[Icelandic] Glacier Web Portal

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Link: Glacier web portal

 

 

The glacier web portal is a collaborative effort by the Icelandic Meteorological Office, the Institute of Earth Sciences at the University of Iceland, Landsvirkjun (the National Power Company), the Iceland Glaciological Society, the National Land Survey of Iceland and the South East Iceland Nature Research Center. The portal displays measurements of glaciers and an overview of glaciological research and variations of Icelandic glaciers. The portal provides access to regular glaciological measurements and observations that are carried out by Icelandic institutes, agencies, companies, societies and private persons. The editorial board of the web portal updates the glaciological database regularily with new observations.

 

The design of the glaciological database and the presentation of the glaciological measurements is based on standards and best practices used in international glaciological databases, including World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) and National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

 

The Icelandic Climate Fund (Loftslagssjóður, grant No. 200265-5801) and the project “Melting glacier&rdquo, funded by the Ministry of the Environment, Energy and Climate, support the operation of the glacier web portal. Other sponsors are the Vatnajökull National Park and the Research Center of the University of Iceland in Hornafjörður.

 

The glacier web portal publishes terminus measurements and data about the extent and mass balance of Icelandic glaciers, as well as various other information about the glaciers, including numerous historical and overview photographs. The meteorologist Jón Eyþórsson started systematic measurements of glacier termini in Iceland around the year 1930 and enlisted local and lay people to carry out annual observations. Volunteers of the Icelandic Glaciological Society / Jöklarannsóknafélags Íslands (JÖRFÍ) have carried out the measurements since the establishment of the society in 1950. The mass balance of Vatnajökull (from 1992), Hofsjökull (from 1988) and Langjökull (from 1997) is measured annually by the Institute of Earth Sciences at the University of Iceland, the Icelandic Meteorological Office and Landsvirkjun (the National Power Company) and the mass balance of Mýrdalsjökull by members of JÖRFÍ.

 

The outlines of glaciers at different times have been created by many scientists on the basis of aerial images, satellite images, maps and lidar DEMs of glaciers and glacier forelands. Glacier margins have also been traced by GPS-measurements and by observations of glacier moraines and other glacio-geomorphological field observations...