World Glacier Monitoring Service

The World Glacier Monitoring Service ( WGMS ) ( in German: World Glacier Monitoring Service) is a device for observing the dynamics of global glacier. It was launched in 1986 and combines the two previous facilities PSFG (Permanent Service on Fluctuations of Glaciers ) and TTS / WGI (Temporal Technical Secretary / World Glacier Inventory).

The WGMS collects standardized observations on changes in mass, volume, area and length of glaciers in the time and statistical information on the distribution of surface ice year-round. The data are central to the scientific understanding of glaciers and their behavior, especially under the conditions of global warming, in whose train has come to a global glacier melt.

Every two years, the so-called Glacier Mass Balance Bulletin ( GMBB ) issued for publication of selected glacier mass balances of a financial year and continues with the historical data in relationship. In five-year intervals, the WGMS also publishes the report Fluctuations of Glaciers ( FoG ), which contains a more detailed and comprehensive data collection of a five-year period of glaciers worldwide.