Andrea Fischer (scientist)

Last updated
Andrea Fischer
Born1973 (age 5051)
Alma mater University of Graz
University of Innsbruck
Scientific career
Institutions Austrian Academy of Sciences
University of Innsbruck
Thesis Icedynamics of Vatnajökull, Iceland, investigated by means of ERS SAR interferometry  (2002)

Andrea Fischer (born 1973) is an Austrian glaciologist, Professor and Vice Director of the Institute of Interdisciplinary Mountain Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences [1] . She was named as the Austrian Scientist of the Year in 2023.

Contents

Early life and education

Fischer is from St. Johann in Tirol [2] and grew up in Salzburg. [1] She studied physics and environmental sciences as an undergraduate at the University of Graz. [3] In 2003 she obtained her PhD in the field of remote sensing of snow and ice at the University of Innsbruck. Here she used European Remote-Sensing Satellite synthetic-aperture radar interferograms to monitor surges of glaciers in the Vatnajökull ice cap. [4] Her research indicated that the glacier's surge cycle lasts for several years, with an early stage characterised by slowly increasing motion and more distinct velocity changes during the final two years of the surge cycle. [4] She was a postdoctoral research at the University of Innsbruck and the Commission for Geophysical Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, where she focussed on glaciology, hydrology and geophysics. [3]

Research and career

In 2010 Fischer was made a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Mountain Research at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. [3] Fischer studies the melting of Alpine glaciers. [5] She leads the Human-Environment Relationships, High Mountains at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW). She has studied the dynamics of climate change on the surface and subsurface of glaciers. Her research revealed that the glaciers are mainly eroded. To understand the impact of climate change, Fischer has monitored the mass balance of various glaciers. The mass balance is the overall balance of the mass gained by snow, and lost to melting (both at the surface and under the floating ice) and calving (i.e. when producing icebergs). Fischer has monitored the mass balance of Hallstätter Glacier, Mullwitzkees (Großvenediger) and Jamtalferner (Silvretta). [6] In October 2021 during a fieldwork trip to Jamtalferner glacier, she and her colleagues discovered a large cave in the middle of it, which is unusual. This glacier has been studied since 1892 and she and her colleagues had been measuring the ice every one to three weeks, which was rapidly melting. The cave was gone by June 2022. [1]

In 2022 she found a small, frozen chamois ("goat-antelope") in the Gepatsch Ferner, which she believed was 500 years old. [7] [8]

Awards and honours

Select publications

Personal life

Fischer is a former Austrian ice climbing champion.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glaciology</span> Scientific study of ice and natural phenomena involving ice

Glaciology is the scientific study of glaciers, or, more generally, ice and natural phenomena that involve ice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jökulhlaup</span> Type of glacial outburst flood

A jökulhlaup is a type of glacial outburst flood. It is an Icelandic term that has been adopted in glaciological terminology in many languages. It originally referred to the well-known subglacial outburst floods from Vatnajökull, Iceland, which are triggered by geothermal heating and occasionally by a volcanic subglacial eruption, but it is now used to describe any large and abrupt release of water from a subglacial or proglacial lake/reservoir.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snow line</span> Boundary between a snow-covered and snow-free surface

The climatic snow line is the boundary between a snow-covered and snow-free surface. The actual snow line may adjust seasonally, and be either significantly higher in elevation, or lower. The permanent snow line is the level above which snow will lie all year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ice cap</span> Ice mass that covers less than 50,000 km² of land area

In glaciology, an ice cap is a mass of ice that covers less than 50,000 km2 (19,000 sq mi) of land area. Larger ice masses covering more than 50,000 km2 (19,000 sq mi) are termed ice sheets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenland ice sheet</span> Vast body of ice in Greenland, Northern Hemisphere

The Greenland ice sheet is an ice sheet which forms the second largest body of ice in the world. It is an average of 1.67 km (1.0 mi) thick, and over 3 km (1.9 mi) thick at its maximum. It is almost 2,900 kilometres (1,800 mi) long in a north–south direction, with a maximum width of 1,100 kilometres (680 mi) at a latitude of 77°N, near its northern edge. The ice sheet covers 1,710,000 square kilometres (660,000 sq mi), around 80% of the surface of Greenland, or about 12% of the area of the Antarctic ice sheet. The term 'Greenland ice sheet' is often shortened to GIS or GrIS in scientific literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Glacier Monitoring Service</span> International research organization

The World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) was started in 1986, combining the two former services PSFG and TTS/WGI. It is a service of the International Association of the Cryospheric Sciences of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics as well as of the World Data System of the International Council for Science and works under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thwaites Glacier</span> Antarctic glacier

Thwaites Glacier is an unusually broad and vast Antarctic glacier located east of Mount Murphy, on the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land. It was initially sighted by polar researchers in 1940, mapped in 1959–1966 and officially named in 1967, after the late American glaciologist Fredrik T. Thwaites. The glacier flows into Pine Island Bay, part of the Amundsen Sea, at surface speeds which exceed 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) per year near its grounding line. Its fastest-flowing grounded ice is centered between 50 and 100 kilometres east of Mount Murphy. Like many other parts of the cryosphere, it has been adversely affected by climate change, and provides one of the more notable examples of the retreat of glaciers since 1850.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glacier mass balance</span> Difference between accumulation and melting on a glacier

Crucial to the survival of a glacier is its mass balance of which surface mass balance (SMB), the difference between accumulation and ablation. Climate change may cause variations in both temperature and snowfall, causing changes in the surface mass balance. Changes in mass balance control a glacier's long-term behavior and are the most sensitive climate indicators on a glacier. From 1980 to 2012 the mean cumulative mass loss of glaciers reporting mass balance to the World Glacier Monitoring Service is −16 m. This includes 23 consecutive years of negative mass balances.

Glacial surges are short-lived events where a glacier can advance substantially, moving at velocities up to 100 times faster than normal. Surging glaciers cluster around a few areas. High concentrations of surging glaciers occur in the Karakoram, Pamir Mountains, Svalbard, the Canadian Arctic islands, Alaska and Iceland, although overall it is estimated that only one percent of all the world's glaciers ever surge. In some glaciers, surges can occur in fairly regular cycles, with 15 to 100 or more surge events per year. In other glaciers, surging remains unpredictable. In some glaciers, however, the period of stagnation and build-up between two surges typically lasts 10 to 200 years and is called the quiescent phase. During this period the velocities of the glacier are significantly lower, and the glaciers can retreat substantially.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Retreat of glaciers since 1850</span> Shortening of glaciers by melting

The retreat of glaciers since 1850 is well documented and is one of the effects of climate change. The retreat of mountain glaciers provide evidence for the rise in global temperatures since the late 19th century. Examples include mountain glaciers in western North America, Asia, the Alps in central Europe and tropical and subtropical regions of South America and Africa. Since glacial mass is affected by long-term climatic changes, e.g., precipitation, mean temperature, and cloud cover, glacial mass changes are one of the most sensitive indicators of climate change. Retreat of glaciers is also a major reason for sea level rise. Excluding peripheral glaciers of ice sheets, the total cumulated global glacial losses over the 26-year period from 1993 to 2018 were likely 5500 gigatons, or 210 gigatons per yr.

Radioglaciology is the study of glaciers, ice sheets, ice caps and icy moons using ice penetrating radar. It employs a geophysical method similar to ground-penetrating radar and typically operates at frequencies in the MF, HF, VHF and UHF portions of the radio spectrum. This technique is also commonly referred to as "Ice Penetrating Radar (IPR)" or "Radio Echo Sounding (RES)".

Mark Dyurgerov was an internationally known glaciologist and Fellow of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) of the University of Colorado at Boulder. He was born in Moscow, Russia; both of his parents were engineers, and his mother was also a Russian poet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Storstrommen (Greenland)</span>

Storstrommen, is one of the major glaciers in northeastern Greenland. The North-East Greenland Ice Stream (NEGIS) discharges into 3 main marine-terminating outlets: 79N Glacier, Zachariae Isstrøm and Storstrommen - as arranged North to South.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guðfinna Aðalgeirsdóttir</span> Icelandic academic

Guðfinna 'Tollý' Aðalgeirsdóttir is professor in Geophysics at the Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1996 eruption of Gjálp</span>

Gjálp is a hyaloclastite ridge (tindar) in Iceland under the Vatnajökull glacier shield. Its present form resulted from an eruption series in 1996 and it is probably part of the Grímsvötn volcanic system. However not all the scientists were of this opinion, as seismic studies are consistent with a 10 km (6.2 mi) lateral dike intrusion at about 5 km (3.1 mi) depth from Bárðarbunga being the trigger event. This does not exclude a shallower secondary intrusion from Grímsvötn being important in the subaerial eruption itself.

Jacob Sebastian Haugaard Mernild is a Danish professor in climate change, glaciology and hydrology, who is the pro-vice-chancellor of the University of Southern Denmark. Mernild has been an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) author for the United Nations since 2010. Initially a contributing author on the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, he was lead author on the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report.

Twila Moon is a scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center known for her work on the Greenland ice sheet.

Ruth Mottram is a British climate scientist who is a researcher at the Danish Meteorological Institute. Her research considers the development of climate models and the dynamics of glaciers and ice sheets in the climate system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Igor Zotikov</span> Russian glaciologist

Igor Alekseevich Zotikov was a Russian glaciologist, polar explorer and academic. Zotikov was best known for predicting the existence of fresh water lakes under the Antarctic ice sheet, later to be discovered as Lake Vostok. For his efforts a glacier was named after him, Zotikov Glacier.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Forrester, Nikki (July 17, 2023). "My glacier is melting — and I'm charting its decline". Nature . doi:10.1038/d41586-023-02308-y.
  2. Lehmann, Oliver (2024-01-08). "From the glacier to the ball room | Wiener Ball der Wissenschaften 2024" . Retrieved 2024-01-29.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "A. Fischer". www.oeaw.ac.at. Retrieved 2024-01-29.
  4. 1 2 Fischer, Andrea; Rott, Helmut; Björnsson, Helgi (2003). "Observation of recent surges of Vatnajökull, Iceland, by means of ERS SAR interferometry". Annals of Glaciology. 37: 69–76. doi:10.3189/172756403781815546. ISSN   0260-3055.
  5. "Meet the scientists going to extreme lengths to study climate change". www.sciencefocus.com. Retrieved 2024-01-29.
  6. "Andrea Fischer Glaziologie Gletscherkunde Gebirgsforschung Klima Klimawandel Gletscherschmelze - Projekte". www.andreafischer.at (in German). Retrieved 2024-01-29.
  7. "500-year-old 'goatelope' mummy found in melting European glacier". Environment. 2022-08-11. Retrieved 2024-01-29.
  8. "AP PHOTOS: In the warming Alps, Austria's melting glaciers are in their final decades". AP News. 2023-09-23. Retrieved 2024-01-29.
  9. "AUSTRIA'13: "Die Presse" zeichnet die Österreicher des Jahres aus". Die Presse (in German). 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2024-01-28.
  10. "Andrea Fischer". www.oeaw.ac.at (in German). Retrieved 2024-01-28.
  11. "Andrea Fischer | Falling Walls". falling-walls.com. Retrieved 2024-01-28.
  12. "Glaziologin Andrea Fischer ist "Wissenschaftlerin des Jahres"". Die Presse (in German). 2024-01-08. Retrieved 2024-01-28.