Main tasks within ice2sea: Involvement in W5.3, 3.3
Description of institution: The University of Zurich is one of the leading research institutions in Switzerland. The Physical Geography Division within the Department of Geography has renowned high competence in cryosphere, incl. monitoring of glaciers from space and in the field as well as modelling of glaciers with approaches of varying complexity. UZH is affiliated with major international programmes in the corresponding fields and active in several mountain regions around the world. UZH has long-standing expertise in past, present and future climate-cryosphere processes. It hosts the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) and has thus access to the most important datasets and contacts to major international institutions and programmes. UZH is an active center of the GLIMS initiative and has extensive experience in spaceborne glacier mapping. The recently started ESA project GlobGlacier is lead by UZH which gives a direct link to the products generated in this project. Internal cooperations with MeteoSwiss and a climate modelling group of the MPI for Meteorolgy in Hamburg allows UZH to develop large scale applications in the field of distributed mass balance modelling and future glacier development. There is also a strong remote sensing and geoinformatics section in the Department which expedites software availability and technological experience.
Department name: Not applicable
Staff member: Dr. Frank PAUL
Profile of staff member: Dr. Frank PAUL is lecturer and senior scientist at the Physical Geography Divison. He is specialist in multi- spectral glacier remote sensing, distributed mass balance modelling, geomorphologic analysis and applied geo-informatics. His PhD served as a pilot study for GLIMS with respect to remote sensing algorithms for glacier mapping and GIS-based data retrieval. He is PI of ESAs new GlobGlacier project, co-author of the IGOS-P cryosphere theme report and elected member of the newly founded expert commission for cryosphere of the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT).
Other staff members: Dr. Michael ZEMP is working as a research associate for the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) and has worked for six years as a GIS specialist at ESRI Switzerland. He has strong experience in the field of mass balance measurements and data analysis with geoinformatic techniques. He is lead or co-author of several international publications related to changing glaciers and ice caps on a global scale.
Selected references:
Machguth, H., Paul, F., Hoelzle, H. and Haeberli, W. (2006): Distributed glacier mass balance modelling as an important component of modern multi-level glacier monitoring. Annals of Glaciology, 43, 335-343.
Paul, F. and Kääb, A. (2005): Perspectives on the production of a glacier inventory from multispectral satellite data in the Canadian Arctic: Cumberland Peninsula, Baffin Island. Annals of Glaciology, 42, 59-66.
Paul, F., Kääb, A., Maisch, M., Kellenberger, T. W. and Haeberli, W. (2004): Rapid disintegration of Alpine glaciers observed with satellite data. Geophysical Research Letters, 31, L21402, doi: 10.1029/ 2004GL020816.
Paul, F. Maisch, M., Rothenbühler, C., Hoelzle, M. and Haeberli, W. (2007): Calculation and visualisation of future glacier extent in the Swiss Alps by means of hypsographic modelling. Global and Planetary Change, 55 (4), 343-357.
Zemp, M., Haeberli, W., Hoelzle, M. and Paul, F. (2006): Alpine glaciers to disappear within decades? Geophysical Research Letters, 33, L13504.
Haeberli, W., Hoelzle, M., Paul, F. and Zemp, M. (2007): Integrated monitoring of mountain glaciers as key indicators of global climate change: the EuropeanAlps. Annals of Glaciology, 46, 150-160.
