2.2. Glacial system

studies can be a vast source of knowledge on the processes in the otherwise unavailable subglacial environment. In this chapter, we concentrate on the archipelago Svalbard in the Arctic, a typical target area for xenobiotics from long range atmospheric transport (LRAT), holding an important share of the Arctic glacial ice cover. We show the ways the glaciers of Svalbard are monitored for water losses and quality changes, alongside some benefits already acquired through such studies. A new direction in the research is needed that would deepen

Cryosphere refers to "the part of the Earth's crust and atmosphere subject to temperatures below 0C for at least part of each year" [4]. The snow, ice, and frozen ground all constitute the cryosphere, considered a source of climatic diagnosis due to its sensitivity to air temperature and precipitation changes. The most recent intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) assessment [5] emphasizes also the importance of cryosphere in the Earth's ecosystem as a reservoir of solidified water. Glaciers and the great ice sheets of Greenland or Antarctica are only part of

Global land surface: 147.6 Mkm<sup>2</sup>

, 2

Global ocean area:

2. Glacier monitoring and projects implemented in the Arctic

the interpretation of the obtained monitoring data.

the cryosphere, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Division of the cryosphere and its components: <sup>1</sup>

362.5 Mkm<sup>2</sup> [5].

2.1. Cryosphere

4 Glacier Evolution in a Changing World

Glaciers occupy 10% of the Earth's surface. As natural water reservoirs, they represent 75% of freshwater on Earth. The vast majority of the water (99.5%) is stored in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Ref. [3] has emphasized the great significance of glaciers as a source of freshwater widely used by over a billion people. Glacial waters are not only used for domestic purposes, but also for electricity production and crops irrigation (e.g., in the Alps, Himalayas). However, it is the small glaciers and ice caps of the High Arctic that have been rapidly responding to climate changes in the recent years, and therefore have contributed the most to the sea level rise [4–8].

Although the high latitude regions of the Arctic are distinguished by limited human impact and low emission from local sources, they cannot be considered free from the presence of pollutants. For example in Svalbard, the long range transport of atmospheric pollutants transmitted from Eurasian industrialized and urbanized areas may substantially affect the quality of Arctic waters, since the atmospheric deposition is one of the main factors (next to rock-water interaction) controlling water chemistry in this polar region [9–13].

Due to glacial drainage and the processes by which glaciers are formed, they are an important element in the global water cycle. The accumulation of water as snow and its gradual release in the liquid form determine the importance of glacial controls upon the drainage characteristics of partly glaciated catchments [6].


Table 1. Lifespan of selected elements of the cryosphere.

Glaciers develop when snow accumulates over a period of several years, and then gradually transforms into firn (at least 1 year old snow) to finally turn into ice. The ice flows downward due to the force of gravity. Snow accumulation predominantly depends on the climate conditions and topographic characteristics [4, 5, 14, 15]. When the accumulation process (snowfall) prevails over the ablation processes (iceberg calving, surface melting, and runoff, melting under floating ice shelves), glaciers gain mass [4, 5, 14, 15].

An important typical feature of glaciers is the circulation of mass, i.e., ice, snow, water, and mineral matter, as well as the circulation (exchange) of energy manifested in accumulation, the glacier movement, and ablation. The processes are determined by external factors. They also substantially affect the environment, making the glacier a dynamic, open system [16]. The glacier system is fed by and releases various forms of energy and mass, which are subject to further movement and/or transformation inside it. Figure 2 shows the relations between the entry and exit elements.

The mass movement is determined by the force of gravitation. Energy transformations and movement are accompanied by complex processes within the glacier. As a result of differences in the mass balance, the uniform glacial system is divided into two spatial subsystems, namely the accumulation and ablation system, separated by the equilibrium line [16, 17]. Maintaining balance within the glacial system is only possible when the balance elements (entry and exit elements of the system) are equal, and the mass flow through the equilibrium line is even. Any disturbance in the balance causes a response of the system in the form of feedback loops. An example of such a process is an increase in accumulation, which causes an increased flow of ice

Figure 2. Schematic model of the glacial system.

mass through the equilibrium line, contributing to the advance of the glacier terminus, an increase in ablation, and reduction in the lower part of the glacial system.

The dynamic open glacial systems substantially affect climate at the global scale. They are also excellent indicators of climate fluctuations. The response of glaciers to climatic changes varies depending on their morphological features and internal thermal structure [14, 16].

Polythermal glaciers, i.e., glaciers with a complex thermal structure, are particularly good indicators due to their response to changing climate characteristics, as they are developed not only as a result of varied air temperature, but also by variable amount and structure of precipitation. In contrast to glaciers with cold thermal regime, the internal hydrothermal structure of polythermal glaciers is determined not only by solid, but also by liquid precipitation [18].

#### 2.3. The beginning of world glacier monitoring

Glaciers develop when snow accumulates over a period of several years, and then gradually transforms into firn (at least 1 year old snow) to finally turn into ice. The ice flows downward due to the force of gravity. Snow accumulation predominantly depends on the climate conditions and topographic characteristics [4, 5, 14, 15]. When the accumulation process (snowfall) prevails over the ablation processes (iceberg calving, surface melting, and runoff, melting

An important typical feature of glaciers is the circulation of mass, i.e., ice, snow, water, and mineral matter, as well as the circulation (exchange) of energy manifested in accumulation, the glacier movement, and ablation. The processes are determined by external factors. They also substantially affect the environment, making the glacier a dynamic, open system [16]. The glacier system is fed by and releases various forms of energy and mass, which are subject to further movement and/or transformation inside it. Figure 2 shows the relations between the

The mass movement is determined by the force of gravitation. Energy transformations and movement are accompanied by complex processes within the glacier. As a result of differences in the mass balance, the uniform glacial system is divided into two spatial subsystems, namely the accumulation and ablation system, separated by the equilibrium line [16, 17]. Maintaining balance within the glacial system is only possible when the balance elements (entry and exit elements of the system) are equal, and the mass flow through the equilibrium line is even. Any disturbance in the balance causes a response of the system in the form of feedback loops. An example of such a process is an increase in accumulation, which causes an increased flow of ice

under floating ice shelves), glaciers gain mass [4, 5, 14, 15].

entry and exit elements.

6 Glacier Evolution in a Changing World

Figure 2. Schematic model of the glacial system.

Glacier monitoring has a history dating back to the nineteenth century (Figure 3). The father of glacier monitoring was François-Alphonse Forel, the first scientist to observe changes in Alpine glaciers. The first international initiative emerged during the sixth International

Figure 3. Most important dates in the early history of glacier monitoring.

Geological Congress in Zurich. Since then, scientists have been collecting information on changes in selected glaciers and performing detailed surveys of their tongues on a regular basis. The data were enriched by the indigenous knowledge on earlier glacier stages, provided by the mountain people. At the early stages of the research, it focused on glacier fluctuations, therefore only data on front variations were published. Since 1940, information regarding mass balance has been included in publications. The need for a worldwide inventory of the existing ice and snow masses was recognized just after the declaration of the International Hydrological Decade (1965–1974) by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This resulted in the establishment, under the auspices of UNESCO, of the first international network called the Permanent Service on the Fluctuations of Glaciers (PSFG). Worldwide glacier monitoring has been rapidly evolving since then, and in 1975, the Temporal Technical Secretariat for the World Glacier Inventory (TTS/WGI) was established. Its role was to collect and periodically publish glacier inventory and fluctuation data. The tasks of TTS/ WGI and PSFG were taken over by the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), established in 1986. The first status report of glaciers inventory, published in 1989, includes information on their geographic location, area, length, orientation, elevation, and classification of morphological type and moraines. The data were mainly based on aerial photographs, maps, and satellite images. Since 1995, when project Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) was launched, the data have also been collected from optical satellite instruments such as the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and reflection Radiometer (ASTER) [19–21]. The collaboration of WGMS with the US National Snow and Ice Data Center, initiated in 1998, resulted in the first data inventory available online via the website of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) already a year later [20, 22, 23]. The most important dates and events in the early history of worldwide glacier monitoring are provided in Figure 3.

#### 2.4. The organization of the glacier monitoring system

The establishment of the Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS) in 1996 was a consequence of the Second World Climate Conference held in 1990. The conference called for the establishment of a coordinated monitoring system (Figure 5). The Terrestrial Observation Panel for Climate (TOPC) was established within GTOS. The global observing strategy was subsequently designed. It permits introducing all variables essential for the climate (e.g., river discharge, groundwater, lakes, glaciers, and ice caps) related to monitoring systems to the Global Terrestrial Network (GTN). As a result, the Global Terrestrial Network for Glaciers (GTN-G) was established in 1998. GTN-G is responsible for collecting standardized data on the current state of glaciers. Since its establishment, it has been run by WGMS with the assistance of NSIDC and GLIMS. The monitoring system is under the supervision of several worldwide organizations presented in Figure 4 [22, 24].

## 2.5. Glacier research projects in Svalbard

Due to the strong response of glaciers to climate change, their great importance for sea-level rise, and impact on the environment, many international research programs and projects have been conducted in the Arctic, including Svalbard. Research projects, unlike monitoring, include innovative testing of new methods and techniques and have a typical duration from Glaciers as an Important Element of the World Glacier Monitoring Implemented in Svalbard http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.69237 9

Figure 4. Major international organizations and their role in glacier monitoring.

Geological Congress in Zurich. Since then, scientists have been collecting information on changes in selected glaciers and performing detailed surveys of their tongues on a regular basis. The data were enriched by the indigenous knowledge on earlier glacier stages, provided by the mountain people. At the early stages of the research, it focused on glacier fluctuations, therefore only data on front variations were published. Since 1940, information regarding mass balance has been included in publications. The need for a worldwide inventory of the existing ice and snow masses was recognized just after the declaration of the International Hydrological Decade (1965–1974) by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This resulted in the establishment, under the auspices of UNESCO, of the first international network called the Permanent Service on the Fluctuations of Glaciers (PSFG). Worldwide glacier monitoring has been rapidly evolving since then, and in 1975, the Temporal Technical Secretariat for the World Glacier Inventory (TTS/WGI) was established. Its role was to collect and periodically publish glacier inventory and fluctuation data. The tasks of TTS/ WGI and PSFG were taken over by the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), established in 1986. The first status report of glaciers inventory, published in 1989, includes information on their geographic location, area, length, orientation, elevation, and classification of morphological type and moraines. The data were mainly based on aerial photographs, maps, and satellite images. Since 1995, when project Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) was launched, the data have also been collected from optical satellite instruments such as the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and reflection Radiometer (ASTER) [19–21]. The collaboration of WGMS with the US National Snow and Ice Data Center, initiated in 1998, resulted in the first data inventory available online via the website of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) already a year later [20, 22, 23]. The most important dates and events

in the early history of worldwide glacier monitoring are provided in Figure 3.

The establishment of the Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS) in 1996 was a consequence of the Second World Climate Conference held in 1990. The conference called for the establishment of a coordinated monitoring system (Figure 5). The Terrestrial Observation Panel for Climate (TOPC) was established within GTOS. The global observing strategy was subsequently designed. It permits introducing all variables essential for the climate (e.g., river discharge, groundwater, lakes, glaciers, and ice caps) related to monitoring systems to the Global Terrestrial Network (GTN). As a result, the Global Terrestrial Network for Glaciers (GTN-G) was established in 1998. GTN-G is responsible for collecting standardized data on the current state of glaciers. Since its establishment, it has been run by WGMS with the assistance of NSIDC and GLIMS. The monitoring system is under the supervision of several

Due to the strong response of glaciers to climate change, their great importance for sea-level rise, and impact on the environment, many international research programs and projects have been conducted in the Arctic, including Svalbard. Research projects, unlike monitoring, include innovative testing of new methods and techniques and have a typical duration from

2.4. The organization of the glacier monitoring system

8 Glacier Evolution in a Changing World

worldwide organizations presented in Figure 4 [22, 24].

2.5. Glacier research projects in Svalbard

Figure 5. Percent contribution of 10 Arctic regions covered by extensive glaciation [4].

3 to 6 years, and are funded from different sources. Examples of such research projects regarding Svalbard glaciers are listed in Table 2 [25–28]. A great number of projects is interdisciplinary, concerning both glaciology and glacial hydrology. Some are also related to meteorology (e.g., CRYOMET) and seismology (e.g., SEISMOGLAC). The vast majority of research projects is associated with the response of the cryosphere to global warming and climate change.


Table 2. International research projects in Svalbard within the framework of which glaciers are studied.

## 3. Svalbard glaciers and climate warming

Part of the cryosphere of the northern hemisphere categorized as "ice on land" is distributed irregularly in the Arctic. Therefore, glaciers and ice caps are subject to different climatic conditions. In Ref. [5], 10 regions of the Arctic are specified as covered by extensive glaciation. Together they occupy an area of 1,972,600 km2 . The percent contribution of each of them is shown in Figure 5.

Svalbard archipelago is the most glaciated region of the European Arctic. The area of its glaciation (approximately 36.6 km<sup>2</sup> ) is substantially higher than that of Norway and Sweden (approximately 3.1 km<sup>2</sup> ), Iceland (approximately 10.9 km<sup>2</sup> ), Franz Josef Land (approximately 13.7 km<sup>2</sup> ), and Novaya Zemlya (approximately 23.6 km2 ).

The response of the Greenland ice sheet to climate change is slower, because more than a half of its surface experiences temperatures well below the freezing point during the entire year. Changes in temperature or precipitation cause a more rapid response in smaller glaciers and ice caps, which are more sensitive [4]. Throughout the Arctic, except for Russian Arctic, the mass balance (difference between annual mass gain and annual mass loss) is only monitored on 27 glaciers. Four of them are located on Svalbard (Midre Lovenbreen, Austre Broggerbreen, Kongsvegen, and Hansbreen) [29].

The Svalbard archipelago includes four main islands (Spitsbergen, Nordautslandet, Edgeøya, and Barentsøya) and occupies an area of 62,248 km<sup>2</sup> . Approximately, 60% of the Svalbard archipelago is covered with ice. The glacier inventory of Svalbard amounts to 1615 glaciers and ice caps, of which 17 are under permanent or periodic mass balance research.

Sixty percent of Svalbard glaciers are terminating in the sea at calving ice-cliffs. Ref. [7] has emphasized that due to calving, the annual specific mass loss of Svalbard glaciers is much higher than from the Greenland ice sheet and seems to be the highest in the Arctic. Each of the main islands of the archipelago represents a different type of landscape (more detailed information is provided in Table 3). On Spitsbergen, the largest island of the archipelago, 90% of glaciers are considered polythermal (subpolar) [8, 30, 31].

Although the dominant component of Spitsbergen landscapes is rugged mountains with glaciers, its eastern part is covered with several large ice caps. Together with ice caps from three other islands, also calving into the sea, they all develop a calving ice front with a total length of approximately 1000 km. The total volume of the ice masses of Svalbard is estimated at 7000 km3 [7, 32].

## 3.1. Role of glaciers in the Svalbard environment

3. Svalbard glaciers and climate warming

Together they occupy an area of 1,972,600 km2

shown in Figure 5.

"GLACIODYN" The dynamic response of Arctic glaciers to global

10 Glacier Evolution in a Changing World

"SvalGlac" Sensitivity of Svalbard glaciers to climate change

"Ice2sea" Estimating the future contribution of continental ice to the

"ICEMASS"ERC advanced grant global glacier mass continuity

"CRYOMET" Bridging models for the terrestrial cryosphere and the atmosphere (2012–2015)

"SEISMOGLAC"-Seismic monitoring of glacier activity on Svalbard (2012–

2015)

sea-level rise (2009–2013)

warming (2007–2010)

Part of the cryosphere of the northern hemisphere categorized as "ice on land" is distributed irregularly in the Arctic. Therefore, glaciers and ice caps are subject to different climatic conditions. In Ref. [5], 10 regions of the Arctic are specified as covered by extensive glaciation.

Abbreviations: RCN: Research Council of Norway, ESF: European Science Foundation, ERC: European Research Council.

Project (years of implementation) Scope of research Source of

1. Current mass budget of each glacier (including calving); 2. Subglacial processes (hydrology and sliding interactions); 3. New models of calving processes (numerical models includ-

4. Prediction of glacier response to climate change scenarios.

1. Measurements of mass budget, glacier flow velocity, glacier thickness and hydrothermal structure, weather; 2. Studies on actual glacier topography and shallow ice cores

1. Studies of key processes in longer-lived elements of the cryosphere (mountain glacier systems, ice caps, ice sheets); 2. Improvement of satellite determinations of current changes

3. Development of a detailed forecast of the contribution of continental ice to the sea-level rise over the next 200 years by

1. Data collection and analysis regarding glacier thickness changes, and converting the data to a global glacier mass

2. Estimation of the current sea-level contribution from glaciers; 3. Studies on glacier mass changes reflecting climate change

4. Examination of the impact of glacier imbalance on river run-

2. Collection of cryosphere data sets constituting variables with

3. Studies on further probabilistic downscaling of snow cover

4. Tests of upscaling schemes for the surface energy balance in polar WRF (cryosphere-atmosphere feedbacks).

1. Validation of the polar weather research and forecasting

ing functions of sliding and calving);

(for the past climate reconstruction).

means of ice-sheet/glacier models.

model (WRF) land surface scheme;

by means of snow distribution models;

2. Finding the source location of ice quakes;

1. Studies on the relation between glacial process and

3. Use of automatic pattern recognition methods to classify

in continental ice masses;

budget;

patterns;

Polar WRF;

seismicity;

their signals.

Table 2. International research projects in Svalbard within the framework of which glaciers are studied.

off.

funding

RCN

ESF

ERC

ERC

RCN

RCN

. The percent contribution of each of them is

Glaciers occur in places where climatic and topographic conditions favour snow accumulation. Their role may be considered both at the global scale and at the regional scale, as shown in Figure 6.


Table 3. Dominant types of landscapes and extent of glaciation of the main Svalbard archipelago islands [8, 32].

Figure 6. The role of glaciers in the environment [5, 32].

Glaciers adjust their size in response to changes in climate, e.g. in temperature and precipitation. Therefore, they are considered very sensitive climate indicators. Changes in their size or shape may be observed over several decades or even several years. Svalbard glaciers also have a contribution in the sea level rise, estimated at 4% of the total contribution of smaller glaciers and ice caps. The contribution of the archipelago corresponds to the ratio between the glaciated area of Svalbard and the global surface covered by glaciers and ice caps [4, 8].

For the Arctic environment, with a fragile homeostasis, the regional role of glaciers is significant [10, 32]. Glaciers are the most visible component of the Svalbard environment. Due to this, they can also be considered a major geomorphological factor of the entire archipelago [32]. They respond the fastest and strongest to climate changes among all environmental components, and are a major regulator of water circulation in the Arctic [33]. Ref. [32] has emphasised the role of glacier runoff in Svalbard, a factor affecting not only the hydrology of rivers, but also circulation in the neighbouring seas and fjords, due to changes in stratification within the water column. Local climate and biota may also be influenced by changes in the glacial runoff, affecting the sea ice conditions of the archipelago. Even deep-water production close to the shelf of Svalbard may be influenced by a rapid discharge of freshwater from glaciers [32].
