APCOM

What is the temperature on the glacier's surface? How much are they shrinking every year? How does their thickness change from winter to summer? Answering to questions like these is the main goal of a research project made by Milano University in Lombard Alps. The researchers, coordinated by the Hearth Science department in Statale University, want to measure water loss caused by glacial fusion and the rise of atmospheric temperatures.

The initiative will produce concrete suggestions to mitigate the effects of global warming on alpine glaciers. Next spring an experimental geotextil particle will be positioned on a glacier surface, to value the effects on the energetic exchanges and on the evolution of the snow beneath it. The experts of glaciers from Milano University will conduct the experiment, in cooperation with Ev-K2-Cnr Committee and with the Italian Alpine Club.

Researchers will operate in Dosdè glacier, in Valtellina. "These glaciers are well representative of glacial resources in Lombardy and Italy", says Claudio Smiraglia, Geografy professor at Milano University. "We want to study the recent evolution and topographic characteristics of Dosdè glacier, to analyze global warming effects on it".