CECS Glacier Research

CECS Glacier Research Andrés Rivera and the CECs team Laboratorio de Glaciología y Cambio Climático Centro de Estudios Científicos (CECS), Valdivia

Who we are? SENIOR RESEARCHERS Gino Casassa Andrés Rivera ASSOCIATED RESEARCHERS Robert Thomas, NASA Wallops Flight Facility, USA Eric Rignot, JPL-NASA, USA Norbert Blindow, BGR POST-DOCTORAL FELLOWS Marious Schaefer Anja Wendt ASSISTANT RESEARCHERS (present and formers) Daniela Carrión (Geographer) Francisca Bown (Geographer MSc) Sebastián Cisternas (Computer Engineer) Juan Andrés Uribe (Electronic Engineer) Rodrigo Zamora (Electronic Engineer) Thomas Loriaux (MSc) Claudio Bravo (presently at UCH) Pablo Zenteno (presently in a private company) RESIDENT OFFICERS Max Fuentealba, Chilean Air Force UNDERGRADUATES STUDENTS Many

Our key issues We would like to Define a Chilean glacier base line Study remote and virgin areas Apply airborne, ground and oceanographic geophysical methods Develop new technologies for glacier research Improve our capacity building effort Provide information for decision makers Trying to answer the following questions: How are the glaciers responding to climatic changes? Are all glaciers good indicators of climate change? What are the consequences of recent glacier behaviour for our population and economic activities? What are the consequences of human activities on glacier behaviour? Could be possible to model glacier dynamics and the consequences of the glacier responses?

Main problems for glaciological research in Chile Scarce and poor availability of field data Lack of regular and accurate glacier cartography Limited budgets for software/hardware/data/training/monitoring Inefficient and bureaucratic data distribution among national institutions Reduced collaboration between scientists and institutions Few systematic monitoring programs Few specialists and trained people

State of art in Chile Almost complete but out of date glacier inventory Frontal, areal and ice elevation changes have been analysed for hundred of glaciers combining historical records, remotely sensed imagery and field data Preliminary satellite image data base GIS data base for restricted number of glaciers including surface topography, frontal variations, available imagery Several glaciological methods have been applied; Remote sensing, GPS, LIDAR, RES (ground, airborne, helicopter borne), Fixed cameras, AWS s, Sonars, ice coring, modelling, runoff. Only two mass balance programmes

Some statistics 140 120 Number of publicaciones per decade 100 N PUBLICACIONES 80 60 40 20 0 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 DÉCADAS Postgraduate people in glaciology: <10 Pre-post degrees in glaciology: 0 Institutions doing glacier research: <10 Number of glaciology related grants funded in Chile in recent years: <15 (of 9979)

Número de estaciones 30 28 26 24 22 20 18 16 14 Hydro-meteorological stations for glacier studies 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 Distancia mínima a una fuente glaciar [km] 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 Diferencia de elevación estacion-glaciar [m] Few stations with long records

Previous CECs studies Glacier inventory Northern and Southern Patagonian icefields Aconcagua basin Cordillera Darwin, Mte Sarmiento, isla Santa Inés, isla Hoste Nevados de Payachatas Several ice-capped volcanoes in southern Chile Frontal, areal and volumetric changes Almost 150 studied glaciers all around the country Mass and energy balance In 2003, CECS initiated a systematic program on Glaciar Mocho at Volcán Mocho, in the Chilean lake District. Geodetic mass balance estimations in several glaciers There is one glacier where a mass balance model has been applied Several AWS s installed on top of glaciers in central-southern Chile in combination with met data analysis and cameras Applied geophysics LIDAR of more than 40 glaciers. RES (ground and airborne) of more than 50 glaciers Sonar/calving studies of more than 5 glaciers Ice velocities in more than 5 glaciers (GPS, feature tracking cameras) Ice volcanic interactions using thermal cameras in 3 volcanoes Glacio-chemistry Several short ice cores and snow samples for biological and chemical studies Deep ice cores in 5 glaciers in combination with institutions from abroad (Switzerland, Japan, etc.)

First glacier inventory south of the Estrecho de Magallanes: 3289km 2 Isla Santa Inés: 274 km 2 Monte Sarmiento: 273 km 2 Cordillera Darwin: 2333 km 2 Isla Hoste: 409 km 2 Fuente: CECS, 2008

A mountain glacier (Alpine?) Glaciar Universidad (National Estrategy, DGA)

Field data collection and preliminary models: AWS at accumulation and ablation zones 20 15 Temperatures Temperatura (ºC) 10 5 0 0 800 1600 2400 3200-5 28 Marzo 2009 8 Mayo 2009 Nº de Registro 0,6 0,4 0,2 Ablation 1 0,8 Modelled versus measured ablation Diferencia (m) 0-0,2-0,4-0,6-0,8 28 Marzo 2009 0 800 1600 2400 3200 8 Mayo 2009 Nº Registro mm eq. a. 0,6 1200 1000 Global radiation 0,4 0,2 Global Radiation (W m -2 ) 800 600 400 0 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000 2200 2400 2600 2800 3000 Records 200 0 Dates

Stations

Hydrological station affected by the March 11, 2010 Earthquake

2 1 Cambios de elevación (m/a) 0-1 -2-3 -4-5 -6 1955/2009 2000/2009-7 2400 2500 2600 2700 2800 2900 3000 3100 3200 3300 3400 Altitud SRTM (m s.n.m.) Elevation changes at Glaciar Universidad (m/a)

A calving glacier

Ice velocities from fixed cameras (m/d) 7-10 10-14 14-17 17-24

Ice-capped volcanoes:monitoring Volcán Villarrica

Thermal studies TºC 800 Perfil Nocturno 700 600 Volcán Chaitén 500 400 300 200 100 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 píxel Temperatura v/s pixel Volcán Villarrica, Mayo 13, 2010

Mass balance studies: Volcán Mocho

2003/2004 (a) (b) (c) -0.88 2004/2005 (a) (b) (c) +0.36 Accumulation (a), ablation (b) y mass balance (c) in m w. eq. a -1

LIDAR and THERMAL surveys: Volcán Hudson 7-10 10-14 14-17 17-24

Some methods everywhere: Ice thickness Foto: Andrés Rivera Radar surveys (5 MHz)

Airborne radar test

Helicopterborne radar

Helicopter borne radar survey in Central Chile Juncal Sur Glacier CECS and BGR from Germany B A A B

CAMS-1: Cecs Airborne Mapping System

Lago desaparecido: CECS-Armada 2007

CAMS profile versus SRTM 200 Outwash Plain Lake Ice Moraine Lake Ice Lake Valley Lake River 180 160 A 140 120 SRTM 2000 A Altitude (m ae ) 100 80 60 CECS 2007 40 20 0 0 Sea Level 1000 Outwash Plain 2000 3000 Missing Lake 4000 5000 6000 Ice 7000 Moraine 8000 Missing Lake 9000 A Distance (m) A 10000 11000 Ice 12000 13000 Lake 14000 15000 16000 17000 18000 19000 Glaciar Témpanos Glaciar Bernardo 1975-2000 -4.7± 0.8-3.6 ± 0.8 2000-2007 -4.9 ± 3.0-8.1 ± 3.0

The siphon..

GLOF events

October 10, 2008 Photos: Andrés Rivera

Ice core from Pio XI glacier

Monitoring network implementation Detail Glacier Monitoring Programme (DGMP) Field Instrumentation - AWS - Gauge stations - Stake network - Photogrammetric cameras Ground and airborne survey - GPR and GPS - Airborne and terrestrial Laser scanning -Aerial photogrammetry -Thermal and normal cameras Northern Chile (CEAZA?) - Glaciar Tapado - Location: 30 08 S Central Chile (DGA- ACQWA-CECS-UCH?) - Glaciares Juncal Norte, Echaurren-Olivares - Universidad - Location: 33-34 S - Lake District (CECS) - Glaciares Chillán- Villarrica and Mocho - Location: 39 S Aisén (DGA-CECS) - Glaciar San rafael- Colonia - Nef- Jorge Montt Location: 46-48 S Magallanes -Glaciar Pio XI (CECS) -Glaciar Grey (UMAG) -GCP (Trier U.)

Future tasks CECs will hold an ACCION workshop in Valdivia In May 2012 we will have technical meeting (CECS-DGA) with USGS and colleagues from VTI for testing GASS. In August 2012 we will have a training course in collaboration with the US Embassy and the USGS (GASS). The idea is having a few days in Valdivia and then going to Volcán Mocho with colleagues from other institutions in Chile. Both workshops may be together or one after the other. Looking for new students Searching for Postdocs (mainly from abroad) interested in doing research in our countries

Conclusions and recommendations Most of our glaciers are retreating fast, however not everything is related to Climate change In Chile there are many anomalies. What is an anomaly? Each glacier has particular settings, and no one is an easy one (Alpine?) We don t have enough trained people to do research in the country We have a lot of requests from the government, private companies and the academia, but we are too few and with limited time for everything Budget is also a restriction, especially when bureaucrats are taking control of some funding agencies We don t have people doing glacier modelling Modelling is very restrict due to the lack of data for many regions. We need to improve our glaciological base line.

Thanks CECS, FONDECYT, Fundación Andes, GLIMS, USGS, UCH, ICM, NASA, USA Embassy.