1 Background - mountain.PROJECTS

PETRI PELLIKKA AND KARI KAJUUTTI (ED)coast declining rapidly inland to less than 1000 mm on the eastern side of East Svartisen.West Svartisen and East Svartisen have a range of glaciological data going back almost acentury, such as changes in front position of two outlet glaciers of West Svartisen (Engabreenand Fondalsbreen) back to 1903 and 1906 respectively as well as meteorological data from anearby meteorological station (Glomfjord) back to 1920. (Andreassen 2000: 29-33).The study site for methodology and monitoring system development is Engabreen (38 km 2 ) inWestern Svartisen (Figure 1). The glaciological data from Engabreen includes changes infront position from the early 1900s and mass balance measurements since 1970, as well asmass balance measurements on several other outlet glaciers and smaller glaciers for shorterperiods. Engabreen is also well covered by aerial photographs. The earliest date back to 1945followed by photographs from 1968, 1978, 1983 and 1985. In the 1990s Engabreen wasphotographed several times, which provides a good basis for comparison between massbalancestudies and stereophotogrammetric outputs. Additional data sets include bottomtopography for West Svartisen and surface topography from 1968 and 1985 for WestSvartisen. Front position maps exist from several outlets of East Svartisen. (Andreassen 2000:29-33).Figure 1. Engabreen glacier is part of the Western Svartisen ice cap (Photo: Fjellanger Wideroe).11