April 15, 2025
Monitoring Glacier Dynamics on Abramov Glacier, Kyrgyzstan
Posted by Adam Garbo
In July 2022, a Swiss research team deployed four Cryologger Glacier Velocity Trackers (GVTs) on Abramov Glacier, a 20 km² valley glacier located in the Hissar-Alay range on the northern edge of the Pamirs in Kyrgyzstan. The deployment was led by Enrico Mattea in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland), in collaboration with the Agency for Hydrometeorology of the Kyrgyz Republic.
🏔️ Abramov Glacier
The Abramov Glacier is one of approximately 50 World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) reference glaciers for mass balance, with in situ observations dating back to 1967. After continuous monitoring between 1967 and 1999, fieldwork resumed in 2011. The glacier is also known for low-intensity flow instabilities — short-lived surge-like accelerations that recur roughly every 30 years.
🛠️ Deployment and Field Logistics
The team transported all materials by donkey and on foot to altitudes between 3700 and 4000 m above sea level. Final assembly of the Cryologgers was completed in a single day under challenging field conditions. The goal was to enable autonomous GNSS-based monitoring of glacier motion at daily, seasonal, and inter-annual timescales.
Despite months of full snow burial and repeated flooding from spring meltwater, all units have remained operational between annual summer revisits.
💡 Why Open Source?
The team adopted an open-source approach for several key reasons:
- Greater autonomy: Open hardware gave them full control over assembly and servicing — crucial for installations at remote field sites with limited revisit opportunities.
- Cost-effectiveness: Compared to commercial systems, the open-source Cryologger platform offered a far more affordable solution, making the deployment financially viable.
- Scientific reproducibility: Using an open-source system ensures transparency and allows other researchers to replicate and extend the work, supporting best practices in glaciological research.
✅ Long-Term Monitoring Success
Now in its third year, the deployment has already produced three years of continuous daily glacier velocity data, a rare achievement for a site of this altitude and remoteness.
This project highlights the resilience and field-proven reliability of the Cryologger GVT system in extreme mountain environments.
📷 Photo credits: Enrico Mattea