Every year, Nina Kirchner spends February to April and June to September at the Tarfala Research Station (TRS). It is run by Stockholm University and is approximately 90 kilometres from Kiruna in the Kebnekaise massif. Her job is to document Sweden’s glaciers and their development. Nina is Sweden’s first female professor of glaciology and director of TRS since 2021.
Within Sweden’s borders, there are 269 glaciers, some extending over the border with Norway. The glaciers cover an area of approx. 250 km2. The number changes over time as the glaciers adapt to the prevailing climate and climate changes. A thinning glacier may split into several small glaciers or melt away completely. Sweden’s glaciers are much smaller than in, for example, Svalbard and Greenland; on average, they are 6,000 to 8,000 years old, compared to the glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica, which have existed for several million years.
What exactly is the definition of a glacier?
– A glacier is formed when the snow that has existed for a long time has become so thick that it has compressed the snow to become ice, which then moves under its own weight and has its own dynamics, explains Nina Kirchner. Similarly, it becomes a dead glacier when it has shrunk enough and no longer moves.
Disturbing amounts of meltwater
2024 was the warmest year ever measured, and a relatively newly invented concept is the ‘endangered glaciers’, says Nina Kirchner. Glacier melting is natural for the earth’s cycle, but the problem today is that the melting takes place so fast that the ecosystem does not have time to adapt. Nature cannot take care of such disturbing amounts of meltwater at once.
– Nina Kirchner says that the glaciers and their situation affect everyone, even if you live a thousand kilometres away from them. And even if the glaciers do not have a direct supply task in Sweden, as in the Himalayas, where you depend on glacier meltwater to get drinking water during the drought, the glaciers affect ecosystems, animals and plants. For instance, reindeer come to the Tarfala Valley to cool off on the glaciers when the weather in the valleys gets too hot.
Glaciers are a source of life and provide fresh water for humans, animals and plants. Almost 70% of the earth’s fresh water is stored as snow or ice and is used as drinking water in agriculture, industry and energy production. Glaciers are found on all continents. There are more than 275,000 glaciers in the world, covering an area of about 700,000 km². Glaciers store about 170,000 km3 of ice, corresponding to about 70% of global fresh water.
Four Swedish reference glaciers
Of the world’s glaciers, there are around 50 so-called reference glaciers, four of which are in Sweden. Reference glacier means continuous measurement data from over 30 years ago. One of them, Storglaciären, has measurement data from almost 80 years ago, which makes the measurement series the world’s longest-detailed one. The traditional technique for measuring the melting of glaciers involves drilling in six 25-meter-long aluminium tubes and observations being made on how much melting occurs around the tubes, as well as the levels required to expose them. Little by little, GPS technology, sensors, drones and satellite images can reform the methods, and the data shows a clear trend.
– The glaciers are a big symbol of global warming, Nina Kirchner says. We are seeing enormous melting: if we continue as we have done so far, the IPCC has predicted that four out of five glaciers in Sweden will have shrunk significantly or melted completely by the year 2100.
Glaciers have a symbolic and visual significance for the discussion around global warming and the climate crisis. In Iceland, a graveyard of glaciers has been symbolically uncovered, and there are many ongoing projects to save them, for example, by covering them with blankets to reduce melting by reflecting the sun’s rays. The glaciers have received more and more media attention, but unfortunately, the attention is negative due to the record-breaking melting.
Recreating time elapsed
Glaciers contain an essential record of past climate and environmental activity in their ice. The disappearance of glaciers results in the loss of unique archives of human, environmental and climate history. As glaciers retreat and disappear, sensitive and unique ecosystems are lost, and with them globally important biodiversity and essential ecosystems.
– With the help of measurement data and climate models, we can produce numerical models for how glaciers behave, says Nina Kirchner. We can recreate the time elapsed and compare it with actual observations. In this way, we have greater confidence in future forecasts, which will be the best possible.
At the beginning of February, Nina Kirchner and her team are again off to the research station. The nearest large city, Kiruna, is approximately 60 kilometres from Nikkalokta, from which there are another 25 kilometres to the research station. Depending on the weather and avalanche situation, you must travel that distance by snowshoe, thermal snowmobile, helicopter, hike or ski. The team consists of a maximum of eight people, but they receive students and researchers from all over the world. Every day is lived in terms of the weather conditions; there are different plans depending on the forecast.
– I love my job! I have always been interested in and fascinated by snow and ice. I see it as part of the job to try to make sure that what I do is understandable to everyone.
The UN General Assembly has declared 2025 the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation and designated March 21 as the annual World Glacier Day. Read more here.
Three facts about glaciers (source WMO):
- 70% of the earth’s fresh water exists as snow or ice.
- About 10% of the earth’s land surface is covered by glaciers or ice sheets.
- The thickness of the ice sheet exceeds 4 km in East Antarctica and 3 km in Greenland.