Global Air TEMPerature ESTimation on high mountain glaciers

Glaciers provide a crucial water storage in high mountain environments and contribute to the seasonal freshwater availability for billions of people worldwide.

Predicting the current freshwater contribution of mountain glaciers from model simulations is, however, limited by the lack of observational data and process understanding within inaccessible, high elevation regions.

As such, glacier melt models make simplistic assumptions about meteorological information, namely air temperature, in space and time.

The aim of this proposal is to produce a novel, unified approach for on-glacier air temperature estimation that can be implemented for any mountain glacier on earth by combining unprecedented meteorological data on glaciers with the latest advancements in gridded reanalysis information.

The research fellow will combine dedicated field analyses on Alpine glaciers near to the host institution with existing, global datasets of air temperature data on glaciers, to produce a generalizable framework of glacier air temperature estimation that accounts for local interactions of cold and warm air masses and their causes.

This framework will be developed and tested within detailed, high resolution land surface models at experimental catchments worldwide.

The proposed research will exploit the resources, academic support and expertise of the world-renown supervisor and host institution to provide training to the fellow on model development and implementation for globally-applicable research and outreach deliverables.

The scientific results are anticipated to have wide-reaching implications for current and future water resources management in high mountain regions and be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, public outreach and open access data.

The planned supervision, training and collaborative, interdisciplinary research of the action will strengthen both academic and non-academic networks of the fellow and enhance his future career opportunities.