Regional Assessments of Glacier Mass Change (RAGMAC)

(2020 – 2024)

Working Group co-chairs

Michael Zemp, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Matthias H. Braun, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
Fanny Brun, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, France
Alex Gardner, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA
Bert Wouters, Institute for Marine and Atmosphere Research and Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
Geir Moholdt, Norwegian Polar Institute, Norway
Regine Hock, Oslo Univ., Norway & Univ.of Alaska Fairbanks, USA

Other Working Group members

Listed under Work Packages below

Motivation

Retreating and thinning glaciers are icons of climate change and impact the local hazard situation, regional runoff as well as global sea level. For past reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), regional glacier change assessments were challenged by the small number and heterogeneous spatio-temporal distribution of in situ measurement series and uncertain representativeness for the respective mountain range as well as by spatial limitations of current satellite altimetry (only point data) and gravimetry (coarse resolution). Towards IPCC SROCC, there have been considerable improvements with respect to available geodetic datasets. Geodetic volume change assessments for entire mountain ranges have become possible thanks to recently available and comparably accurate DEMs. At the same time, new spaceborne altimetry (ICESat-2) and gravimetry (GRACE-FO) missions are in orbit and about to release data products to the science community. This opens new opportunities for regional evaluations of results from different methods as well as for truly global assessments of glacier mass changes and related contributions to sea-level rise. At the same time, the glacier research and monitoring community is facing new challenges related to data size, formats, and availability as well as new questions with regard to best practises for data processing chains and for related uncertainty assessments.

Objectives and work packages

The overall goal of this working group (WG) is bringing together the research community that is assessing regional glacier mass changes from various observation technologies and to come up with a new consensus estimate of global glacier mass changes and related uncertainties. The WG is organized in three work packages (WPs), two related to different remote sensing technologies and a third that aims at regional comparisons of corresponding results:

WP1: Glacier mass changes based on glaciological and geodetic (DEM differencing) methods

Co-leads: Matthias Braun (University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany) and Fanny Brun (Univ. Grenoble Alpes, France)
Members (in alphabetical order):
Gudfinna Adalgeirsdottir (University of Iceland, IS), Liss M. Andreassen (Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate, Oslo, NO), Farooq Azam (Indian Institute of Technology Indore, IN), Jacqueline Bannwart (University of Zurich, CH), Joaquín Belart (National Land Survey of Iceland, Iceland), Laura Boehm Vock (St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, USA), Tobias Bolch (University of St Andrews, UK), Luke Copland (University of Ottawa, CA), Lucas Davaze (University of Grenoble, FR), Amaury Dehecq (VAW/ETH, Zurich, CH), Inés Dussaillant Lehmann (University of Zurich, CH), Daniel Falaschi (CONICET, Mendoza, AR), Andrea Fischer (Institute for Interdisciplinary mountain research (IGF), Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), AT), Caitlyn Florentine (USGS, Montana, USA), Dana Floricioiu ( DLR, DE), Koji Fujita (Nagoya University, JP), Gregoire Guillet (University of St Andrews, UK), Kay Helfricht (Institute for Interdisciplinary mountain research (IGF), Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), AT), Romain Hugonnet (University of Toulouse, Fr), Matthias Huss (VAW/ETH, Zurich, CH), Vassiliy Kapits (Institute of Geography, Almaty, Kazakhstan), Owen King (University of St Andrews, UK), Christoph Klug (Department of Atmospheric and Cryospheric Sciences, University of Innsbruck, AT), Will Kochtitzky (University of Ottawa, CA), Lukas Krieger ( DLR, DE), Stanislav Kutuzov (Institute of Geography, Moscow, RU), Jeff La Frenierre (Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, US), Eyjólfur Magnusson (University of Iceland, IS), Jakub Małecki (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland), Philipp Malz (FAU, Erlangen-Nürnberg, DE), Robert McNabb (Ulster University, Coleraine, UK), Brian Menounos (University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, CA), Shad O’Neel (CRREL group, US), Livia Piermattei (University of Oslo, NO), Rainer Prinz (Department of Atmospheric and Cryospheric Sciences, University of Innsbruck, AT), A.L. Ramanathan (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, IN), Akiko Sakai (Nagoya University, JP), Thorsten Seehaus (FAU, Erlangen-Nürnberg, DE), David Shean (University of Washington, Seattle, US), Florian Siegert (3D RealityMaps GmbH, München, DE), Irek Sobota (Nicolaus Copernicus University, PL), Christian Sommer (FAU, Erlangen-Nürnberg, DE), Désirée Teichler ((University of Oslo, NO), Thorsteinn Thorsteinsson (Icelandic Meteorological Office, IS), Thomas V. Schuler (University of Oslo, NO), Anja Wendt (Erdmessung und Glaziologie, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, DE), Kunpeng Wu (Yunnan University, CN), Chunhai Xu (Cold and Arid Regions Environment and Engineering Research Institute (CAREERI), Langzhou, CN), Ruitang Yang (University of Oslo, NO)

  • Develop best practises for geodetic estimates of glacier mass changes and related uncertainties.
  • Improve the global coverage of geodetic glacier change assessments.

WP2: Glacier mass changes based on altimetry and gravimetry

Co-leads: Alex Gardner (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA), Bert Wouters (Institute for Marine and Atmosphere Research and Delft University of Technology, Netherlands), Geir Moholdt (Norwegian Polar Institute, Norway)
Members (in alphabetical order): Noel Gourmelen (University of Edinburgh, UK), Andreas Groh (TU Dresden, DE), Martin Horwath (TU Dresden, DE), Andreas Richter (TU Dresden, DE), Ingo Sasgen (AWI, Bremerhaven, DE)

  • Develop best practices for the propagation of errors in glacier mass-change estimates derived from satellite altimetry and gravimetry.

WP3: Regional comparisons of glacier mass changes from different methods

Co-leads: Regine Hock (Oslo Univ., Norway & Univ.of Alaska Fairbanks, USA), Etienne Berthier (LEGOS Toulouse, France), Bert Wouters (Institute for Marine and Atmosphere Research and Delft University of Technology, Netherlands)
Members: Contributing WP1 and WP2 members (tbd)

  • Encourage regional assessments of glacier mass changes.
  • Foster open and free access to glacier data.
  • Define a common framework for regional-scale mass change estimates and identify best method(s) for each large-scale glacier region.
  • Develop a consensus estimate of regional and global mass changes from glaciological, geodetic, altimetric, and gravimetric methods.

Deliverables and milestones

  • Q4 2019: Research topic in Frontiers in Earth Sciences
  • Q1 2020: Official announcement of WG and virtual kick-off meeting
  • Q2 2020: Initial workshops of WG1 and WG2
  • Q4 2020: Round robin experiment WG1
  • Q2 2021: Data production coordination
  • Q4 2021: Method papers from WG1 and WG2.
  • Q2 2022: Data production coordination
  • Q1 2023: Consensus estimate paper from WG3.
  • Periodical conference sessions, e.g. at EGU, AGU

Towards the end of the WG, we aim to present a new consensus estimate of global glacier mass changes based on all available assessments from glaciological, geodetic, altimetric, and gravimetric methods.
Annual reports: 2020

Participation

The present proposal was prepared by a core team of scientists currently active in regional glacier change assessments. Working Group Membership is open to everybody who has expertise in and is working actively on regional or global mass-change assessments. To keep the group focused, all WG Members are expected to
a) actively contribute to one or several of the WG objectives as described above, and
b) participate in annual WG meetings (typically held at major conferences; remote participation is possible) and, in periodic teleconferences in between as necessary.

Open data sharing is a key element of this Working Group. Thus, WG members are required to make any relevant new (including yet unpublished) data available to the Members of all relevant Work Packages. In addition, all data are expected to be submitted to an international data repository, typically after publication.

The WG has been formed following an open call on cryolist in January 2020. If you are interested in joining the WG, please contact the co-chairs including a brief summary how you intend to contribute to the WG’s goals and which work package(s) you would like to join.

RAGMAC outcome and products

Annual reports: 2021, 2022, 2023

Last update: October 2022