The Cryosphere Discussions www.the-cryosphere-discuss.net 1994-0432 1994-0440 4 1 2010 10.5194/tcd-4-381-2010 http://www.the-cryosphere-discuss.net/4/381/2010/ http://www.the-cryosphere-discuss.net/4/381/2010/tcd-4-381-2010.html http://www.the-cryosphere-discuss.net/4/381/2010/tcd-4-381-2010.pdf 381 408 2010-03-25 Comparison of glaciological and volumetric mass balance measurements at Storglaciären, Sweden M. Zemp michael.zemp@geo.uzh.ch P. Jansson P. Homlund I. Gärtner-Roer T. Koblet P. Thee W. Haeberli Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstr. 190, 8057 Zürich, Switzerland Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Zürcherstr. 111, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland Seasonal glaciological mass balances have been measured on Storglaciären without interruption since 1945/46. In addition, aerial surveys have been carried out on a decadal basis since the beginning of the observation program. Early studies used the resulting aerial photographs to produce glaciological maps with which the in-situ observations could be verified. However, these maps as well as the derived volume changes are subject to errors which resulted in major differences between the derived volumetric and the glaciological mass balance. As a consequence, the original photographs were re-processed using uniform photogrammetric methods, which resulted in new volumetric mass balances for 1959–1969, 1969–1980, 1980–1990, and 1990–1999. We compare these new volumetric mass balances with mass balances obtained by standard glaciological methods including an uncertainty assessment considering all related previous studies. The absolute differences between volumetric and the glaciological mass balances are 0.9 m w.e. for the period of 1959–1969 and 0.3 m w.e. or less for the other survey periods. 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