This issue of Annals of Glaciology contains a selection of papers on the theme of mass-balance measurements and analysis. The Annals is a peer-reviewed, thematic journal published 3-4 times a year by the International Glaciological Society.
In 1998 the International Commission on Snow and Ice (ICSI) sponsored a workshop on Mass Balance Measurements and Modelling in Tarfala, Sweden, which resulted in a well cited set of papers. In the ten years since that workshop two IPCC reports, TAR and AR4, have highlighted the importance of climate change to the cryosphere and thereby glaciers and ice sheets. This has sparked a greater interest in mass-balance measurements. Measurements and modelling and analysis of glacier change data have become central themes in glaciological literature. In early 2008 the Norwegian Water resources and Energy Directorate (NVE), The International Association of Cryospheric Sciences (IACS), the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), and the International Glaciological Society (IGS) sponsored a similar workshop on Mass-Balance Measurements and Modelling at Skeikampen, Norway.
Realizing the importance of this subject, the Council of the IGS decided to publish a thematic issue in its new Annals journal dedicated to mass-balance measurements and modelling, covering a wide spectrum of mass-balance related issues, including process-related studies, basic investigations in geographical areas with little or no prior studies, analysis of data to improve predictions and strategies for the future. We believe that this volume will be an important benchmark for mass-balance measurement and should be seen as a progress report on our improving knowledge of how the glacierized part of the environment is affected by climate change.
We thank the Norwegian Research Council for their generous contribution to the printing costs of this issue and our Scientific Editors, Graham Cogley, Andrew Fountain, Koji Fujita and Jack Kohler. Many thanks go also to the International Glaciological Society and its secretary Magnus Mar Magnusson, the NVE representative Liss M. Andreassen, to all people that helped during the workshop and finally to all reviewers.
