Pasterze glacier, Austria

The Pasterze is the largest glacier of Austria and the Eastern Alps and stretches out below Austria's biggest mountain, the Grossglockner. It is about 9 km long and has lost more then half of its area since 1856, melting down from 30 km2 to approximately 14 km2.

The highest spot is at 3463 m, the Johannisberg, from where the glacier flows down through the so called horseshoe-break to the actual Pasterze to ca. 2100 m, stopping short before the Sandersee. The water feeds the reservoir Margaritze. A cablecar connects the Franz-Josefs-Höhe, a touristic platform with hotels and restaurant, linked to the Grossglockner High-Alpine-Road, with the spot where in 1963 the rim of glacier used to be. Now it lies about 300 m deeper.

The Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics Vienna (ZAMG) is regularily measuring the mass-balance of the Pasterze. These data are the basis for a climatic mass-balance model, ment to forecast future developements of the glacier.

In 2007 the ZAMG published the book Gletscher im Klimawandel (Glaciers and Climate Change), describing the connections between climate and glacier dynamics.

Dr. Wolfgang Schöner, climatologist at the ZAMG Vienna
and Matthias Siebert, technical consultant