Alpine glaciology and climatology

This course will give competence and skills to describe and analyze cryosphere dynamics and evolution with a particular focus on climate change driven impacts on Alpine glaciers. Methods and techniques to survey glaciers and several approaches to model their dynamics, to reconstruct their mass and to compute the energy exchanges at the ice-atmosphere interface will be described and explained. The course will take advantage from field activities (mainly at the Forni Glacier, the widest Italian valley glacier where a UNIMI permanent Automatic Weather Station has been running since the last decade) and laboratory experiences to permit to the students to acquire competence and skills for collecting, processing, analyzing and modelling glacier data.

The students will acquire competence and skills for collecting, processing, analyzing and modelling glacier data.