1 Summary of the balance years 2019/20 and 2020/21 (preliminary)

Mass balance values for the observation periods will be reported from more than 130 glaciers worldwide. The mass balance statistics (Table 1) are calculated based on all reported values and on available data from the 40 reference glaciers with continued observation series of more than 30 years. In addition, preliminary mass balance values are given for 2020/21 for some glaciers. The average mass balance of the glaciers with available long-term observation series around the world continues to be negative. The latest data continues the global trend in strong ice loss over the past few decades and brings the cumulative average thickness loss of the reference glaciers since 1980 at almost 20 m w.e. The current status of glaciers worldwide is summarized here. All so far reported mass balance values, given in Table 2, are tentative.

Table 1: Overview on mass balance data 2019/20 and preliminary values for 2020/21. Statistics are given for all reported glaciers (ALL) and for the available ‘reference’ glaciers with continuous long-term observation series (REF).

Under the following links you find more information about the reference glaciers, the mass-balance datasets, and detailed assessments of global glacier mass changes.

2 Mass balance data

Table 2: Reported mass balance values of the observation period 2019/20 as well as *preliminary values for 2020/21. Principal investigators are listed for submitted data of 2019/20.