Vanishing Glaciers Of The Greater Himalaya - Photographic evidence

[gslack]

So freaking what? It doesn't save your last BS claim does it...

The point remains its often times melting and refreezing, with and with out snow... Again, you post bullshit and then bullshit to deflect it...

 

[RollingThunder]

So freaking what? It doesn't save your last BS claim does it...

The point remains its often times melting and refreezing, with and with out snow... Again, you post bullshit and then bullshit to deflect it...

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL......oh, you poor pathetic retard, your brain has melted down with the ice.

 

[westwall]

So freaking what? It doesn't save your last BS claim does it...

The point remains its often times melting and refreezing, with and with out snow... Again, you post bullshit and then bullshit to deflect it...

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL......oh, you poor pathetic retard, your brain has melted down with the ice.

What was that silly person? These are climbing guides i have used in the past and they are quite good. Note how they specifiy 2003 as a great climbing year because of the record heat that year. As per usual however, climbing on the matterhorn is allways a tricky thing.



"Snow is indeed a problem. In general, on the Matterhorn, the best and safest conditions are when the route is reasonably free of snow up to the Shoulder. Because the peak is so tall, even in mid-summer it can receive lots of new snow. And we have to wait for this to melt in order for it to come into condition.

Fortunately, in the middle of summer, the sun on the east face is quite warm, and if the weather is good vast amounts of snow can melt quite quickly. But it needs warm sunshine, and relatively little wind to reach these high snow-melting temperatures.

Typically, the first really warm days arrive sometime in June. But it takes some time for these early season days to clear all the winter and spring snow from the climb. In an exceptionally warm year, the peak can come into reasonable climbing condition in the latter part of June. But with a more normal season, it is not until mid-July that the route is more predictably in shape.

The end of the season usually comes in early September. Though there can still be quite nice weather in September, the sun is lower is the sky and has lost much of its snow melting power. If a late summer storm put down new snow on the peak, in the first few days of September, for example, there is a good chance that the peak will not come back into condition that year. But if the weather stays dry, the peak can remain in good climbing condition until the first of the fall season snows finally arrive.

There are also the inevitable mid-summer storms. Typically there are 2 or 3 of these each year in the months of July and August. They put down enough new snow to cause a break in the season - several days where the peak is not in reasonable condition. All we can do is wait for the sun to return and do its snow-melting job. 3 or 4 days of sun is typically needed, though this of course depends on how much snow fell, and how intense the sunshine might be.

From year to year we have seen tremendous variation in the number of days each summer when the Matterhorn has been in good condition. 2008 was a notoriously bad year, while in 2003, with its record heat wave, the climbing season on the Matterhorn started very early in June. Because conditions can go from bad to great in as few as 4 or 5 days, it is virtually impossible to predict conditions on any particular day. Typically the best season seems to be mid-July to early September. Remember, however, that there is great variability, and every year is different."





Matterhorn Alpine Climbing, Swiss Alps

 

[RollingThunder]

So freaking what? It doesn't save your last BS claim does it...

The point remains its often times melting and refreezing, with and with out snow... Again, you post bullshit and then bullshit to deflect it...

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL......oh, you poor pathetic retard, your brain has melted down with the ice.

What was that silly person? These are climbing guides i have used in the past and they are quite good. Note how they specifiy 2003 as a great climbing year because of the record heat that year. As per usual however, climbing on the matterhorn is allways a tricky thing.

"Snow is indeed a problem. In general, on the Matterhorn, the best and safest conditions are when the route is reasonably free of snow up to the Shoulder. Because the peak is so tall, even in mid-summer it can receive lots of new snow. And we have to wait for this to melt in order for it to come into condition.

Fortunately, in the middle of summer, the sun on the east face is quite warm, and if the weather is good vast amounts of snow can melt quite quickly. But it needs warm sunshine, and relatively little wind to reach these high snow-melting temperatures.

Typically, the first really warm days arrive sometime in June. But it takes some time for these early season days to clear all the winter and spring snow from the climb. In an exceptionally warm year, the peak can come into reasonable climbing condition in the latter part of June. But with a more normal season, it is not until mid-July that the route is more predictably in shape.

The end of the season usually comes in early September. Though there can still be quite nice weather in September, the sun is lower is the sky and has lost much of its snow melting power. If a late summer storm put down new snow on the peak, in the first few days of September, for example, there is a good chance that the peak will not come back into condition that year. But if the weather stays dry, the peak can remain in good climbing condition until the first of the fall season snows finally arrive.

There are also the inevitable mid-summer storms. Typically there are 2 or 3 of these each year in the months of July and August. They put down enough new snow to cause a break in the season - several days where the peak is not in reasonable condition. All we can do is wait for the sun to return and do its snow-melting job. 3 or 4 days of sun is typically needed, though this of course depends on how much snow fell, and how intense the sunshine might be.

From year to year we have seen tremendous variation in the number of days each summer when the Matterhorn has been in good condition. 2008 was a notoriously bad year, while in 2003, with its record heat wave, the climbing season on the Matterhorn started very early in June. Because conditions can go from bad to great in as few as 4 or 5 days, it is virtually impossible to predict conditions on any particular day. Typically the best season seems to be mid-July to early September. Remember, however, that there is great variability, and every year is different."

Matterhorn Alpine Climbing, Swiss Alps

And anther poor, confused, extremely deluded retard pops up.

Tell us walleyed, just what does your "climbing guide" info have to do the melting of the Alpine glaciers or the loss of 'permanent' ice from the Matterhorn? Or are you just too retarded to comprehend the difference between a 'good year for climbing' and "the heat is also being blamed for causing massive chunks of ice to break away from a glacier" and "last winter’s snow had disappeared so fast that the permafrost and glaciers were now being melted"?

Do you think it was a good year for skiing?

Putting a glacier under wraps at 2,900m (Keystone)

Glacier keeps its cool under high-tech blanket
(excerpts)

The Andermatt ski-lift company has laid a synthetic carpet over 2,500 square metres of glacier in a unique experiment to ward off the effects of global warming. The reflective high-tech material is designed to stop the Gurschen glacier from melting away beneath the resort’s upper cable-car station. The glacier has dropped 20 metres over the past 15 years, forcing the lift company to construct a snow ramp on top of it to give skiers access to the runs.

Resembling giant strips of toilet paper, the polyester and polypropylene material was rolled out across the ramp to stop it melting during the summer. If it proves successful, many other ski resorts in the Alps which also depend on rapidly shrinking glaciers, including Zermatt, Saas Fee and Engelberg, could follow Andermatt's example. According to the Swiss Academy of Sciences, 75 of the 90 glaciers measured in the Swiss Alps over the past two years receded.

 

[gslack]

So trolling ed the blunder, what activist group are you posting for?

 

[westwall]

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL......oh, you poor pathetic retard, your brain has melted down with the ice.

What was that silly person? These are climbing guides i have used in the past and they are quite good. Note how they specifiy 2003 as a great climbing year because of the record heat that year. As per usual however, climbing on the matterhorn is allways a tricky thing.

"Snow is indeed a problem. In general, on the Matterhorn, the best and safest conditions are when the route is reasonably free of snow up to the Shoulder. Because the peak is so tall, even in mid-summer it can receive lots of new snow. And we have to wait for this to melt in order for it to come into condition.

Fortunately, in the middle of summer, the sun on the east face is quite warm, and if the weather is good vast amounts of snow can melt quite quickly. But it needs warm sunshine, and relatively little wind to reach these high snow-melting temperatures.

Typically, the first really warm days arrive sometime in June. But it takes some time for these early season days to clear all the winter and spring snow from the climb. In an exceptionally warm year, the peak can come into reasonable climbing condition in the latter part of June. But with a more normal season, it is not until mid-July that the route is more predictably in shape.

The end of the season usually comes in early September. Though there can still be quite nice weather in September, the sun is lower is the sky and has lost much of its snow melting power. If a late summer storm put down new snow on the peak, in the first few days of September, for example, there is a good chance that the peak will not come back into condition that year. But if the weather stays dry, the peak can remain in good climbing condition until the first of the fall season snows finally arrive.

There are also the inevitable mid-summer storms. Typically there are 2 or 3 of these each year in the months of July and August. They put down enough new snow to cause a break in the season - several days where the peak is not in reasonable condition. All we can do is wait for the sun to return and do its snow-melting job. 3 or 4 days of sun is typically needed, though this of course depends on how much snow fell, and how intense the sunshine might be.

From year to year we have seen tremendous variation in the number of days each summer when the Matterhorn has been in good condition. 2008 was a notoriously bad year, while in 2003, with its record heat wave, the climbing season on the Matterhorn started very early in June. Because conditions can go from bad to great in as few as 4 or 5 days, it is virtually impossible to predict conditions on any particular day. Typically the best season seems to be mid-July to early September. Remember, however, that there is great variability, and every year is different."

Matterhorn Alpine Climbing, Swiss Alps

And anther poor, confused, extremely deluded retard pops up.

Tell us walleyed, just what does your "climbing guide" info have to do the melting of the Alpine glaciers or the loss of 'permanent' ice from the Matterhorn? Or are you just too retarded to comprehend the difference between a 'good year for climbing' and "the heat is also being blamed for causing massive chunks of ice to break away from a glacier" and "last winter’s snow had disappeared so fast that the permafrost and glaciers were now being melted"?

Do you think it was a good year for skiing?

Putting a glacier under wraps at 2,900m (Keystone)

Glacier keeps its cool under high-tech blanket
(excerpts)

The Andermatt ski-lift company has laid a synthetic carpet over 2,500 square metres of glacier in a unique experiment to ward off the effects of global warming. The reflective high-tech material is designed to stop the Gurschen glacier from melting away beneath the resort’s upper cable-car station. The glacier has dropped 20 metres over the past 15 years, forcing the lift company to construct a snow ramp on top of it to give skiers access to the runs.

Resembling giant strips of toilet paper, the polyester and polypropylene material was rolled out across the ramp to stop it melting during the summer. If it proves successful, many other ski resorts in the Alps which also depend on rapidly shrinking glaciers, including Zermatt, Saas Fee and Engelberg, could follow Andermatt's example. According to the Swiss Academy of Sciences, 75 of the 90 glaciers measured in the Swiss Alps over the past two years receded.

Really? An article from 2005? That's the best you can do?

 

[skookerasbil]

Hey Thunder..............news flash.........this just in....................

THE MATTERHORN MELTED LAST NIGHT!!!!

 

[RollingThunder]

Here's some excerpts from another article, apparently written by a MSNBC staff committee with at least one member who unfortunately is not completely informed on current climate science, but overall it's fairly accurate and it features some good pictures of one of the retreating Swiss alpine glaciers. The actual reports from the Swiss scientists contained in the article are self explanatory.

Swiss glaciers continue shrinking, report finds
84 of 91 tracked by scientists retreated in 2005
MSNBC
msnbc.com staff and news service reports
2/10/2006
(excerpts)

ZURICH, Switzerland — Swiss scientists keeping track of dozens of glaciers have delivered more bad news: Warmer and drier weather tied to climate change continues to melt Switzerland's treasured natural gems. Of the 91 glaciers being tracked, 84 had retreated in 2005 compared to a year earlier, according to a study by the Swiss Academy of Sciences. The other seven did not change. The report, released Wednesday, follows earlier ones documenting a long-term melt, posing a threat to Switzerland’s thriving winter sports industry. One ski resort has even wrapped part of its shrinking ice-cap in a giant blanket to try to reduce the summer melt. Scientists in other parts of the world with glaciers have identified a global pattern. While some glaciers are growing, many more are in retreat.

The Trift glacier in central Switzerland saw the biggest change last year, retreating by more than 600 feet.

Switzerland’s Trift glacier retreated by more than 600 feet between
2004, left, and 2005. (Swiss Academy of Sciences)

Not only did glaciers lose length, their volume also diminished. The height of three glaciers closely studied in the survey had shrunk by between 27.5 inches and 5.6 feet, predominantly through lower than average snowfall during the 2004-2005 winter season. The 91 glaciers being tracked are the largest of 1,800 glaciers in Switzerland.

© 2011 msnbc.com

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

 

[Old Rocks]

NASA

Sizing Up the Earth's Glaciers (DAAC Study) : Feature Articles

June 22, 2004

Title graphic image: South Cascade Glacier in the Washington Cascade Mountains, in 1928, 1979, and 2000 (Images courtesy of the National Snow and Ice Data Center)

 

[Old Rocks]

What was that silly person? These are climbing guides i have used in the past and they are quite good. Note how they specifiy 2003 as a great climbing year because of the record heat that year. As per usual however, climbing on the matterhorn is allways a tricky thing.

"Snow is indeed a problem. In general, on the Matterhorn, the best and safest conditions are when the route is reasonably free of snow up to the Shoulder. Because the peak is so tall, even in mid-summer it can receive lots of new snow. And we have to wait for this to melt in order for it to come into condition.

Fortunately, in the middle of summer, the sun on the east face is quite warm, and if the weather is good vast amounts of snow can melt quite quickly. But it needs warm sunshine, and relatively little wind to reach these high snow-melting temperatures.

Typically, the first really warm days arrive sometime in June. But it takes some time for these early season days to clear all the winter and spring snow from the climb. In an exceptionally warm year, the peak can come into reasonable climbing condition in the latter part of June. But with a more normal season, it is not until mid-July that the route is more predictably in shape.

The end of the season usually comes in early September. Though there can still be quite nice weather in September, the sun is lower is the sky and has lost much of its snow melting power. If a late summer storm put down new snow on the peak, in the first few days of September, for example, there is a good chance that the peak will not come back into condition that year. But if the weather stays dry, the peak can remain in good climbing condition until the first of the fall season snows finally arrive.

There are also the inevitable mid-summer storms. Typically there are 2 or 3 of these each year in the months of July and August. They put down enough new snow to cause a break in the season - several days where the peak is not in reasonable condition. All we can do is wait for the sun to return and do its snow-melting job. 3 or 4 days of sun is typically needed, though this of course depends on how much snow fell, and how intense the sunshine might be.

From year to year we have seen tremendous variation in the number of days each summer when the Matterhorn has been in good condition. 2008 was a notoriously bad year, while in 2003, with its record heat wave, the climbing season on the Matterhorn started very early in June. Because conditions can go from bad to great in as few as 4 or 5 days, it is virtually impossible to predict conditions on any particular day. Typically the best season seems to be mid-July to early September. Remember, however, that there is great variability, and every year is different."

Matterhorn Alpine Climbing, Swiss Alps

And anther poor, confused, extremely deluded retard pops up.

Tell us walleyed, just what does your "climbing guide" info have to do the melting of the Alpine glaciers or the loss of 'permanent' ice from the Matterhorn? Or are you just too retarded to comprehend the difference between a 'good year for climbing' and "the heat is also being blamed for causing massive chunks of ice to break away from a glacier" and "last winter’s snow had disappeared so fast that the permafrost and glaciers were now being melted"?

Do you think it was a good year for skiing?

Putting a glacier under wraps at 2,900m (Keystone)

Glacier keeps its cool under high-tech blanket
(excerpts)

The Andermatt ski-lift company has laid a synthetic carpet over 2,500 square metres of glacier in a unique experiment to ward off the effects of global warming. The reflective high-tech material is designed to stop the Gurschen glacier from melting away beneath the resort’s upper cable-car station. The glacier has dropped 20 metres over the past 15 years, forcing the lift company to construct a snow ramp on top of it to give skiers access to the runs.

Resembling giant strips of toilet paper, the polyester and polypropylene material was rolled out across the ramp to stop it melting during the summer. If it proves successful, many other ski resorts in the Alps which also depend on rapidly shrinking glaciers, including Zermatt, Saas Fee and Engelberg, could follow Andermatt's example. According to the Swiss Academy of Sciences, 75 of the 90 glaciers measured in the Swiss Alps over the past two years receded.

Really? An article from 2005? That's the best you can do?

What a dumb fuck you continue to be, Walleyes.

Alps Glacier Watch for Summer 2011, snowHeads ski forum

Reflecting on rapidly changing glaciers in the Alps | Into the Mountains

It didn’t stop us from having an amazing climb up perfect granite to the summit of the Aiguille Sans Nom, followed by some ridge climbing down the easterly ridge of the Aiguilles Dorées (Golden Needles) and some rappels back to the Trient glacier. We had an amazing week with great weather and I was in great company with Michele. Yet, I can’t brush off the images of the once-huge glacier that I knew and wonder how much longer it will be around for us to see and marvel at. We used to look at pictures from the 1920s to see how much glaciers had shrunk. But now you just need five years time to no longer recognize a location you thought you knew. I don’t have a solution, of course, but this was a reality check I thought I should share.

Zeeburg Nieuws / Climate Change / Mountain glaciers are melting

Vienna, October 10 2011 - Austrian glaciers are loosing continouesly mass: each summer the melt is larger than the amount of snow added during wintertime. Although the summer of 2011 was on average not very hot, are the mass losses however comparable with those in the hottest sommer on record for Austria and the Alpian region: 2003.

The glaciers of the Alps continue to melt. And retards like Walleyes continue to shill for the big energy companies that would extract the last bit of profit before plunging us all into catastrophe.

 

[skookerasbil]

 

[skookerasbil]

LMAO....................

Here is a photo of the Matterhorn taken this SUMMER!!!! ( Ive included the link from the visitors tour with photo's)

Photos of a backpacker: Interrail Europe - Summer 2011 - Zermatt


What the environmental nutters try to do all over the internet is put out a PR Dog and Pony Show. On this thread, they post up some bogus photos of the Matterhorn leading people to believe the mountain is sweating it's ass off!!! They do this shit all the time........with polar bears, glaciers, icebergs...............canned photo's to try to do what they are intended to do: alarm the shit out of the viewer. Alot of people see shit like this and take it at face value because thats what a lot of people do. Very impressionable............

Again however, note that the above photo was taken in the summer of THIS YEAR in Zermatt Switzerland. And if you back up a few posts in this thread, you see a photo of the Matterhorn in wintertime.

Clearly...........a totally white Matterhorn indicates the mountain is burning up!!!

 

[skookerasbil]

 

[skookerasbil]

 

[RollingThunder]

As usual, the anti-science denier cultists live in a two-valued, black and white world where it is either all one way or all the opposite way. LOL. In their oversimplified and rather moronic world, if the Matterhorn still has any snow on it at all and it is not totally bare, then everything is fine and there is no problem. In the real world the changes can be more complex and less obvious.

Global warning strikes the Matterhorn
July 26, 2006
PhysOrg.com
(excerpts)

Global warming is reportedly having a dramatic effect on the Matterhorn in the European Alps, with landslides and flaking becoming more numerous. The landslides are being caused by retreating ice cover, with zero temperatures now found only above approximately 13,000 feet (4,000 meters), global warming expert Michele Comi told the Italian news agency ANSA. "This means that all the rock fractures generally held together by the ice, which acts as a glue, give way because the ice melts, leading to a situation of instability" said Comi. "Geologically speaking, the process is normal. What isn't normal is the acceleration of these phenomena. "The classic ice-and-snow-climbing routes aren't accessible in July any more. That is a huge anomaly," Comi added.

Stefano Mayr of Mountain Wilderness Italia said the effects of global warming are obvious. "All you have to do is take a climbing guide from 15 years ago," Mayr told ANSA. "A spot that is described in the book as a snow-covered ridge is now gravel."

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

 

[gslack]

SPAM! SPAM! SPAM!

 

[westwall]

And anther poor, confused, extremely deluded retard pops up.

Tell us walleyed, just what does your "climbing guide" info have to do the melting of the Alpine glaciers or the loss of 'permanent' ice from the Matterhorn? Or are you just too retarded to comprehend the difference between a 'good year for climbing' and "the heat is also being blamed for causing massive chunks of ice to break away from a glacier" and "last winter’s snow had disappeared so fast that the permafrost and glaciers were now being melted"?

Do you think it was a good year for skiing?

Putting a glacier under wraps at 2,900m (Keystone)

Glacier keeps its cool under high-tech blanket
(excerpts)

The Andermatt ski-lift company has laid a synthetic carpet over 2,500 square metres of glacier in a unique experiment to ward off the effects of global warming. The reflective high-tech material is designed to stop the Gurschen glacier from melting away beneath the resort’s upper cable-car station. The glacier has dropped 20 metres over the past 15 years, forcing the lift company to construct a snow ramp on top of it to give skiers access to the runs.

Resembling giant strips of toilet paper, the polyester and polypropylene material was rolled out across the ramp to stop it melting during the summer. If it proves successful, many other ski resorts in the Alps which also depend on rapidly shrinking glaciers, including Zermatt, Saas Fee and Engelberg, could follow Andermatt's example. According to the Swiss Academy of Sciences, 75 of the 90 glaciers measured in the Swiss Alps over the past two years receded.

Really? An article from 2005? That's the best you can do?

What a dumb fuck you continue to be, Walleyes.

Alps Glacier Watch for Summer 2011, snowHeads ski forum

Reflecting on rapidly changing glaciers in the Alps | Into the Mountains

It didn’t stop us from having an amazing climb up perfect granite to the summit of the Aiguille Sans Nom, followed by some ridge climbing down the easterly ridge of the Aiguilles Dorées (Golden Needles) and some rappels back to the Trient glacier. We had an amazing week with great weather and I was in great company with Michele. Yet, I can’t brush off the images of the once-huge glacier that I knew and wonder how much longer it will be around for us to see and marvel at. We used to look at pictures from the 1920s to see how much glaciers had shrunk. But now you just need five years time to no longer recognize a location you thought you knew. I don’t have a solution, of course, but this was a reality check I thought I should share.

Zeeburg Nieuws / Climate Change / Mountain glaciers are melting

Vienna, October 10 2011 - Austrian glaciers are loosing continouesly mass: each summer the melt is larger than the amount of snow added during wintertime. Although the summer of 2011 was on average not very hot, are the mass losses however comparable with those in the hottest sommer on record for Austria and the Alpian region: 2003.

The glaciers of the Alps continue to melt. And retards like Walleyes continue to shill for the big energy companies that would extract the last bit of profit before plunging us all into catastrophe.

Nope, you can't use an activist blog MENSA boy. Only peer reviewed studies are allowed as per your requirements.

 

[westwall]

As usual, the anti-science denier cultists live in a two-valued, black and white world where it is either all one way or all the opposite way. LOL. In their oversimplified and rather moronic world, if the Matterhorn still has any snow on it at all and it is not totally bare, then everything is fine and there is no problem. In the real world the changes can be more complex and less obvious.

Global warning strikes the Matterhorn
July 26, 2006
PhysOrg.com
(excerpts)

Global warming is reportedly having a dramatic effect on the Matterhorn in the European Alps, with landslides and flaking becoming more numerous. The landslides are being caused by retreating ice cover, with zero temperatures now found only above approximately 13,000 feet (4,000 meters), global warming expert Michele Comi told the Italian news agency ANSA. "This means that all the rock fractures generally held together by the ice, which acts as a glue, give way because the ice melts, leading to a situation of instability" said Comi. "Geologically speaking, the process is normal. What isn't normal is the acceleration of these phenomena. "The classic ice-and-snow-climbing routes aren't accessible in July any more. That is a huge anomaly," Comi added.

Stefano Mayr of Mountain Wilderness Italia said the effects of global warming are obvious. "All you have to do is take a climbing guide from 15 years ago," Mayr told ANSA. "A spot that is described in the book as a snow-covered ridge is now gravel."

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

What was that spambot? Did you say something? I see a story from 2006. We have a photo taken a few days ago. Guess what the real people without a political/religious agenda are going to pay attention to? Yep, they're going to look at the photo and say "those alarmists are fruits, best to ignore them..." Which they are doing in RECORD numbers!

And for that, we thank you (credit to Daniel Tosh)!

 

[Old Rocks]

Well, Ol' Walleyes, you asked for recent observations of the Alps. Both are current observations of conditions there from people that use that area.

The discovery of the ruins of ice: The birth of glacier research | Guest Blog, Scientific American Blog Network

These records showed various fluctuations, but from 1850 onward a general trend of recession of glaciers in the Alps is observable. This trend has experienced a strong increase in the last 50 years, causing concern for the fast change in the landscape, the destabilisation of the rock walls once supported by the melting glaciers and the alteration of the discharge and hydrology of mountain ranges, not to mention the lost of aesthetic value of the “ruins of ice.”

 

[Old Rocks]

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20030025392_2003026276.pdf

ABSTRACT
The tongue of the Pasterze Glacier in the eastern Alps of Austria receded more than 1 152
m from 1880 to 200 1. Landsat and Ikonos satellite data from 1976 to 200 1, topographic
maps beginning in 1893 and ground measurements were studied. Results show that
though satellite images significantly underestimate the width of the Pasterze Glacier
tongue due to the presence of morainal material on the surface, they provide an excellent
way to measure the recession of the exposed-ice part of the glacier tongue. The rate of
change of the terminus as determined using satellite data is found to compare well with
ground measurements. Between 1976 and 200 1, Landsat-derived measurements show a
recession of the terminus of the Pasterze Glacier of 479 +113 rn (at an average rate of
18.4 m a-') while measurements from the ground showed a recession of 428 m (at an
average recession of 17.1 m a-I). Ikonos satellite images from 2000 and 200 1 reveal
changes in the exposed ice part of the Pasterze tongue, and a decrease in area of the
exposed ice part of the tongue of 22,096 m2. GPS points and a ground survey of the
glacier terminus in August 200 1 were plotted on a 1 -m resolution Ikonos image, and
showed the actual terminus shape and location. The nearby Kleines FleiDkees glacier lost