Measurements of small alpine glaciers: examples from Slovenia and Austria

Abstract

In the last century and a half, average summer temperatures have slowly been rising worldwide. The most observable consequence of this is the change in glacier sizes. For monitoring glacier area and volume, various measuring techniques exist—from measurements with a measuring tape and geodetic measurements to remote sensing and photogrammetry. A comparison of different measuring techniques on two Slovenian glaciers (the Triglav and Skuta glaciers) and two Austrian glaciers (the Gossnitzkees and Hornkees glaciers) is made. A long-term glacial retreat trend is presented for the Gossnitzkees, Hornkees, and Triglav glaciers because these glaciers can be monitored throughout the entire twentieth century by means of archival data. Despite their different sizes, the annual trend of glacial retreat was approximately the same in the period between 1929 and 2006.