Kathrin Naegeli

University of Zurich | UZH · Department of Geography

Meltwater routing through ice masses exerts a fundamental control over glacier dynamics and mass balance, and proglacial hydrology. However, despite recent advances in mapping drainage systems in cold, Arctic glaciers, direct observations of englacial channels and their flow conditions remain sparse. Here, using Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) sur...

Knowledge about the distribution and dynamics of seasonal snow cover (SSC) is of high importance for climate studies, hydrology or hazards assessment. SSC varies considerably across the Hindu Kush Himalaya both in space and time. Previous studies focused on regional investigations or the influence of snow melt on the local hydrological system. Here...

We have investigated the source and role of light-absorbing impurities (LAIs) deposited on the glaciers of the Olivares catchment, in Central Chile. LAIs can considerably darken (lowered albedo) the glacier surface, enhancing their melt. We combined chemical and mineralogical laboratory analyses of surface and ice core samples with field-based spec...

Ice surface albedo is a primary modulator of melt and runoff, yet our understanding of how reflectance varies over time across the Greenland Ice Sheet remains poor. This is due to a disconnect between point or transect scale albedo sampling and the coarser spatial, spectral and/or temporal resolutions of available satellite products. Here, we prese...

Climate change over High Mountain Asia (HMA, including the Tibetan Plateau) is investigated over the period 1979-2014 and in future projections following the four Shared Socioeconomic Pathways: SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0 and SSP5-8.5. The skill of 26 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 6 (CMIP6) models is estimated for near-surface air te...

Long-term monitoring of snow cover is crucial for climatic and hydrological studies. The utility of long-term snow-cover products lies in their ability to record the real states of the earth's surface. Although a long-term, consistent snow product derived from the ESA CCI+ (Climate Change Initiative) AVHRR GAC (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiome...

The Greenland Ice Sheet harbours a wealth of microbial life, yet the total biomass stored or exported from its surface to downstream environments is unconstrained. Here, we quantify microbial abundance and cellular biomass flux within the near-surface weathering crust photic zone of the western sector of the ice sheet. Using groundwater techniques,...

Climate change over High Mountain Asia (HMA, including the Tibetan Plateau) is investigated over the period 1979–2014 and in future projections following the four shared socioeconomic pathways SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0 and SSP5-8.5. The skill of 26 CMIP6 models is estimated for near-surface air temperature, snow cover extent and total precipitat...

Plain Language Summary Glaciers in Central Asia act as water towers for millions of people by storing and releasing water in response to climate. Monitoring glaciers is difficult due to their often very remote locations. Satellite remote sensing has emerged as a powerful method but a drawback is their (semi‐)decadal resolution for glacier mass chan...

Long-term monitoring of snow cover is crucial for climate and hydrology studies. To meet the increasing demand for a long-term, consistent snow product, an exceptional snow cover climatology was generated dating back to the 1980s using AVHRR GAC data. However, the retrieval of snow extent is not straightforward due to artifacts introduced during da...

Although worldwide inventories of glacier area have been coordinated internationally for several decades, a similar effort for glacier ice thicknesses was only initiated in 2013. Here, we present the third version of the Glacier Thickness Database (GlaThiDa v3), which includes 3 854 279 thickness measurements distributed over roughly 3000 glaciers...

Abstract. Although worldwide inventories of glacier area have been coordinated internationally for several decades, a similar effort for glacier ice thicknesses was only initiated in 2013. Here, we present the third version of the Glacier Thickness Database (GlaThiDa v3), which includes 3 854 279 thickness measurements distributed over more than 30...

AVHRR Global Area Coverage (GAC) data provide daily global coverage of the Earth, which are widely used for global environmental and climate studies. However, their geolocation accuracy has not been comprehensively evaluated due to the difficulty caused by onboard resampling and the resulting coarse resolution, which hampers their usefulness in var...

AVHRR GAC (Global Area Coverage) data provide daily global coverage of the Earth, which are widely used for global environmental and climate studies. However, their geolocation accuracy has not been comprehensively evaluated due to the difficulty caused by onboard resampling and the resulting coarse resolution, which hampers their usefulness in var...

Albedo feedback is an important driver of glacier melt over bare-ice surfaces. Light-absorbing impurities strongly enhance glacier melt rates but their abundance, composition and variations in space and time are subject to considerable uncertainties and ongoing scientific debates. In this study, we assess the temporal evolution of shortwave broadba...

Marine acoustic data are used to map and characterize submarine slope failure along the accretionary prism of Cascadia. Two main styles of slope failure are identified: (1) failures with curved head scarps, which are predominantly associated with incoherent debris-flow deposits; and (2) failures with rectangular head scarps, which are predominantly...

The albedo feedback is an important driver of glacier melt over bare-ice surfaces. Light-absorbing impurities strongly enhance glacier melt rates but their abundance, composition and variations in space and time are subject to considerable uncertainties and on-going scientific debates. In this study, we assess the temporal evolution of shortwave br...

Albedo is an important parameter in the energy balance of bare-ice surfaces and modulates glacier melt rates. The prolongation of the ablation period enforces the albedo feedback and highlights the need for profound knowledge on impacts of bare-ice albedo on glacier mass balance. In this study, we assess the mass balance sensitivity of 12 Swiss gla...

Surface albedo partitions the amount of energy received by glacier surfaces from shortwave fluxes and modulates the energy available for melt processes. The ice-albedo feedback, influenced by the contamination of bare-ice surfaces with light-absorbing impurities, plays a major role in the melting of mountain glaciers in a warming climate. However,...

Surface albedo partitions the amount of energy received by glacier surfaces from shortwave fluxes and modulates the energy available for melt processes. The ice-albedo feedback, influenced by the contamination of bare-ice surfaces with light-absorbing impurities, plays a major role in the melting of mountain glaciers in a warming climate. However,...

Multibeam bathymetric data acquired off Vancouver Island across the accretionary prism of the Cascadia subduction zone reveal a prominent segmentation of the deformation front with dominant azimuths of the ridges at ~120° and ~150° and abundant submarine landslides. Both these ridge-orientations are oblique to the direction of subduction (~45°). Ri...

ABSTRACT. Large numbers of small valley glaciers on Svalbard were thicker and more extensive during the Little Ice Age (LIA), demonstrated by prominent ice-cored moraines up to several kilometres beyond present-day margins. The majority of these glaciers have since experienced a long period of strongly negative mass balance during the 20th century...

Glacier surfaces are not only composed of ice or snow but are heterogeneous mixtures of different materials. The occurrence and dynamics of light-absorbing impurities affect ice surface characteristics and strongly influence glacier melt processes. However, our understanding of the spatial distribution of impurities and their impact on ice surface...

The routing and storage of meltwater and the configuration of drainage systems in glaciers exert a profound influence on glacier behaviour. However, little is known about the hydrological systems of cold glaciers, which form a significant proportion of the total glacier population in the climate sensitive region of the High Arctic. Using glacio-spe...

One of the grand challenges in glacier research is to assess the total ice volume and its global distribution. Over the past few decades the compilation of a world glacier inventory has been well advanced both in institutional set up and in spatial coverage. The inventory is restricted to glacier surface observations. However, although thickness ha...

Determining the routing of meltwater through glacier systems is of paramount importance as the configuration of drainage networks can have critical role to play in glacier response to meteorological forcing and can strongly influence ice dynamics. Many existing studies have focused on hydrological systems within temperate or polythermal glaciers, a...

The ice-albedo feedback plays a crucial role in various glaciological processes, but especially influences ice melt. Glacier surface albedo is one of the most important variables in the energy balance of snow and ice, but depends in a complicated way on many factors, such as cryoconite concentration, impurities due to mineral dust, soot or organic...

The ice-albedo feedback plays a crucial role in various glaciological processes, but especially influences glacier ablation. Furthermore, ice surface albedo depends in a complicated way on many factors, such as cryoconite concentration, impurities due to mineral dust, soot or organic matter, grain size or ice surface morphology. Our understanding o...

The volume of glaciers and ice caps is still poorly known, although it is expected to contribute significantly to changes in the hydrological cycle and global sea level rise over the next decades. Studies presenting worldwide estimations are mostly based on modelling and scaling approaches and are usually calibrated with only few measurements. Dire...

The ice-albedo feedback plays a crucial role in various glacial processes, but especially inf luences glacier ablation. Furthermore, glacier surface albedo depends in a complicated way on many factors, such as cryoconite concentration, impurities due to mineral dust and organic matter or ice surface morphology, and is therefore difficult to model o...

The precise characterization of icequake sources offers valuable insights into local stress, the presence of water and basal sliding. The reliability of the conclusions however strongly depends on the accuracy of hypocentral locations, which is therefore a key point for the interpretation of icequakes record in terms of glaciological processes. The...

Swath bathymetry from the northern Cascadia margin offshore Vancouver Island, Canada reveals several submarine landslides on the seaward slopes of the deformation frontal ridges. The slides occur in the thick accretionary prism of the subducting Juan de Fuca and Explorer plates. Possible trigger mechanisms for the slope failures include strong eart...

Bathymetric data from the Northern Cascadia margin offshore Vancouver Island reveal several submarine landslide features on the seaward slopes of frontal ridges. The slides occur just landward of the deformation front of the subducting Juan de Fuca and Explorer plates. Possible trigger mechanisms for the slope failures include earthquakes, pore pre...