Scientists race to read Austria's melting climate archive
Scientists are racing to read a rapidly melting archive of climate data going back thousands of years - the inside of Austria's Alpine glaciers.
Mountain glaciers are receding the world over as average global temperatures rise - a phenomenon that will be described in detail in a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change this week.
Story
The challenge is to take current data on how the climate is changing and compare it with the information we have on the climate in previous centuries and millennia.
"The question is, how exceptional is this process? That is what we are determining with this drilling of the ice."
A view down at snowcapped mountains of Kaunertal valley near Feichten im Kaunertal.
A copilot controls helicopter transportation of gear after an ice drilling run at Gepatschferner glacier at Weissseespitze summit.
A person walks next to covered depots of snow to outlast the summer in a glacier ski resort near the village of St. Leonhard im Pitztal.
A ski slope with snow cannons makes its way downhill to a station of a cablecar on a sunny autumn day near the alpine village of Neustift im Stubaital.
Glaciologist Andrea Fischer and environmental physicist Pascal Bohleber from the Austrian Institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research, inspect the thickness difference of the part of Schaufelferner glacier that is covered with a special fleece fabric protecting ice from sun and heat and the part that is not covered. The ablation of the unprotected part is up to 4 meters per year, three times faster than the ice loss of the protected part. The scientists stand directly on unprotected parts of the glacier in front of the protected ice shield of Schaufelferner glacier.
Glaciologist Andrea Fischer.
Glaciologist Andrea Fischer walks along the artificial ice tunnel of Schaufelferner glacier.
Ice layers are seen inside the artificial ice tunnel of Schaufelferner glacier. Glaciologist Andrea Fischer can determine weather conditions, the amount of precipitation and ice ablation of past years in these layers.
Glaciologist Andrea Fischer checks a precipitation measuring station next to Jamtalferner glacier.
Werner Aeschbach, head of the ArTTA Atom Trap Trace Analysis working group, wheels a container with ice sample inside, towards a laboratory of the Argon-Preparation-System at the Institute of Environmental Physics in Heidelberg. Atom Trap Trace Analysis for 39Ar is an ultra-sensitive detection method based on principles of quantum mechanics. Scientists extract Argon, a Noble Gas, from the air bubbles trapped in the ice. After the extraction, scientists catch and count the rare Ar39 atoms to determine the age of the air and in result the age of the ice.
An infrared laser, made visible by vapour, is split by a birefringent crystal into one vertical and one horizontal beam, demonstrated with an ArTTA Atom Trap Trace Analysis system currently under construction at the Kirchhoff-Institute for Physics.
PhD students of Physics Julian Robertz, Maximilian Schmidt and Lisa Ringena discuss results of the Atom Trap Trace Analysis system at the ArTTA laboratory.
The cabin of a cable car makes its way uphill to the Sonnblick Observatory at 3,106 meters above sea level, in the Hohe Tauern mountain range.
Meteorologist Elke Ludewig from the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics ZAMG, looks up an ice load scale at the Sonnblick Observatory. The ice load scale measures the load of ice starting to freeze on the stick. The ZAMG is operating the instrument to get statistics of the possible ice load at such altitudes.
A halo, an optical phenomena from sunlight and ice crystals, rises above Goldberg group mountains, seen from Sonnblick summit.
The Jamtalferner glacier.
A group of ski tourers make their way across the snow-covered Jamtalferner glacier near Galtuer.
The Pasterze Glacier, Austria's largest glacier, is seen below Johannisberg summit.
People walk on Pasterze Glacier.
A landslide is seen in the Jamtal valley.
Visitors from Scotland sit on the terrace of the Jamtal hut near Galtuer.
Visitors sit on the terrace of the Jamtal hut.
The Jamtal hut glows at night in a snow-covered valley.
