Abstract:
This proposal is the exploratory step for Kerguelen component of the GLACIOCLIM Observatory. GLACIOCLIM is a French observatory to globally detect, monitor and understand climate and mass balance variability in the glacial environment. In the Kerguelen archipelago (49°S, 69°E, with an ice covered area of 552km² in 2001), there have been few short term glaciological studies on Ampere Glacier (main
... glacier of Cook icecap). Paleoclimatic reconstructions over the holocene and long term data from oceanographic and meteorological observatories are also available to get information on the climatic variability during the last 50 years. However, even though these data are essential, a study of the climate-glacier relationship is still necessary to describe the main factors that induced the current dramatic retreat of the Cook icecap. Studying Kerguelen ice caps has become urgent, but is also logistically feasible. The current project plans to deploy and maintain a surface mass balance network, and meteorological instruments on and around the glacier according to GLACIOCLIM protocols. Topographic and hydrological measurements are also planned in order to get data for independent computation of the mass balance. Finally, we will go a step further in the description of the past glacier fluctuation history by dating moraines with a new lichenometric approach. 
