly evident indicators of climatechange. Mountain glaciers and their mass changes are particularly difficult to measure and to detect, mostly for inconvenient logistical circumstances. As a result, only from few glaciers we have annually reported bulk mass balance information from which researchers extrapolate to larger and unobserved regions with considerable uncertainties. This unsatisfying situation can be substantially improved when analyzing the mass and energy fluxes that drive glacier changes using (spatially) distributed modeling at high temporal resolution. The largest unknown to be overcome is the development of the snow cover from precipitation to wind induced redistribution and densification and, finally, its degradation. The seasonal duration of the snow cover depends on these processes and, through its high reflectivity against sunshine, dominates the wellbeing of a glacier. Theory and understanding of processes is well advanced and models are ready to be tested and used, yet respective measurements are missing. We will combine the expertise of our team members from the Universities of Innsbruck, Erlangen-Nuremberg and Saskatchewan with the logistically suitable, data rich, and well equipped Hintereisferner in the Ötztal Alps, Austria, for developing and calibrating the model tools that can push mass balance studies a large step forward in glaciology. We aim at reducing the uncertainties in estimating sea level rise and regional water supply and at obtaining a research tool that allows us to understand glacier-climate interactions in the full complexity of diverse mountain glacier settings all around the world.