Long-term records of glacier surface velocities in the ?tztal Alps (Austria)

摘要

Climatic forcing affects glacier mass balance, whichcauses changes in ice flow dynamics and glacier length changes on differenttimescales. Mass balance and length changes are operationally used forglacier monitoring, whereas only a few time series of glacier dynamics havebeen recorded. Here we present a unique dataset of yearly averaged ice flowvelocity measurements at stakes and stone lines covering more than 100?yearson Hintereisferner and more than 50?years on Kesselwandferner. Moreover, thedataset contains sub-seasonal variations in ice flow from Gepatschferner andTaschachferner covering almost 10?years. The ice flow velocities onHintereisferner and (especially) on Kesselwandferner show great variationbetween advancing and retreating periods, with magnitudes increasing fromthe stakes at higher elevations to the lower-elevated stakes, making iceflow records at ablation stakes a very sensitive indicator of glacier state.Since the end of the latest glacier advances from the 1970s to the 1980s,the ice flow velocities have decreased continuously, a strong indicator ofthe negative mass balances of the glaciers in recent decades. The velocitydatasets of the four glaciers are available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.896741.