Mass balance Rhone glacier 2007 - 2024
The mass balance of the Rhone glacier provides information about
- how much snow has fallen in winter in the area of the Rhone Glacier and
- how much snow and ice of the Rhone Glacier melted in summer.
If year after year more snow and ice melts in summer than is added in the form of snow in winter, the glacier will become smaller and smaller. We have been in this situation for years.
The graph below shows the mass balance of the Rhone glacier for the period from 2007 to and including 2024. We have been documenting the Rhone glacier photographically since 2007.
Legend:
- Year: The year refers to the annual observation period of the specialists from the Swiss Glacier Monitoring Network (GLAMOS). Based on point measurements typically carried out in April/May and September, the seasonal mass balance (winter/summer/annual) is determined over the entire area of the glacier.
- Blue bars: The blue bars show how much snow fell during the winter half-year (= September to April/May).
The height of the bars shows whether a year had plenty of snow (= high blue bar) or little snow (= low blue bar).
- Orange bars: The orange bars show how much snow and ice has melted during the summer half-year (= April/May to September). The height of the bars shows whether much (= high orange bar) or little (= little high orange bar) snow and ice has melted.
- Negative parts of the orange bars: The parts of the orange bars that lie below the zero line show how much mass the Rhone glacier has lost during the observation period.
- Water equivalent: Since not all types of snow and ice have a uniform density, the density of the individual snow layers is also determined while measuring the snow height. From the height of the snow layer and the density, it can be calculated how many mm of water would remain if the snow or ice layer were to melt. The sum of the water volume of all snow and ice layers (which were added or melted during the observation period) results in the values used in the graph above.
Sources:
See also:
Published / updated: 4.3.2023 / 3.12.2024