Antonella Senese

• PhD in Natural and Environmental Sciences
• PostDoc Position at University of Milan

Cryoconite holes (water reservoirs) significantly contribute to biodiversity and biogeochemical processes on glacier surfaces. However, the lack of seasonal observations of cryoconite biota limits our knowledge of glacial ecosystem functioning. We studied photoautotrophs, consumers and sediment characteristics (community structure, biomass, element...

Often considered the most pristine natural areas, mountains are the third most important tourist destination in the world after coasts and islands, contributing significantly to the tourism sector (15–20%). Tourism is economically important for many mountain communities and is among the key drivers of economic growth in mountain regions worldwide....

Satellite imagery from the Sentinel-2 MSI platforms provides systematic global acquisitions of high-resolution imagery of the Earth's surface with a 5-day revisit time at the equator, having a great potential for monitoring and mapping regions where the land cover is particularly sensitive to the dynamics of climate change, such as the glaciers env...

Extreme weather events are increasingly recognized as major stress factors for forest ecosystems, causing both immediate and long-term effects. This study focuses on the impacts experienced by the forests of Valdisotto, Valfurva, and Sondalo (28% of the total area is covered by forests) in Upper Valtellina (Italy) due to the Vaia storm that occurre...

European Subterranean biodiversity within the European Union remains critically underprotected, with numerous species facing increasing threats from climate and land use change. To address these challenges and ensure the long-term conservation of subterranean habitats, a precautious solution is to include them in protected areas to the greatest pos...

Glaciers host a variety of cold‐adapted taxa, many of which have not yet been described. Interactions among glacier organisms are even less clear. Understanding ecological interactions is crucial to unravelling the functioning of glacier ecosystems, particularly in light of current glacier retreat. Through a review of the existing literature, we ai...

Extended reality (XR) and virtual field trips (VFTs) are increasingly used in the field of geoscience dissemination and education as they can enhance the motivation of students and citizens to learn about these topics. They allow to observe the territory and its forms overcoming the possible physical (e.g. disabilities and health problems), economi...

Protesa tra due continenti, circondata dal mare, attraversata dalle catene montuose delle Alpi, di cui possiede l’intero versante meridionale, e dagli Appennini, l’Italia ha tra i suoi elementi di forza l’unicità derivante dalla varietà di ambienti e luoghi, dalla ricchezza in biodiversità e dalla pluralità culturale, potenziali asset strategici pe...

The investigation of the evolution of glaciers largely relies on the characterisation of extensive quantities like their mass, area, and perimeter. In this work we use fractal and multifractal analysis to investigate the non-extensive structural properties of the perimeters of glaciers in the Svalbard Archipelago. We show that the perimeters of the...

As the global community grapples with the urgent challenges of climate change, there is an increasing need for innovative and effective educational tools to enhance understanding and engagement with this critical issue. This paper introduces a novel pedagogical approach (the Carbon Footprint Game) that harnesses the power of gamification to educate...

In recent decades, climate change has demanded more and more attention. Consumers have the power to influence the carbon footprint of goods and services through their purchasing decisions, but to do this they need to learn more. To address this need, it is necessary to develop online questionnaires able to make people aware of which activities have...

The plastic footprint is defined as a science-based tool for quantifying the amount of plastic (in kg) one contributes to the world’s plastic waste (from plastic wraps to anything containing plastics, such as clothes). Making consumers aware of their total plastic footprint and of how it is divided among their various daily life activities can prom...

This study analyzed the challenges and benefits of the identification and promotion of a long-distance cycleway in high mountain areas with the aim of promoting Alpine eco- and geo-tourism. We also investigated the role of e-biking in discovering local geodiversity and geoheritage in a sustainable way. In particular, we focused on the path from Bor...

This chapter focuses on the clear reduction in glacier extension that has been observed worldwide in the global warming period: this reduction has strongly affected the Alpine region that has been subjected to a much higher temperature increase than the average Earth’s one.Specifically, the chapter presents different techniques of remote-sensing an...

Blue ice areas (BIAs) are relevant ablation surfaces present on the Antarctic continent, mainly located in proximity of the coast or mountainous zones, in sloping areas. Featuring negative values of surface mass balance, in a continent where this parameter is averagely positive, their study gains of importance, in particular regarding their evoluti...

We mapped flow velocity and calving rates of the iconic Perito Moreno Glacier (PMG), belonging to the Southern Patagonian Icefield (SPI) in the Argentinian Patagonia. We tracked PMG from 2001 to 2017, focusing mostly upon the latest images from 2016–2017. PMG delivers about ca. 106 m3 day^-1 of ice in the Lago Argentino, and its front periodically...

Dissemination and communication of landscape features have been for long time an important goal for explorers and travellers. The description of landforms and of the processes that determine them now assume a key role in geoeducation. From this point of view, outdoor experiences represent a great opportunity to improve the scientific knowledge of s...

Snow cover is particularly important in the Alps for tourism and the production of hydroelectric energy. In this study, we investigate the spatiotemporal variability in three snow cover metrics, i.e., the length of season (LOS), start of season (SOS) and end of season (EOS), obtained by gap-filling of MOD10A1 and MYD10A1, daily snow cover products...

The albedo is a fundamental component of the processes that govern the energy budget, and particularly important in the context of climate change. However, a satellite-based high-resolution (30 m) albedo product which can be used in the polar regions up to 82.5° latitude during the summer seasons is lacking. To cover this gap, in this study we calc...

Glaciers are continuously monitored to detect their spatial extension and time evolution since they are the best witnesses of climate changes. There is a particular interest for Italian glaciers in the Alps as there is evidence that they are melting at a faster rate than those located in other regions of the globe. The determination of the perimete...

Climate Monitoring Satellite Application Facility (CM SAF) surface solar irradiance (SSI) products were compared with ground-based observations over the Piedmont region (north-western Italy) for the period 1990-2016. These products were SARAH-2.1 (Surface Solar Radiation DataSet-Heliosat version 2.1) and CLARA-A2 (Cloud, Albedo and Surface Radiatio...

The development of methods for quantifying meltwater from glaciated areas is very important for better management of water resources and because of the strong impact of current and expected climate change on the Alpine cryosphere. Radiative fluxes are the main melt-drivers, but they can generally not be derived from in situ measures because glacier...

Dear Colleagues, In light of the Alpine Glaciology Meeting, originally expected to be held in Milan on 27-28 February and postponed to a later date, and dedicated to advances in the study of the cryosphere, encompassing glaciers, ice caps, snow, permafrost, and glacial geomorphology, we hope to provide an updated picture of new discoveries in cryos...

During the past decades, there have been attempts to offset melt at glacier ski resorts. The most important method is active glacier protection, largely based on the use of geotextiles to preserve snow cover and reduce its melt. Until 2008, a scientific evaluation of the efficiency of glacier covering strategies had never been carried out in Italy,...

Alpine glaciers respond to climate imbalance by adjusting their mass and length. In turn, these changes modify the glacial and periglacial environment, leading to increased supraglacial debris cover, the development of glacial lakes and glacier fragmentation. In this research, we investigated the evolution of Lys Glacier (Monte Rosa Group), by stud...

The aim of the study is to analyse the surface albedo of the Ant-arctica and investigate eventual signals of variations in space and time between summer 2000/2001 and 2011/2012 by means of the GLASS albedo product. We followed a step-by-step procedure from micro- to macro-scale. At first, we analysed 95 glaciers around the continent, and we found l...

Glacier darkening, or the decrease in glacier albedo over time, has been reported for glaciers in several parts of the world. In this study, we use data from the Landsat archive spanning back to 1984 to investigate the long-term evolution of surface albedo in the ablation area of 15 selected glaciers in the Ortles-Cevedale group, Central Italian Al...

Il presente lavoro ha l’obiettivo di fornire indicazioni sui fattori di emissione da utilizzare per la predisposizione degli inventari dei gas serra negli Atenei italiani, relativamente a: i) consumi elettrici, ii) consumi di gas, iii) consumi di energia da teleriscaldamento, e iv) consumi di carburante per lo spostamento delle persone per recarsi...

This study presents a map reporting valuable information on the cryosphere of the Central Karakoram National Park (CKNP, the largest protected area of Pakistan and the highest park in the world). All the information is provided considering the CKNP as a whole, and in detail by dividing it into five basins (i.e. Shigar, Hunza, Shyok, Upper Indus, an...

This paper presents preliminary results about Turin’s air quality before, during and after the realization of the infrastructure projects for the Turin 2006 XX Winter Olympic Games. We compared the 3-year in-operam (work in progress) period (i.e. 2003–2005, when all infrastructures needed for the organization were built) with the periods before (an...

We used the Poly-Hydro model to assess the main hydrological components of the snow-ice melt driven Maipo River in Chile, and glaciers’ retreat under climate change therein until 2100. We used field data of ice ablation, ice thickness, weather and hydrological data, and precipitation from TRMM. Snow cover and temperature were taken from MODIS. We f...

We present and compare 11 years of snow data (snow depth and snow water equivalent, SWE) measured by an automatic weather station (AWS) and corroborated by data from field campaigns on the Forni Glacier in Italy. The aim of the analysis is to estimate the SWE of new snowfall and the annual SWE peak based on the average density of the new snow at th...

La dinamica del Ghiacciaio dei Forni, il più grande ghiacciaio vallivo italiano situato all'interno del Parco Nazionale dello Stelvio (Gruppo Ortles-Cevedale, Alta Valtellina), è stata simulata attraverso un modello di flusso monodimensionale tempo dipendente, che descrive le variazioni di spessore del ghiaccio lungo la linea di flusso centrale. Il...

Mountain environments are extremely influenced by climate change but are also often affected by the lack of long and high-quality meteorological data, especially in glaciated areas, which limits the ability to investigate the acting processes at local scale. For this reason, we checked a method to reconstruct high-resolution spatial distribution an...

Over the last decades, the expansion of supraglacial debris on worldwide mountain glaciers has been reported. Nevertheless, works dealing with the detection and mapping of supraglacial debris and detailed analyses aimed at identifying the temporal and spatial trends affecting glacier debris cover are still limited. In this study, we used different...

The Solid Precipitation Intercomparison Experiment (SPICE) was conducted as an internationally coordinated project, initiated and guided by the Commission for Instruments and Methods of Observation (CIMO) of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The SPICE field experiments took place between 2013 and 2015, with a preparatory stage during the...

We present and compare 11 years of snow data (snowfall, snow depth and snow water equivalent (SWE)) measured by an Automatic Weather Station and by some field campaigns on the Forni Glacier. The data have been acquired by means of (i) a Campbell SR50 sonic ranger from October 2005 (snow depth data), (ii) manual snow pits from January 2006 (snow dep...

Radar exploration supports glaciological studies playing several roles in ice exploration such as determining ice thickness and volume, describing ice and snow internal layering and characterizing crevassed areas. The method, widely used with full success on Polar areas, encounters more difficulties when applied to survey mountain glaciers like the...

Assessment of future water resources under climate change is required in the Himalayas, where hydrological cycle is poorly studied and little understood. This study focuses on the upper Dudh Koshi river of Nepal (151 km2, 4200–8848 m a.s.l.) at the toe of Mt. Everest, nesting the debris covered Khumbu, and Khangri Nup glaciers (62 km2). New data ga...

Through this assessment, the authors and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) secretariat are providing an objective evaluation and analysis of the pan-European environment designed to support environmental decision-making at multiple scales. In this assessment, the judgement of experts is applied to existing knowledge to provide scienti...

The Karakoram Range is one of the most glacierized mountain regions in the world, and glaciers there are an important water resource for Pakistan. The attention paid to this area is increasing because its glaciers remained rather stable in the early twenty-first century, in contrast to the general glacier retreat observed worldwide on average. This...

In spite of the quite abundant literature focusing on fine debris deposition over glacier accumulation areas, less attention has been paid to the glacier melting surface. Accordingly, we proposed a novel method based on semi-automatic image analysis to estimate ice albedo from fine debris coverage (d). Our procedure was tested on the surface of a w...

The albedo is a fundamental component of the surface energy balance of glaciers, determining the amount of net solar radiation available for melt. However, its temporal and spatial distribution on the glacier surface is often overlooked, and in melt models constant values of ice and snow albedo are assumed for the whole glacier, leading to inaccura...

We focus here on modelling the meteorological parameters most influencing snow/ice melting over an alpine glacier. Specifically, we consider shortwave and longwave downward radiation, and air temperature. We set up and test a methodology for their accurate distribution at the glacier surface, which can be applied whenever: i) supraglacial meteoro-l...

. This study provides an estimate of fresh water derived from ice melt for the ablation areas of glaciers in the Central Karakoram National Park (CKNP), Pakistan. In the CKNP there are ~700 glaciers, covering ~4600 km^2, with widespread debris cover (518 km^2). To assess meltwater volume we applied a distributed model able to describe both debris-c...

Fast, reliable and accurate methods for glacier mapping are necessary for understanding glacier dynamics and evolution and assessing their response to climate change. Conventional semi-automatic approaches are based on medium-resolution satellite images, but their use can cause significant loss of accuracy when analyzing small glaciers, which are p...

Glacier melt occurs whenever the surface temperature is null (273.15 K) and the net energy budget is positive. These conditions can be assessed by analysing meteorological and energy data acquired by a supraglacial Automatic Weather Station (AWS). In the case this latter is not present at the glacier surface the assessment of actual melting conditi...

Surface energy fluxes estimated at the debris free surface of Changri Nup Glacier (5,700 m a.s.l.—Nepal Himalayas) since 2010 allow to determine glacier ablation rate and high resolution analysis of glacier albedo. Energy and meteorological data are measured from a supraglacial Automatic Weather Station (AWS). Moreover the impact of atmospheric abs...

Glaciers of the central Andes have recently been retreating response to global warming, with large consequences on the hydrological. regime. We assessed here potential climate change impacts until 2100 upon the hydrologic regime of the largely snow-ice melt driven Maipo River basin (closed at El Manzano, ca. 4800 km(2)), watering 7 M people in the...

We developed a simple model to estimate ice ablation under a debris cover. The ablation process is modelled using energy and mass conservation equations for debris and ice and heat conduction, driven by input of either i) debris surface temperature or ii) radiation fluxes, and solved through a finite difference scheme computing the conductive heat...

Glacier melt conditions (i.e., null surface temperature and positive energy budget) can be assessed by analyzing data acquired by a supraglacial automatic weather station (AWS), such as the station installed on the surface of Forni Glacier (Italian Alps). When an AWS is not present, the assessment of actual melt conditions and the evaluation of the...

We investigated the characteristics of sparse and fine debris coverage at the glacier melting surface and its relation to ice albedo. In spite of the abundant literature dealing with dust and black carbon deposition on glacier accumulation areas (i.e.: on snow and firn), few studies that describe the distribution and properties of fine and disconti...

The glacier melt conditions (i.e.: null surface temperature and positive energy budget) can be assessed by analyzing meteorological and energy data acquired by a supraglacial Automatic Weather Station (AWS). In the case this latter is not present the assessment of actual melting conditions and the evaluation of the melt amount is difficult and simp...

http://www.aineva.it/pubblica/neve80/nv80_rivista-9.pdf

Since summer 2008 a research project aimed at reducing snow and ice ablation has been developed at the Presena Glacier (Adamello Group, Trentino) where skiing activities are performed in winter, spring and part of the summer season. To reduce magnitude and rates of snow and ice melt during each summertime several artificial covers were located at t...

This study represents a contribution to distribution of the surface energy budget of the Forni Glacier (Ortles-Cevedale Group, Upper Valtellina, Italy). The analyses are based on data acquired at S. Caterina Valfurva (a village in the glacier valley at 1768 m ellipsoidal elevation WGS84) by an Automatic Weather Station (AWS) installed and managed b...

We use Landsat images to quantify recent (2001 and 2010) glacier area coverage and its change within the recently established Central Karakoram National Park, CKNP, Northern Pakistan, including Baltoro and Biafo-Ispar glaciers, at Mt. K2 toe. Trends of climate variables (1980-2009) as provided by PMD of Pakistan for low altitude stations, are inves...

Continuous measurements of meteorological data and surface energy fluxes at Chagri Nup Glacier (Nepal Himalayas) have been carried out since February 2010, further to the installation of a supraglacial Automatic Weather Station at 5,700 m asl on the debris free surface of the glacier. Collected data allow to assess three-years of glacier energy bal...

Since 26 September 2005 an Automatic Weather Station (AWS1 Forni) has been running on the ablation area of the largest Italian valley glacier, Forni, in the Ortles-Cevedale Group. A 4-year record (from 1 October 2005 to 30 September 2009) of air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, incoming and outgoing radiative fluxes, air pr...

This paper reports the surface energy budget and the melt amount evaluated at one location at the Forni Glacier (Italian Alps, Lombardy) during the years 2009 and 2010. The analysis was supported by high resolution meteorology and energy data collected by an Automatic Weather Station (named AWS1 Forni) which has been running at the glacier surface...

Since 26th September 2005 an Automatic Weather Station (AWS1 Forni) has been running on the ablation area of the largest Italian valley glacier, Forni, (ca. 12 km2 of surface area in the Ortles-Cevedale group, Stelvio National Park, Lombardy Alps). The WGS84 coordinates of the AWS1 Forni are given by: 46° 23' 56.0' N (46.399° N), 10° 35' 25.2' E (1...