Differential GPS (DGPS) measurements at four Austrian glacier ski resorts in 2015

For Austrian glacier ski resorts, established in the 1970s and 1980s during a period of glacier advance, negative mass balances with resulting glacier area loss and decrease in surface elevation present an operational challenge. Glacier cover, snow farming and technical snow production were introduced as adaptation measures based on studies on the effect of these measures on energy and mass balance. After a decade of the application of the various measures, differential GPS (DGPS) measurements were performed in 2015 to calculate the long-term effect of mass balance management on local glacier surface elevation changes. The DGPS measurements were performed using a TOPCON HiPer V Dual-Frequency GNSS receiver. The antenna was either installed directly on a GPR system or carried on a backpack. Raw DGPS data were corrected in post-processing with data of the reference stations Merano, Bolzano, Vipiteno and Malles Venosta provided by the autonomous province of South Tyrol / Alto Adige (http://www.stpos.it/SpiderWeb/frmIndex.aspx). Coordinates are presented in WGS84 World Latitude/Longitude and in UTM ETRS89 Zone North32. Elevations are given above the GRS80 ellipsoid.