The Albedo Effect - Max Planck's Black-Body Radiation Law on Glaciers
Learn how dark rocks on glacier surfaces absorb solar radiation, following Planck's black-body radiation law. These rocks heat up and speed up ice melt through heat conduction.

Climate models are highly complex computer programs. Around 49 research groups worldwide use them to independently calculate how the atmosphere, oceans, and ice interact. This article explains what physical measurements are taken, why the results still differ from one another, and where the greatest uncertainties lie: in clouds, aerosols, and solar amplification mechanisms.

Milanković Cycles explained: How Earth's orbit – its eccentricity, obliquity, and precession – has been controlling the growth and shrinking of Alpine glaciers for thousands of years.

Glacier water looks pure—but is it? Bacteria, fungi, and antibiotic resistance genes live in the ice. Here’s what scientists have found.

In just over a month, we'll be celebrating two years of Glaciers.Today – live and uninterrupted. However, the idea for the project came about many years earlier. Meanwhile, we've built up an online archive with over 30,000 high-resolution images.

A glacier is more than just ice – it's a frozen archive of Earth's history. The Morteratsch Glacier shows how centuries-old ice becomes visible today – and then disappears.

In Nazaré, where gigantic waves roll, I often wondered: How much energy is actually in a single wave? The answer is impressive. A wave holds enormous potential, a force that, if we could harness it, would change the world.

On the nights of May 10th to 12th, 2024, solar storms / auroras reached a peak in activity, classified as G5 – the highest level on the geomagnetic solar storm scale. At almost 3,000 meters up on the Diavolezza, our cameras captured the breathtaking aurora display.

This winter (2024), we've actually seen more snow on the glaciers and in higher areas, even though the climate is getting warmer. This has several implications for the future of glaciers:

Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (GLAMOS) is a key project for monitoring Swiss glaciers. Led by Professor Matthias Huss from ETH Zurich, it provides data to help us understand the impacts of climate change on glaciers.