Abstract. The mountain cryosphere of mainland Europe is recognized to have important impacts on a range of environmental processes. In this paper, we provide an overview on the current knowledge on snow, glacier, and permafrost processes, as well as their past, current, and future evolution. We additionally provide an assessment of current cryosphere research in Europe and point to the different domains requiring further research. Emphasis is given to our understanding of climate–cryosphere interactions, cryosphere controls on physical and biological mountain systems, and related impacts. By the end of the century, Europe's mountain cryosphere will have changed to an extent that will impact the landscape, the hydrological regimes, the water resources, and the infrastructure. The impacts will not remain confined to the mountain area but also affect the downstream lowlands, entailing a wide range of socioeconomical consequences. European mountains will have a completely different visual appearance, in which low- and mid-range-altitude glaciers will have disappeared and even large valley glaciers will have experienced significant retreat and mass loss. Due to increased air temperatures and related shifts from solid to liquid precipitation, seasonal snow lines will be found at much higher altitudes, and the snow season will be much shorter than today. These changes in snow and ice melt will cause a shift in the timing of discharge maxima, as well as a transition of runoff regimes from glacial to nival and from nival to pluvial. This will entail significant impacts on the seasonality of high-altitude water availability, with consequences for water storage and management in reservoirs for drinking water, irrigation, and hydropower production. Whereas an upward shift of the tree line and expansion of vegetation can be expected into current periglacial areas, the disappearance of permafrost at lower altitudes and its warming at higher elevations will likely result in mass movements and process chains beyond historical experience. Future cryospheric research has the responsibility not only to foster awareness of these expected changes and to develop targeted strategies to precisely quantify their magnitude and rate of occurrence but also to help in the development of approaches to adapt to these changes and to mitigate their consequences. Major joint efforts are required in the domain of cryospheric monitoring, which will require coordination in terms of data availability and quality. In particular, we recognize the quantification of high-altitude precipitation as a key source of uncertainty in projections of future changes. Improvements in numerical modeling and a better understanding of process chains affecting high-altitude mass movements are the two further fields that – in our view – future cryospheric research should focus on.

Glacier-wide mass balance has been measured for more than sixty years and is widely used as an indicator of climate change and to assess the glacier contribution to runoff and sea level rise. Until recently, comprehensive uncertainty assessments have rarely been carried out and mass balance data have often been applied using rough error estimation or without consideration of errors. In this study, we propose a framework for reanalysing glacier mass balance series that includes conceptual and statistical toolsets for assessment of random and systematic errors, as well as for validation and calibration (if necessary) of the glaciological with the geodetic balance results. We demonstrate the usefulness and limitations of the proposed scheme, drawing on an analysis that comprises over 50 recording periods for a dozen glaciers, and we make recommendations to investigators and users of glacier mass balance data. Reanalysing glacier mass balance series needs to become a standard procedure for every monitoring programme to improve data quality, including reliable uncertainty estimates

Abstract.A Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) scene from 2003 covering the Jotunheimen and Breheimen region has been used to map the recent glacier extents using thresholded ratio images (TM3/TM5). Orthoprojected aerial photographs and glacier outlines from digital maps have been used to validate the method and control the results. We further calculated glacier changes by comparing the Landsat-derived 2003 glacier outlines with previous maps and inventories from the 1930s, 1960s and 1980s. Our results confirm that the applied automatic mapping method is robust and agrees with the reference data used. Some manual editing was necessary to correct the outline at ice-lake contacts and at debris covered glaciers. However, for most of the glaciers no corrections were required. The most laborious task has been to assign ID numbers and couple the new Landsat inventory to previous inventories to assess area changes. The glaciers investigated shrank since the 1930s with an overall area reduction of about 23% for 38 glaciers. Since the 1960s the area reduction was 12% for 164 glaciers. Although the general trend is glacier recession, some glaciers have increased their size or remained nearly unchanged over these decades.

Abstract. Knowledge of the ice thickness distribution of glaciers and ice caps is an important prerequisite for many glaciological and hydrological investigations. A wealth of approaches has recently been presented for inferring ice thickness from characteristics of the surface. With the Ice Thickness Models Intercomparison eXperiment (ITMIX) we performed the first coordinated assessment quantifying individual model performance. A set of 17 different models showed that individual ice thickness estimates can differ considerably – locally by a spread comparable to the observed thickness. Averaging the results of multiple models, however, significantly improved the results: on average over the 21 considered test cases, comparison against direct ice thickness measurements revealed deviations on the order of 10 ± 24 % of the mean ice thickness (1σ estimate). Models relying on multiple data sets – such as surface ice velocity fields, surface mass balance, or rates of ice thickness change – showed high sensitivity to input data quality. Together with the requirement of being able to handle large regions in an automated fashion, the capacity of better accounting for uncertainties in the input data will be a key for an improved next generation of ice thickness estimation approaches.

The importance of glaciers in mainland Norway for runoff is reflected in the extensive glacier measurement record. Mass balance has been measured for 42 glaciers. Length (or front-position) records exist for about 60 glaciers, and nearly half of these are presently measured. The mass-balance and front-position data have been analyzed with respect to spatial and temporal variations. The maritime glaciers with a large annual mass turnover have had a mass surplus between 1962 and 2000. In contrast, the continental glaciers with smaller summer and winter balances had a mass deficit over the same period. Since 2001 all monitored glaciers have had a marked mass deficit. The Norwegian glaciers have all retreated during the 20th century. However, both local and regional variations have been observed. Advances were recorded around 1910, around 1930, in the second half of the 1970s and around 1990. This last advance stopped in most glaciers at the turn of the century.

Glaciers are widely recognized as key indicators of climate change, and their meltwater plays an important role in hydropower production in Norway. Since the last glacier inventory was compiled in northern Norway in the 1970s, marked fluctuations in glacier length and mass balance have been reported for individual glaciers, and the current overall glacier state is thus not well known. Within the framework of the Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) initiative, we have created a new inventory for 489 glaciers in the Svartisen region, northern Norway, using a Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) satellite scene from 7 September 1999 and automated multispectral glacier mapping (thresholded band ratios). In addition, visual inspection and correction of the generated glacier outlines has been applied. Adverse snow conditions and uncertain drainage divides made glacier mapping challenging in some regions of the study site. Glacier outlines from 1968, as digitized from a topographic map, were used for a quantitative change assessment for a selection of 300 glaciers. The overall area change of this sample from 1968 to 1999 was close to zero, but with a strongly increasing scatter towards smaller glaciers, large area gains (>50%) for small glaciers (<1 km2), and an unexpected stronger relative area loss towards the wetter coast. The overall size changes are small (<1%) for the three largest ice masses in the study region (Vestisen, Østisen and Blåmannsisen).

Abstract. Glaciological and geodetic methods provide independent observations of glacier mass balance. The glaciological method measures the surface mass balance, on a seasonal or annual basis, whereas the geodetic method measures surface, internal, and basal mass balances, over a period of years or decades. In this paper, we reanalyse the 10 glaciers with long-term mass-balance series in Norway. The reanalysis includes (i) homogenisation of both glaciological and geodetic observation series, (ii) uncertainty assessment, (iii) estimates of generic differences including estimates of internal and basal melt, (iv) validation, and, if needed, (v) calibration of mass-balance series. This study comprises an extensive set of data (484 mass-balance years, 34 geodetic surveys, and large volumes of supporting data, such as metadata and field notes). In total, 21 periods of data were compared and the results show discrepancies between the glaciological and geodetic methods for some glaciers, which are attributed in part to internal and basal ablation and in part to inhomogeneity in the data processing. Deviations were smaller than 0.2 m w.e. a−1 for 12 out of 21 periods. Calibration was applied to 7 out of 21 periods, as the deviations were larger than the uncertainty. The reanalysed glaciological series shows a more consistent signal of glacier change over the period of observations than previously reported: six glaciers had a significant mass loss (14–22 m w.e.) and four glaciers were nearly in balance. All glaciers have lost mass after the year 2000. More research is needed on the sources of uncertainty to reduce uncertainties and adjust the observation programmes accordingly. The study confirms the value of carrying out independent high-quality geodetic surveys to check and correct field observations.

We present a record of almost six years of data (2000–2006) from an automatic weather station (AWS) in the ablation zone of Midtdalsbreen, a glacier in southern Norway. Measured incoming longwave radiation is used to estimate cloudiness, revealing that high cloud fractions occur almost 50% of the time in all seasons. Measured wind speeds and humidity are higher for cloudy conditions, especially in winter. Net solar radiation dominates the surface energy balance in summer, contributing on average 75% of the melt energy. The turbulent fluxes supply 35% of the melt energy while net longwave radiation and the subsurface heat flux are energy sinks of 8% and 2%, respectively. Although the melt rate is generally larger under clear skies, almost 60% of the melt occurs under cloudy skies, a consequence of the prevailing cloudy conditions. Interannual variability in the total melt is found to be equally determined by variations in the date of ice reappearance and differences in the meteorological conditions during melt. Comparing the results for Midtdalsbreen with measurements from an AWS on Morteratschgletscher, Switzerland reveals that the larger ice ablation on Morteratschgletscher primarily results from an earlier start of the melt season and larger net solar radiation. The energy balance model used in this study is found to be more sensitive to changes in the stability correction than to an order‐of‐magnitude change in the roughness length for momentum.