Tarfala Research Station staff
This dataset contains the annual surface mass balance for Moarhmmáglaciären, also referred to as Mårmaglaciären, obtained from the direct glaciological method, since 1990 and updated annually.
The data is specified as annual winter balance, summer balance, and net balance, and amended by cumulative net mass balance.
The surface mass balance of Moarhmmáglaciären is a unique long-term observational measurement series, maintained by staff of Stockholm University’s Tarfala Research Station. The surface mass balance is derived from a rather detail grid of individual measurement points (ca 6 stake points, and ca 50 sonding points, with slight variations over time) across the entire glacier.
Moarhmmáglaciären is one of Sweden’s four so-called reference glaciers (glaciers for which more than 30 years of continuous measurements are available) included in the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) database.
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Citation
Tarfala Research Station staff (2025) Glacier surface mass balance for Moarhmmáglaciären, Northern Sweden. Dataset version 1. Bolin Centre Database. https://doi.org/10.17043/tarfala-marma-surface-mass-balance-1
References
World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) (2024) Fluctuations of Glaciers Database [dataset]. World Glacier Monitoring Service. https://doi.org/10.5904/WGMS-FOG-2024-01
Cogley JG, Hock R, Rasmussen LA, Arendt AA, Bauder A, Braithwaite RJ, JanssonP, Kaser G, Möller M, Nicholson L, Zemp M (2011) Glossary of Glacier Mass Balance and Related Terms, IHP-VII Technical Documents in Hydrology No. 86, IACS Contribution No. 2, UNESCO-IHP, Paris. https://wgms.ch/downloads/Cogley_etal_2011.pdf
Data description
The dataset is provided in one comma-separated values (csv) file having the following columns:
year year of the measurements. The year indicates the end-year of the glaciological balance year, which extends across two consecutive calendar years.winter_balance mass change at the end of winter (typically, around the month of april) in the current glaciological balance year, given in meter water equivalent (m w.e.)summer_balance mass change at the end of summer (typically, around the month of september) in the current glaciological balance year (in m w.e.) net_balance total mass change (winter balance plus summer balance) over the glaciological balance year (in m w.e.)cumulative_net cumulative sum of the annual net balances (in m w.e.)
See Cogley et al. (2011) for explanation of glaciological terminology.
Comments
This dataset contains the glacier-wide surface mass balance. This means that an average is presented which is derived from all individual measurement locations, where the so-called point mass balance is established. The point mass balance is reported annually to the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), where also other information, such as uncertainties associated with measurements, are reported. In the WGMS database, Moarhmmáglaciären is referred to as Marmaglaciaeren and has identification number 1461. In the current version of the WGMS database (WGMS, 2024), Moarhmmáglaciären’s mass balance ends in 2023, but data for 2024 has been reported to WGMS in December 2024 and will be included in updated versions of the WGMS dataset.
Over the years, staff of Tarfala Research Station has dedicated huge efforts to maintaining this unique measurement series. Please acknowledge Tarfala Research Station and Stockholm University when using this dataset.