GlobGlacier Project:

Since glaciers are among the most reliable indicators of climate change and because they can have a major influence on water availability, knowledge of the recent changes and future behaviour is of great interest for climate scientists and governing bodies. Recently there was an intense public debate on how rapidly the Himalayan glaciers are retreating. This was for the first time a climate report "Mistake" was followed by the thousands of articles attacking the IPCC for incorrectly publishing information on the glaciers melting in the Himalayas by 2035.

Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) has called for the systematic monitoring of glaciers by satellites in support of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

What is GlobGlacier?In 2007, ESA started the GlobGlacier project as a major effort to develop and apply existing methodologies to monitor glaciers and contribute to a global glacier inventory using satellite observations. GlobGlacier, part of ESA's 'Data User Element', is adding about 20,000 of the estimated 160,000 glaciers worldwide to this inventory to allow their histories to be adequately tracked.

The GlobGlacier projects attempts to establish a service for glacier monitoring from space, which aims at establishing a global picture of glaciers and ice caps, and their role as Essential Climate Variables.

The GlobGlacier project will attempt to establish a service for glacier monitoring from space that is based on user requirements and builds upon, complements and strengthens the existing network for global glacier monitoring (GTN-G). The project will help to establish a global picture of glaciers and ice caps, and their role as Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) as defined in the GCOS implementation plan for the UNFCCC (GIP, 2004). With this respect, the most requested issue is to complete the world glacier inventory (WGI) from the 1970s by producing glacier outlines in regions where actually is nothing and to complement the point information already stored in the WGI by 2D information to allow change assessment. Moreover, GlobGlacier will integrate satellite data from various sensors to create value added products for a wide range of user communities. A close cooperation with major user groups (e.g. WGMS) and related projects (e.g. GLIMS) will ensure a maximum benefit of the generated products from a global perspective.

European Space Research Institute, Department of Geography University of Zurich, GAMMA Remote Sensing Research and Consulting AG, Environmental Monitoring and Earth Observation are some of the partners in the GlobGlacier Consortium.

Kashmir is one of the selected regions where little information is available on overall glacier extent or changes. GlobGlacier is creating inventory data for more than 1000 glaciers in this region.What is this Inventory?
The inventory combines information on glacier outlines based on archived satellite data from the Landsat Thematic Mapper (tm) and the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) instruments with topographic information from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission and the Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM) from ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer).