The Triglav Glacier as an Indicator of Climate Changes

The principal objective of the investigation is to establish dependence between the climatic factors and the ice melting. Decisive for the decline of the glacier’s size are both the rise of temperatures and the amounts of winter precipitation. In the years, when the snow cover was deep 3 meters or more, the shrinking of the glacier temporarily stopped. Such conditions occur approximately twice in a decade. In all the remaining years the correlation is certainly evident, between the summer temperatures and the shrinking of the glacier. A method of the calculation of the quasiglobal solar radiance exposure was developed, what renders possible a better interpretation of the glacier's fluctuation. On the basis of the calculation of received solar energy we can theoretically calculate the amount of melted ice by individual years. By comparing these data with the changes in the volume calculated by means of the surveying methods we are able to test the quality of the one and the other calculation. This will improve the knowledge about the laws of the melting of small glaciers in the southeastern part of the Alps and, at the same time, the knowledge about the changes in the volume of the Triglav glacier. We were developing methods of photogrammetrical analysis of archival photos taken with an amateur camera. These methods of metric reconstruction of the archival, non-metrical photos are a novelty in the branch of photogrammetry. A method for interactive orientation of digital images using backprojection of 3D Data was used to determine the area and volume of the glacier. This method will open new possibilities for the use of archival photos not only in glaciology but also in geomorphology (the dynamics of slope processes) and elsewhere.

Triglav Glacier in 2006 (Photo Primož Gašperič).

Glacier’s area, average summer temperatures and snow cover depth on 1st June on Kredarica. (figure in high resolution)