scholarly journals Glaciers, snow and ski tourism in Austria’s changing climate

2011 ◽  
Vol 52 (58) ◽  
pp. 89-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Fischer ◽  
Marc Olefs ◽  
Jakob Abermann
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
Snow Cover ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
Adaptation Measures ◽  
Glacier Surface ◽  
Ski Resort ◽  
Ski Resorts ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Natural Snow

AbstarctThis study illustrates the relevance of cryospheric changes for, and their impact on, ski tourism in Austria. The results of several case studies on snow reliability, snow production and mass balance in glacier ski resorts in the Ötz and Stubai valleys are summarized. Climate data from Obergurgl (1936ma.s.l.) in the Ötz valley are analyzed with respect to the amount and duration of natural snow cover and the possibility of snow production. A case study on Mittelbergferner focuses on the impacts of glacial recession on a ski resort and possible adaptation measures. From long-term glacier inventory and short-term mass-balance data, the effect of operating ski resorts on glaciers is investigated. At Obergurgl, the probability of both snow cover and snow production is >80% from December to March and decreases significantly in the months before and after this peak season. The interannual variability of snow cover and production is low during the main season and higher in other months. Year-to-year differences are larger than any long-term trend. Glacier ski resorts must adapt to shrinking glacial area and falling glacier surface. Covering the glacier with textiles reduces ablation by 60% and results in significantly less volume loss than on uncovered parts of the glacier. Neither the mass-balance comparison between groomed and ungroomed areas nor the comparison of long-term volume changes between 10 ski resort glaciers and 100 surrounding glaciers showed evidence for an impact of the operation of ski resorts on the glaciers.

scholarly journals Past changes in natural and managed snow reliability of French Alps ski resorts from 1961 to 2018

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas Berard-Chenu ◽  
Hugues François ◽  
Emmanuelle George ◽  
Samuel Morin
Keyword(s):  
Snow Cover ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Winter Season ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Climatic Impact ◽  
Ski Resort ◽  
French Alps ◽  
Ski Resorts ◽  
Lower Elevation

Abstract. Snow reliability is a key climatic impact driver for the ski tourism industry, for which there is more literature regarding future projections than past observed impacts. This study provides an assessment of past changes in natural and managed snow cover reliability from 1961 to 2018 in the French Alps. In particular, we used snowmaking investment figures to infer the evolution of snowmaking coverage at the ski resort scale for 16 ski resorts in the French Alps. We find different benefits of snow management to reduce the variability and long term decrease in snow cover reliability because of the heterogeneity of the snowmaking deployment trajectories across ski resorts. The frequency of challenging conditions for ski resort operation over the 1991–2018 period increased in November and February to April compared to the reference period 1961–1990. In general, snowmaking had a positive impact on snow reliability, especially in December to January. While for the highest elevation ski resorts, snowmaking improved snow reliability for the core of the winter season, it did not counterbalance the decreasing trend in snow cover reliability for lower elevation ski resorts and in the spring.

Artificial Snowmaking: Winter Sports Between State-Owned Company Policy and Tourist Demand

2020 ◽  
pp. 109634802095707
Author(s):  
Marko Joksimović ◽  
Mirjana Gajić ◽  
Snežana Vujadinović ◽  
Jelena Milenković ◽  
Vladimir Malinić
Keyword(s):  
Climatic Factors ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Winter Sports ◽  
Ski Resort ◽  
Ski Resorts ◽  
Company Policy ◽  
Owned Company ◽  
Natural Snow ◽  
Tourist Demand

Due to changing climatic conditions, artificial snowmaking has become a major method of ski resort adaptation globally. It is a financially intensive operation requiring high start-up investment and involving operating costs that are dependent on weather conditions. Operational costs and the expansion of artificial snowmaking systems increase the price of ski passes. In our work, we analyzed the operations of a public company that operates the largest ski resorts in Serbia and directs the flow of winter sports tourism. We tried to determine, by means of correlation, the extent to which ski pass prices in the biggest winter resort in Serbia are influenced by factors such as natural snow cover, number of tourist overnights, ski run length, and local wages. The results of the survey indicate an increasing transformation of the ski resort into a thematic attraction independent of climatic factors in terms of determining ski pass prices.

scholarly journals Meteorological controls on glacier mass balance: empirical relations suggested by measurements on glacier de Sarennes, France

1997 ◽  
Vol 43 (143) ◽  
pp. 131-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Vincent ◽  
M. Vallon
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
Time Scale ◽  
Meteorological Data ◽  
Empirical Relation ◽  
Glacier Mass Balance ◽  
Glacier Surface ◽  
Surface Conditions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Empirical Relations

AbstractGlacial mass-balance reconstruction for a long-term time-scale requires knowledge of the relation between climate change and mass-balance fluctuations. A large number of mass-balance reconstructions since the beginning of the century are based on statistical relations between monthly meteorological data and mass balance. The question examined in this paper is: are these relationships reliable enough for long-term time-scale extrapolation? From the glacier de Sarennes long mass-balance observations series, we were surprised to discover large discrepancies between relations resulting from different time periods. The importance of the albedo in relation to ablation and mass balance is highlighted, and it is shown that it is impossible to ignore glacier-surface conditions in establishing the empirical relation between mass-balance fluctuations and climatic variation; to omit this parameter leads to incorrect results for mass-balance reconstruction in the past based on meteorological data.

The impact of climate on risk of mania

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. S74-S74
Author(s):  
C.R. Medici ◽  
C.H. Vestergaard ◽  
D. Hadzi-Pavlovic ◽  
P. Munk-Jørgensen ◽  
G. Parker
Keyword(s):  
Ultraviolet Radiation ◽  
Snow Cover ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
Unobserved Component ◽  
Competing Interest ◽  
Unobserved Component Model ◽  
Danish Meteorological Institute ◽  
The Impact

IntroductionBipolar disorder varies with season: admissions for depression peak in winter and mania peak in summer. Sunlight presumably increases the risk of mania through suppression of melatonin. If so, we expect admissions for mania to vary in accordance with climate variations.ObjectivesTo investigate how climate and climate changes affects admissions for mania.AimsTo identify which climate variables – sunshine, ultraviolet radiation, rain and snow cover – affect admissions for mania.To examine whether year-to-year weather variation as well as long-term climate changes reflects the variation in number of admissions for mania.MethodsThis register-based nationwide cohort study covers all patients admitted for mania (ICD-10 code F31 or F30.0–F30.2) between 1995 and 2012 in Denmark. Climate data, obtained from the Danish Meteorological Institute, were merged with admission data and correlated using an Unobserved Component Model regression model.Preliminary resultsIn total, 8893 patients were admitted 24,313 times between 1995 and 2012: 6573 first-admissions and 17,740 readmissions. Linear regression shows significant association between admissions per day and hours of sunshine (P < 0.01) and ultraviolet radiation (UV) dose (P < 0.01). Average days with snow cover and rain were not significantly correlated with admissions. Analyses on year-to-year variation and long-term change are not yet available.Preliminary conclusionsAdmissions for mania are correlated with sunshine and UV, but not rain and snow cover. If more patients are admitted during very sunny summers compared with less sunny summers this implies a relation with light itself and not just season.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

scholarly journals Long-term records of glacier surface velocities in the Ötztal Alps (Austria)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Stocker-Waldhuber ◽  
Andrea Fischer ◽  
Kay Helfricht ◽  
Michael Kuhn
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
Glacier Mass Balance ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Climatic Forcing ◽  
Glacier Surface ◽  
Ice Flow ◽  
Strong Indicator ◽  
Length Changes ◽  
Flow Velocities

Abstract. Climatic forcing affects glacier mass balance and ice flow dynamics on different time scales, resulting in length changes. Mass Balance and length changes are operationally used for glacier monitoring, whereas only a few time series of glacier dynamics have been recorded. With more than 100 years of measurements of ice flow velocities at stakes and stone lines on Hintereisferner and more than 50 years on Kesselwandferner, annual velocity and glacier fluctuation records have similar lengths. Subseasonal variations of ice flow velocities have been measured on Gepatschferner and Taschachferner for nearly a decade. The ice flow velocities on Hintereisferner and especially on Kesselwandferner show great variations between advancing and retreating periods, with magnitudes increasing from the highest to the lowest stakes, making ice flow records at ablation stakes a very sensitive indicator of glacier state. Since the end of the latest glacier advances from the 1970s to the 1980s, the ice flow velocities have decreased continuously, a strong indicator of the negative mass balances of the glaciers in recent decades. The velocity data sets of the four glaciers are available at https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.896741.

scholarly journals Glaciological response to distal tephra fallout from the 1947 eruption of Hekla, south Iceland

2003 ◽  
Vol 49 (166) ◽  
pp. 420-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin P. Kirkbride ◽  
Andrew J. Dugmore
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
Ablation Rate ◽  
Spatial Variations ◽  
Glacier Surface ◽  
Western Margin ◽  
Eastern Margin ◽  
Maritime Climate ◽  
Tephra Fallout

AbstractGlacier responses to tephra deposition are shown to be highly variable where wind-transported eruption plumes produce narrow distal fallout zones with steep lateral thickness gradients. Significant but short-lived advances of faster-flowing glaciers can be triggered by deposition from modest eruptions. The 1947 eruption of Hekla, south Iceland, covered nearby glaciers with variable thicknesses of tephra, causing dramatic spatial variations in ablation rate. Relative snow ablation increased by an estimated >80% at the eastern margin of Eyjafjallajökull, but decreased by >54% at the western margin. Relative ice ablation increased by only 4% in the east but decreased by >75% at the western margin, only 15 km distant. The effect on mass balance therefore depends on tephra distribution as well as on the nature of the glacier surface. On Gígjökull, retardation of ablationwas greatest at the terminus, associated with an anomalous advance of ≥328 m between 1947 and 1954. Other glaciers in the fallout zone show either no recognizable response, or accelerated retreat. Advances will be short-lived due to the rapid redistribution of supraglacial tephra in a maritime climate, and the potential for discriminating between volcanically and climatically forced advances in the glacio-geomorphological record is low. The long-term glaciological effect of volcanism is to create thin, low-albedo covers after reworking, which make conditions less favourable for glaciation.

scholarly journals A long-term Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent data record for climate studies and monitoring

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 669-691 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. W. Estilow ◽  
A. H. Young ◽  
D. A. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Snow Cover ◽  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Climatic Data ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
Snow Cover Extent ◽  
Data Record ◽  
Climate Data Record ◽  
Climate Studies

Abstract. This paper describes the long-term, satellite-based visible snow cover extent NOAA climate data record (CDR) currently available for climate studies, monitoring, and model validation. This environmental data product is developed from weekly Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent data that have been digitized from snow cover maps onto a Cartesian grid draped over a polar stereographic projection. The data has a spatial resolution of 190.5 km at 60 ° latitude, are updated monthly, and span from 4 October 1966 to present. The data comprise the longest satellite-based CDR of any environmental variable. Access to the data are provided in netCDF format and are archived by the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) under the satellite climate data record program (doi:10.7289/V5N014G9). The basic characteristics, history, and evolution of the dataset are presented herein. In general, the CDR provides similar spatial and temporal variability as its widely used predecessor product. Key refinements to the new CDR improve the product's grid accuracy and documentation, and bring metadata into compliance with current standards for climate data records.

scholarly journals Deriving mass balance and calving variations from reanalysis data and sparse observations, Glaciar San Rafael, northern Patagonia, 1950–2005

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 791-808 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Koppes ◽  
H. Conway ◽  
L. A. Rasmussen ◽  
M. Chernos
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
Glacier Surface ◽  
Total Mass Loss ◽  
Short Period ◽  
San Rafael ◽  
Topographic Constraints

Abstract. Mass balance variations of Glaciar San Rafael, the northernmost tidewater glacier in the Southern Hemisphere, are reconstructed over the period 1950–2005 using NCEP-NCAR reanalysis climate data together with sparse, local historical observations of air temperature, precipitation, accumulation, ablation, thinning, calving, and glacier retreat. The combined observations over the past 50 yr indicate that Glaciar San Rafael has thinned and retreated since 1959, with a total mass loss of ~22 km3 of ice eq. Over that period, except for a short period of cooling from 1998–2003, the climate has become progressively warmer and drier, which has resulted primarily in pervasive thinning of the glacier surface and a decrease in calving rates, with only minor acceleration in retreat of the terminus. A comparison of calving fluxes derived from the mass balance variations and from theoretical calving and sliding laws suggests that calving rates are inversely correlated with retreat rates, and that terminus geometry is more important than balance fluxes to the terminus in driving calving dynamics. For Glaciar San Rafael, regional climate warming has not yet resulted in the significant changes in glacier length seen in other calving glaciers in the region, emphasizing the complex dynamics between climate inputs, topographic constraints and glacier response in calving glacier systems.

20th-century climate change inferred from four long-term point observations of seasonal mass balance

2009 ◽  
Vol 50 (50) ◽  
pp. 207-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Huss ◽  
Andreas Bauder
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Mass Balance ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Heat Budget ◽  
Balance Model ◽  
Climatic Forcing ◽  
Glacier Surface ◽  
Temperature Index ◽  
Air Temperatures

AbstractFour long-term time series of seasonal mass-balance observations, all starting in 1914, have been compiled for two stakes on Claridenfirn and one stake on Grosser Aletschgletscher and Silvrettagletscher, Switzerland. These data represent the longest records of mass balance worldwide. A mass-balance model based on the temperature-index approach is used to correct field data for varying observation dates and data gaps and to separate accumulation and ablation. The homogenized continuous 93 year time series cover most of the 20th century and enable us to investigate temporal, regional and altitudinal variability in mass balance and changes in the climatic forcing on glaciers. A high-altitude site shows summer balance trends opposite to those at three stakes located near the equilibrium line. Since 1975, melt rates have increased by 10%(10 a)−1 periods of enhanced climatic forcing are detected: 1943–53 and 1987–2007. The energy consumed for melt was higher in the 1940s despite lower air temperatures compared to the years since 1987. We find evidence for a change in the glacier surface heat budget, which has important implications for the long-term stability of degree-day factors in empirical temperature-index modelling.

scholarly journals Long-Term Deceleration of Glaciers in the Eastern Nyainqentanglha Mountains, Southeastern Tibetan Plateau, Revealed from Landsat Images

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 2387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiyou Fu ◽  
Jianmin Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
Meteorological Data ◽  
Significant Rise ◽  
Surface Velocity ◽  
Landsat Images ◽  
Glacier Surface ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
Glacier Velocity ◽  
The Relationship

Temperate glaciers are very sensitive to variations in temperature and precipitation, and thus represent a good indicator of climate change. By exploiting complete Landsat archives during periods of 1988–1990, 2000–2002 and 2014–2016, we derived three velocity maps of the temperate glaciers on the eastern Nyainqêntanglha Mountains in southeastern Tibetan to reveal the long-term changes of glacier surface velocity. Our results show that all the investigated glaciers experienced deceleration, with rates of deceleration varying from 4.15% to 29.8% per decade during the period from 1988–1990 to 2014–2016, showing heterogeneous deceleration patterns. A significant rise in temperature and an insignificant decrease in precipitation was found from the meteorological data of the nearby meteorological station. The region-wide deceleration of glaciers was, thus, attributed to the negative mass balance induced mainly by the rise in temperature. The averaged rates of deceleration for periods from 1988–1990 to 2000–2002 and from 2000–2002 to 2014–2016 are 20.97% and 22.02% per decade, respectively, indicating a nearly even speed of deceleration in velocities during study periods. The nearly even speed of deceleration in velocities and the accelerating mass loss trend from periods before the 2000s to after the 2000s highlighted the complexity of the relationship between mass balance and glacier velocity.

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