Climate Change in the tropical Andes Impacts and consequences for

glaciation and water resources

Part II: Climate and Glacier Monitoring
A report prepared by

MATHIAS VUILLE
with contributions from
BERNARD FRANCOU
DOUGLAS R. HARDY
GEORG KASER
RAYMOND S. BRADLEY

Climate Change in the tropical Andes

Impacts and consequences for glaciation
and water resources
Part II: Climate and Glacier Monitoring
A report for CONAM and the World Bank
prepared by

MATHIAS VUILLE
(University of Massachusetts)

with contributions from

BERNARD FRANCOU (IRD)
DOUGLAS R. HARDY (University of Massachusetts)
GEORG KASER (University of Innsbruck)
RAYMOND S. BRADLEY (University of Massachusetts)

Amherst, Massachusetts, 29. May, 2007

Cover photo: Carsten Braun working on AWS on Nevado Illimani (6265 m),
Cordillera Real, Bolivia, July 1997 (photo credit: M. Vuille)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1) INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................2
2) UMASS-CSRC ACTIVITIES .............................................................................3
3) INNSBRUCK-ITGG ACTIVITIES .....................................................................7
4) IRD ACTIVITIES ...................................................................................................11
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................16

1) INTRODUCTION
This second report is intended to give a state-of-the-art overview of past and
current monitoring and research activities by the Universities of Massachusetts (CSRC),
Innsbruck (ITGG) and the IRD. It focuses exclusively on climatologic, glaciologic, and
hydrologic monitoring networks which have been installed and maintained by the three
groups. It does not, however, include activities by other foreign research groups nor does
it discuss the networks maintained and operated by the national meteorological or
hydrological services such as SENAMHI, INRENA or INAMHI.
The report is meant to give an accurate description of current monitoring efforts,
but it does not address the adequacy or shortcomings of these installations and
monitoring sites. This issue is discussed separately in the third volume (see Part III:
Future recommendations).
We hope that the overview presented in this report can provide a starting point for
discussions as to how this network could be better maintained and expanded in the near
future. It may also serve as a reference framework regarding design and operation of
future stations and monitoring networks. Ultimately the long-term goal of such a network
must be to assure continuity of the data stream and procurement of long, reliable and
homogeneous glacier and climate records from the tropical Andes for many more years to
come.

2) UMASS-CSRC ACTIVITIES
Climate monitoring activities by the Climate System Research Center (CSRC) at
the University of Massachusetts, Amherst started in 1996, when a high-elevation station
was deployed at 6515 m a.s.l. on the summit of Sajama, the highest peak in Bolivia
(Hardy et al., 1998). Since then the group, lead by Dr. D.R. Hardy, has specialized in
extreme high-elevation automated weather station (AWS) design and instrumentation. A
second station was installed only a year later near the summit of Illimani in the Cordillera
Real of Bolivia at 6265 m (Hardy et al., 2001). A third station was deployed in 2003 on
Quelccaya Ice Cap in the Cordillera Vilcanota, Peru at 5670 m (Figure 1).

Quelccaya Ice Cap,

Peru: 5670m (18,598ft)

Figure 1: AWS on the summit of Quelccaya Ice cap, Cordillera Vilcanota, Peru (Photo D.R. Hardy).

The main motivation for the installation of these AWS was to gain a better
understanding of climate at these high-elevation sites, in support of tropical ice core
interpretations. At all three sites long ice core records have since been retrieved
(Thompson et al., 1985, 1998; Knuesel et al., 2002, 2005; Ramirez et al., 2003). It is
generally acknowledged that the interpretation of these records, in particular variations in
the stable water isotope composition, is not well constrained and that they lack an
adequate calibration. The AWS deployed by the CSRC have helped in these calibration
efforts by providing unique, on-site, high-elevation climate measurements. The clear
focus on climate research rather than monitoring, however, has limited their duration of
deployment. Operating these AWS for more than 3-4 years usually goes way beyond
what funding agencies are willing to support, so after a few years of operation the stations
generally have to be disassembled. Maintaining these high-elevation stations is extremely
time consuming and expensive (see Part III: Future recommendations), but without

careful maintenance and calibration, data quality will rapidly deteriorate. At some sites
the stations are even in danger of being buried and lost. AWS located on glaciers for
example need to be constantly raised or lowered in order to prevent them from being
buried by snow or melting out and tipping over. Frequent exchange of instruments is
necessary in order to recalibrate sensors or replace damaged measurement devices. Today
only one station, Quelccaya is still operating, while the climate monitoring on Sajama
and Illimani came to an end several years ago (see Table 1) for financial reasons. The
focus on supporting ice core calibration efforts also explains why these stations were all
installed on the highest peaks, in contrast to the IRD and Innsbruck stations (see sections
3 and 4), which are usually located on or near the ablation zone of glaciers to monitor the
glacier surface energy balance (SEB).
STATION

CORDILLERA

COUNTRY

Sajama
Illimani
Quelccaya

C. Occidental
C. Real
C. Vilcanota

Bolivia
Bolivia
Peru

ELEVATION

START

END DATE

6515 m
6265 m
5670 m

9/1996
7/1997
8/2003

10/2000
11/2001
operating

Table 1: Table of AWS network maintained by the CSRC-UMass.

All CSRC stations are equipped with telemetry through a Geostationary

Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), which allows immediate data recovery and
near real-time assessment of any unforeseen problems. Data are sent hourly to the
satellite with a transmitter. This is essential given the remote high-elevation location of
the stations, which precludes immediate and unscheduled visits for repair and service. In
addition data is also stored on-site through a data logger, in case telemetry fails (e.g.
when antenna is covered by snow), and it also allows storing additional data, which may
exceed the transmission capacity. Measurements include all standard meteorological
variables, such as wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, air temperature
(aspirated and naturally ventilated), relative humidity (aspirated and naturally ventilated)
and vapor pressure, incoming and reflected solar and longwave radiation, snow
accumulation and ablation, snow surface temperature, and snow (firn) temperature at
various depths (see Figure 2 and Table 2). The sampling interval and the interval at which
data is stored and transmitted varies by station and sensor, but generally ranges on the
order of 60 s to 10 min for sampling interval and 1-3 h for storage. The stations are
powered by 12V DC systems, composed of 5-20 W solar panels and regulators which
recharge sealed lead-acid batteries.
The main problem with maintaining such remote high-elevation AWS is the
difficulty of frequent and unscheduled visits. On average stations are serviced about once
a year, when stations are raised, data is downloaded and sensors are replaced and brought
back for calibration. In some years and locations (Illimani, in particular) snowfall was
significantly higher than anticipated, which resulted in partial burial of the sensors. The
changing distance between sensor and surface as snow accumulates throughout the wet
season may also affect the data quality of some measurements. Nonetheless the stations
have generally operated exceptionally well and provided several years of data from
locations where previously absolutely no climatic information was available.

A more detailed description of the CSRC station design and operation of the
AWS on Sajama can be found in Hardy et al., (1998, 2003).

Figure 2: Example from Quelccaya Ice cap of a fully automated and instrumented high-elevation weather
station designed and maintained by D. R. Hardy (CSRC-UMASS). See text for detailed
explanation.

Table 2: Configuration of the Sajama and Illimani AWS (Hardy et al., 1998).

3) INNSBRUCK-ITGG ACTIVITIES
Glacier and climate monitoring activities by the University of Innsbruck Tropical
Glaciology Group (ITGG) have focused primarily on the Cordillera Blanca in Peru.
Much of their work was done in collaboration with local glaciologists, such as Jesus
Gomez from INRENA and built on previous monitoring efforts and data collection by
Electroperu S.A, which started runoff and precipitation measurements in the region back
in 1953 (1949 in Paron). Ablation measurements on several glaciers started in the early
the 1970s (Ames, 1985; Kaser et al., 1990), in particular on Yanamarey and Uruashraju
glaciers (Figure 3). Early attempts to measure accumulation, however, were not
successful, so that no long mass balance records exist for this region. Instead mass
balance was reconstructed indirectly based on runoff records from the region (Kaser et
al., 2003). The change of the terminus position is easier to assess than mass balance and
has been determined annually for three small glaciers between the 1960s and 1994 (Ames
et al., 1989, see also Table 3.). The ITGG built on these records and determined the
terminus position of glaciers Vallunaraju and Chinchey using differential GPS (Global
Positioning System) between 1999 and 2001.

Figure 3: Location of glaciers and AWS sites in the Cordillera Blanca, Per, installed and maintained by
ITGG (Juen, 2006).

Table 3: Historical and recent glaciological observations in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru (Juen, 2006).

The deployment of AWS by the ITGG began in 1999. Three AWS were installed
and maintained for a varying amount of time. These include the Rurichinchey AWS,
installed in September 1999 below the glacier at 4600 m a.s.l.; the Vallunaraju AWS,
installed in May 2000 on a ridge at 5000 m a.s.l. alongside the glacier and a second
Rurichinchey AWS, also installed on a ridge near the glacier at the equilibrium line
altitude (ELA) of 5100 m a.s.l. in October 2000 (Georges and Kaser, 2002). An
additional AWS was installed in 2002 near glacier Shallap (Table 4).
The AWS are all equipped with similar instruments as the UMASS stations (see
previous section), albeit that they are designed somewhat differently due to differing
research questions. They are all equipped with sensors to measure wind speed and
direction, air temperature and relative humidity (both aspirated and naturally ventilated)
and incoming shortwave radiation. Two of the stations were later (in 2004) equipped with
a precipitation balance.
In March 2004 two energy balance stations were installed by ITGG on the glacier
surface itself (Juen, 2006). These stations are designed to measure all relevant fluxes to
establish a full glacier energy balance. The stations were deployed on Glacier Artesonraju
at 4850 and 4750 m a.s.l., respectively, because IRD already maintained a runoff station
below the glacier at the outlet of Lake Artesoncocha at 4200 m since April 2000 (see next
section and Figure 4). Joining forces, combining measurements and exchanging data
turned out to be a successful strategy and mutually beneficial for both groups. These
energy balance stations were complemented with a high-elevation station at 5100 m on a
side moraine of the glacier (Figure 5).
The ITGG stations were not running continuously (see Table 4), for various
reasons (Juen, 2006). There is, however, enough overlap between the individual records
to allow for the creation of a continuous time series (e.g. with the first difference method,
Vuille and Bradley, 2000) between 2000 and 2005.

Figure 4: Runoff gauge at the outlet of Lake Artesoncocha (4200 m a.s.l.), maintained by IRD. (Photo: B.
Pouyaud, in Juen, 2006).

Figure 5: AWS near glacier Artesonraju at 5100 m a.s.l., maintained by ITGG. (Photo G. Kaser, in Juen,
2006).

Table 4: Summary diagram of AWS deployed in the Cordillera Blanca by ITGG (Juen, 2006).

10

4) IRD ACTIVITIES
Glacier and climate monitoring activities by the Institut de Recherche pour le
Dveloppement (IRD, formerly ORSTOM), are the most extensive and long-lived of all
three groups. The studies by IRD focus on glaciers in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, which
are considered typical of the regional climate in the inner tropics (Ecuador), the
subtropics (Peru) and the outer tropics (Bolivia), respectively. In general IRD tends to
select a small and a large glacier at each study site, to assess differences in their
sensitivity and response to climate change.

Figure 6: Location of glaciers monitored by IRD.

Glacier monitoring started in Bolivia in 1991 by installing ablation stakes on two

glaciers, Chacaltaya and Zongo, both located close to La Paz in the Cordillera Real
(Pouyaud et al., 1995; Francou et al., 1995). The first ablation stakes were installed on
Zongo glacier in July 1991 (Francou et al., 1995; Ribstein et al., 1995a, Wagnon et al.,
2001). A limnimetric station measuring the proglacial stream discharge at 4830 m
complements the ablation measurement on the glacier and has been merged with older
gauge readings by an electric power plant dating back to 1973 (Ribstein et al., 1995a, b).
In addition two AWS were installed on Zongo in 1993 near the ELA at 5150 m and in the
11

ablation zone at 5060 m (Figure 7). In March 1996 these stations were complemented by
a suite of sensors to measure the entire glacier energy balance and in 1998 by ultrasonic
depth sounders (Wagnon et al., 1999; Sicart et al., 2002). Measurements include
ventilated wet and dry bulb temperature, wind speed and direction, incident and reflected
shortwave radiation, net all wave radiation, snow height change and snow temperatures at
various depths. In addition nine different rain gauges surrounding the glacier have been
operating since 1995. These precipitation measurements are complemented by 3-5 snow
pits, which are dug every year in the accumulation area between 5500 m and 5700 m (see
also Figure 9).

Figure 7: AWS on Zongo Glacier, Cordillera Real, Bolivia (photo: B. Francou).

On Chacaltaya a network of ablation stakes was installed in September 1991. This

network was extended twice, in 1995 and in 1996 by adding additional stakes to achieve
a better spatial coverage of the entire glacier (Francou et al., 2003). In August 1991
several rain gauges were installed surrounding the glacier, effectively complementing the
existing long rainfall record at the nearby astronomical observatory, dating back to 1953.
Because glacier Chacaltaya has almost completely disappeared, the monitoring activities

12

have mostly ceased and been transferred to Charquini glacier, located about half way
between Chacaltaya and Zongo. A proglacial discharge station had already been installed
there back in 1995.
The glacier monitoring networks pioneered by IRD in Bolivia were later
successfully implemented in Peru and Ecuador. In 1994 two glaciers in the Cordillera
Blanca, Artesonraju and Yanamarey, were chosen for similar activities. Besides
accumulation and ablation measurements the network also includes pluviometric readings
and runoff measurements at the outlet of Lake Artesonraju below the glacier (see Figure
4 and Pouyaud et al., 1998).
In Ecuador the ablation zone of glacier 15 on Antizana was the first to be
equipped with a network of ablation stakes by IRD in June 1994 (Pouyaud et al., 1998).
This stake network was expanded the following year and in 1996 pluviometers and a
stream gauge below the glacier snout were added (Francou et al., 2004). Finally in
September 1998 an AWS was deployed at 4890 m on the glacier ablation zone to
complete the monitoring setup (Figure 8). Some of the radiometers needed for a complete
glacier energy balance, however, were only installed in March 2002 (Favier et al., 2004).
More recently glacier monitoring activities in Ecuador have been expanded to glacier
Carihuayrazo (Francou et al., 2005).

Figure 8: Example of a glacier monitoring network by the IRD (example of Antizana 15, Ecuador),
including mass balance stakes, AWS, several rain gauges and a stream gauge (Francou et al.,
2004).

13

What sets the IRD activities apart from all other research groups is their
maintenance of an extended network of ablation and accumulation stakes, which are
visited monthly by IRD or affiliated personnel. These measurements have proven
especially valuable as they allowed for the first time to assess in detail how accumulation
and ablation vary throughout the year under tropical and subtropical conditions (Francou
et al., 2003, 2004). These measurements are summarized in annual reports by the IRD
and are also being furnished to the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) at the
University of Zrich, Switzerland, where the data is made available to the public (to
access the data go to: http://www.geo.unizh.ch/wgms/). To get a sense of total mass
accumulation in the higher reaches of the glacier, snow pits are dug roughly twice a year
in the accumulation zone of all glaciers. An overview over the different mass balance
measurements on the glacier, performed routinely by IRD personnel or their affiliates is
given in Figure 9.

Figure 9: Mass balance measurements performed by IRD on various glaciers in the tropical Andes (Photo:
B. Francou).

Finally IRD also monitors the extent of their glaciers annually with
photogrammetric surveys and smaller glaciers such as Chacaltaya have been surveyed
repeatedly with radar to estimate the change in total ice volume (Ramirez et al., 2001).
These recent estimates have been put into a longer term context by comparing them with
aerial photographs and satellite data (see Part I: The Scientific Basis). Today the network
of monitoring sites maintained by IRD spans 11 different sites. A schematic overview
over these activities is given in Table 5.

14

GLACIERS
Zongo 16S1
Chacaltaya1 16S
Charquini S1 16S
Charquini N1 16S
Sullcn 12S2
Yanaramey2 10S

BM
+
+
+
+
+
+

BH
+
+
+
+
+

GTS
+
+
+

APR
+
+
+
+

BE
+

T, P
+
+
+

+
+

Uruashraju3 10S

Artesonraju2 9S

Carihuairazo4 1S
Antizana 155 028S
Antizana 125
Los Crespos 028S

+
+
+

+
+

+
+
+

+
+

+
+

ECONOMIC SETTING
Hydropower La Paz
Fresh water La Paz
Fresh water La Paz
Hydropower La Paz
Fresh water Hydropower Lima
Irrigation Peruvian coast
Hydropower
Irrigation Peruvian coast
Hydropower
Irrigation Peruvian coast
Hydropower
Irrigation
Fresh water Quito Irrigation
Fresh water Quito Irrigation

Table 5: The glacier monitoring network maintained by IRD and its South American partners.
1
IRD-IHH-COBEE-SENAMHI, 2IRD-UGRH-INRENA, 3INRENA, 4IRD-INAMHI, 5IRD-INAMHIEMAAP-Q.
Bm: mass balance (stakes, pits, drillings), Bh: hydrological balance with rain gauge and runoff
stations, GTS: ground topographical survey, APR: periodic aerophotogrammetrical restitution,
Be: energy balance, T,P: basic meteorological station (temperature and pluviometry).

15

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17