World Glacier Monitoring Service

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The World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) (in German: World Glacier Observation Service ) is a facility for observing the dynamics of global glaciers . It was started in 1986 and combines the two previous institutions PSFG (Permanent Service on Fluctuations of Glaciers) and TTS / WGI (Temporal Technical Secretary / World Glacier Inventory).

The WGMS collects standardized observation data on changes in mass, volume, area and length of glaciers over time and statistical information on the distribution of surface ice all year round. The data are central to the scientific understanding of glaciers and their behavior, especially under the conditions of global warming , which resulted in global glacier melt .

Every two years the so-called Glacier Mass Balance Bulletin (GMBB) is published, which publishes the mass balances of selected glaciers for a financial year and relates them to historical data . At five-year intervals, the WGMS also publishes the Fluctuations of Glaciers (FoG) report , which contains an even more detailed and comprehensive collection of data from a five-year period on glaciers worldwide.

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