Cold firn and ice in the Monte Rosa and Mont Blanc areas: spatial occurrence, surface energy balance and climatic evidence

Abstract

Little knowledge exists to date on the complex glacier-atmosphere interactions lead ing to the formationof cold firn on high-elevationAlpine glaciers.Although cold firn and ice is not a wide-spread phenomenon on Alpine glaciers, it is of importance for many glaciological problems and has a major impact on glaciers as an environ mental and climatic archive.