The Vd Tschierva in 1880 (Alpines Museum der Schweiz) and in 2004 (J. Alean), photographed from Margun da l' Alp Ota, 2257 m a.s.l. The peak on the left is Piz Bernina (4049 m), on the right Piz Roseg (3973 m). The subsidiary moraine on the right in the 2004 photo represents the limit of the 1967-87 advance. For further images see also https://swisseduc.ch ('Glaciers online' by J. Alean and M. Hambrey).

Contexts in source publication

Context 1

... Zekollari and others, 2013;Oerlemans and others, 2017). Maps of the Bernina region, produced in 1877 as part of the 'Siegfriedkarte' (https://map.geo.admin.ch/), show the extent and morphology of glaciers and their surroundings in great detail. Many historical photographs exist, allowing a good comparison with the more recent state of the glacier (Fig. 1). The length record of the Vd Tschierva glacier is shown in Figure 2, together with the record of the Vd Morteratsch. In the official dataset of the Swiss Glacier Monitoring Network, the Vadret da Roseg has a much longer length record than the Vd Tschierva. Because these glaciers merged until ∼1940, the nomenclature is somewhat ...

Context 2

... dimensions of the basins as estimated from the topographical map are listed in Table 1. Actually, they can be recognized in the photographs of Figure 1. ...

Context 3

... years correspond to the photographs in Figure 1. For x < 2.3 km the difference in ice thickness between the two profiles is small. ...

Context 4

... ELA history derived from the length variations of the Vd Tschierva can be compared to the result of a similar procedure for the Vd Morteratsch (Oerlemans and others, 2017). Due to the proximity of the Vd Morteratsch one would expect that the glaciers have been subject to almost identical climatic forcing. ...

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... have assumed that the SSC for the Vd Morteratsch is also valid for the Vd Tschierva because the glaciers are so close and exposure and shading effects are rather similar. The SSC is shown in Figure 10. As expected, summer temperature and winter precipitation are the most important contributors to the annual variation in E. ...

Context 6

... fact, summer precipitation and winter temperature do not play a role at all. Applying Eqn (8) to the monthly temperature and precipitation measurements of Segl-Maria (MeteoSwiss), and calculating 5-year mean values for a better comparison, yields the dashed curve in Figure 10. There is a significant correlation of this curve with the ELA history reconstructed from the glacier fluctuations (correlation coefficient 0.67), but there are also some obvious discrepancies. ...

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... most transparent way to investigate how the Vd Tschierva will respond to future climate warming is to run the calibrated model for prescribed rates of a rise of the equilibrium line. Figure 11 shows how the calibrated model responds to changes in the equilibrium line of 0, 2, 4 and 6 m a -1 . To put this in perspective: according to the comprehensive analysis of Žebre and others (2021) the change in ELA during the period 1905-2005 was between 1 and 2 m a -1 . ...

Context 8

... the RCP6.0 emission scenario (IPCC, 2013), not much of the Vd Tschierva is left in 2100 (length of 1.2 km). With an ELA rise of 2 m a -1 , which would be a reasonable value if the Paris Climate Agreement targets (UNFCCC, 2015) were met, the glacier length would be 2 km in 2100, i.e. the snout would be at the upper part of the current icefall (see Fig. ...

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... climate models do not reproduce patterns of climate change over the past 150 years very well, it is difficult to use the climate model simulation for calibration. This is illustrated in Figure 12, where output from the CCSM4 model has been used to drive the glacier model (for the RCP2.6 and RCP4.5 scenarios). Equation (8) has been used again to convert model output into changes in the ELA. ...

Context 10

... red (RCP2.6) curves in Figure 12. The simulated glacier length shows a reasonable agreement with the observed record on the decadal timescale, but does not reproduce the trend over the past 100 years. ...

Context 11

... have been carried out for all the five climate models mentioned in Section 4, and it appears that none of them is able to produce a realistic simulation of the observed glacier length record. The strong glacier retreat during the 20th century is not simulated, and the obvious reason is the lack of a steady rise in the ELA as illustrated in Figure 13. ...