Laboratory of Alpine Climatology (LabClima): a new research network for climate change research on Monte Rosa, Western Italian Alps

In this work we focus on the Monte Rosa massif, the second highest mountain of the Italian Alps. We investigate the warming rate of this area and how it affected the frontal evolution of its glaciers. Firstly, we analysed the temperature series of two weather stations, located in the Sesia and Lys valleys. Our analysis covers the twenty-year period from 2003 to 2022. From these series we extracted climatic indexes and their time trends. Our results showed an increase in minimum and maximum temperatures, with a significantly decrease in the number of days with extremely low minimum temperatures. We also col-lected data from the Bulletin of the Italian Glaciological Committee to investigate the oscillations of two glaciers of interest, namely the Lys and Indren Glaciers. We later compared their frontal variation from 1928 to 2017. This analysis showed a net retreat of both glaciers. The most severe retrocessions happened in recent years that also experienced severe droughts. During our work we noted the lack of data relating to elevations above 3000 m a.s.l.. The intention to fill this gap is one of the main motives behind the establishment of the Laboratory of Alpine Climatology. The Laboratory of Alpine Climatology (“Laboratorio di Climatologia Alpina” - LabClima in Italian) is a network of automated weather stations located in the Western Italian Alps. The first fully operational station of LabClima is Passo dei Salati (3030 m a.s.l.). The station has recently reached its first year of activity. In this work we briefly present the data collected so far. The second station, named Garstelet (3455 m a.s.l.), became operational in September 2024. LabClima focuses also on the deployment of innovative sensors in high elevation environments. The sensors intended to study the snow optical properties and the equivalent mass of water contained in the snowpack are presented in the last section of this work.