Current projects

Funding:

Swiss Polar Institute (SPI)

GIUZ PI:

Project PIs:

GIUZ Staff

Keywords:

Arctic, Greenland, permafrost, rockglaciers, dynamics

links

https://swisspolar.ch/spi-exploratory-grants-2019/#Isabelle_G%C3%A4rtner_Roer

Geographic focus:

Greenland

Arctic permafrost is currently undergoing rapid changes. While regions like Alaska, the Russian Arctic or Svalbard have several long-term monitoring sites, the knowledge on permafrost occurrence, thickness and change in general, and on rockglacier dynamics in particular, is limited for Greenland. Rockglaciers are distinct indicators for former and/or current permafrost occurrence, depending on their state of activity.
In the project “Rockglacier Dynamics on Disko Island (RockDynDisko)” we compile the first detailed information on rockglacier kinematics and dynamics on Disko Island, Greenland. With this study, we provide initial data from a region with special topo-climatic characteristics and which is not yet covered in global rockglacier analyses. We contribute data for a profound process understanding and the analysis of landform sensitivities to climatic forcing on a local scale.

Funding:

GIUZ PI:

Project PIs:

GIUZ Staff

A. Vieli

Keywords:

Glacier dynamics, debris-covered glaciers, long-term glacier evolution

Geographic focus:

Funding:

Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)

GIUZ PI:

Project PIs:

GIUZ Staff

A. Vieli, T. Bolch, N. Mölg, J. Ferguson

Keywords:

Long-term glacier evolution, mass balance, length variation, volume changes, surface movement

Geographic focus:

Switzerland

The aim of Swiss Glacier Monitoring Network is to effect long term observations of glacier variations in the Swiss Alps. The service is coordinated by the Cryospheric Commission of the Swiss Academy of Sciences (EKK/SCNAT) and maintained by the Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology at ETH Zürich (VAW/ETHZ) and the Universities of Fribourg and Zurich. The project receives long-term funding from the Federal Office for the Environment (BAFU), GCOS Schweiz and the Swiss Academy of Sciences.

Funding:

3G (Initially funded by Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship, UK)

GIUZ PI:

GIUZ Staff

G. Leysinger Vieli

Keywords:

Ice dynamics, ice sheet, internal layers, radio echo sounding, numerical modelling

Geographic focus:

Greenland/Antarctica

The aim of this project is to understand the influence of subglacial processes, such as melt, drainage events or basal freeze-on, upon englacial layer structure in the ice sheet, as observed in radio-echo-sounding data and thereby quantify former basal processes. To this aim, observed englacial layer architecture is simulated, using a time-dependent model capable of calculating tracers and isochrone layers within the ice, over regions where changing subglacial conditions are known to occur. 

Funding:

Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)

GIUZ PI:

M. Lüthi

Project PIs:

M. Lüthi, A. Vieli, D. Small

GIUZ Staff

M. Lüthi, A. Vieli, D. Small, R. Mercenier, C. Rohner

Keywords:

Glacier calving, ice dynamics, climate change

Geographic focus:

Western Greenland

The over-arching aim of the project is to understand and model the short and long-term calving dynamics of tidewater outlet glaciers and thereby derive a robust and physical based calving approach that is operational for larger scale 3D ice flow models. This aim will be accomplished by combining high resolution field and remote-sensing data on short-term calving dynamics of an outlet glacier draining from the Greenland ice sheet with detailed numerical modeling investigations based on fracture and damage approaches and validation of the final calving approach with records of its long-term (> 100 years) evolution.