LTER Rofental, Austria, Vernagtferner - Annual mass balance of glacier 1965 - 2012

In the centre of the highly glacierized Oetztal valley, mass balance is determined for the three neighbouring glaciers Hintereisferner, Kesselwandferner and Vernagtferner, applying the direct glaciological method, related to the ‘fixed date’ system. The diverging behaviour of the three glaciers due to slightly varying local climatic conditions as well as to different topoclimatological and physiographic features gave reason to analyse the Vernagtferner mass balance separately for three easily discernible sections, i.e. Schwarzwand, Taschachjoch and Brochkogel, each showing characteristic aspect and elevational distributions of area respectively.
[Reinwarth, O. and Escher-Vetter, H., 1999: Mass balance of Vernagtferner, Austria, from 1964/65 to 1996/97: Results for threesections and the entire glacier. Geogr. Ann., 81 A (4): 743–751.]