The Evolution of the Two Largest Tropical Ice Masses since the 1980s
As tropical glaciers continue to retreat, we need accurate knowledge about where they are located, how large they are, and their retreat rates. Remote sensing data are invaluable for tracking these hard-to-reach glaciers. However, remotely identifying tropical glaciers is prone to misclassification...
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ftmdpi:oai:mdpi.com:/2076-3263/12/10/365/ 2023-08-20T04:07:10+02:00 The Evolution of the Two Largest Tropical Ice Masses since the 1980s Andrew G. O. Malone Eleanor T. Broglie Mary Wrightsman agris 2022-09-30 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences12100365 EN eng Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Cryosphere https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/geosciences12100365 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Geosciences; Volume 12; Issue 10; Pages: 365 glaciers climate change remote sensing Landsat Text 2022 ftmdpi https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences12100365 2023-08-01T06:42:21Z As tropical glaciers continue to retreat, we need accurate knowledge about where they are located, how large they are, and their retreat rates. Remote sensing data are invaluable for tracking these hard-to-reach glaciers. However, remotely identifying tropical glaciers is prone to misclassification errors due to ephemeral snow cover. We reevaluate the size and retreat rates of the two largest tropical ice masses, the Quelccaya Ice Cap (Peru) and Nevado Coropuna (Peru), using remote sensing data from the Landsat missions. To quantify their glacial extents more accurately, we expand the time window for our analysis beyond the dry season (austral winter), processing in total 529 Landsat scenes. We find that Landsat scenes from October, November, and December, which are after the dry season, better capture the glacial extent since ephemeral snow cover is minimized. We compare our findings to past studies of tropical glaciers, which have mainly analyzed scenes from the dry season. Our reevaluation finds that both tropical ice masses are smaller but retreating less rapidly than commonly reported. These findings have implications for these ice masses as sustained water resources for downstream communities. Text Ice cap MDPI Open Access Publishing Austral Geosciences 12 10 365 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
MDPI Open Access Publishing |
op_collection_id |
ftmdpi |
language |
English |
topic |
glaciers climate change remote sensing Landsat |
spellingShingle |
glaciers climate change remote sensing Landsat Andrew G. O. Malone Eleanor T. Broglie Mary Wrightsman The Evolution of the Two Largest Tropical Ice Masses since the 1980s |
topic_facet |
glaciers climate change remote sensing Landsat |
description |
As tropical glaciers continue to retreat, we need accurate knowledge about where they are located, how large they are, and their retreat rates. Remote sensing data are invaluable for tracking these hard-to-reach glaciers. However, remotely identifying tropical glaciers is prone to misclassification errors due to ephemeral snow cover. We reevaluate the size and retreat rates of the two largest tropical ice masses, the Quelccaya Ice Cap (Peru) and Nevado Coropuna (Peru), using remote sensing data from the Landsat missions. To quantify their glacial extents more accurately, we expand the time window for our analysis beyond the dry season (austral winter), processing in total 529 Landsat scenes. We find that Landsat scenes from October, November, and December, which are after the dry season, better capture the glacial extent since ephemeral snow cover is minimized. We compare our findings to past studies of tropical glaciers, which have mainly analyzed scenes from the dry season. Our reevaluation finds that both tropical ice masses are smaller but retreating less rapidly than commonly reported. These findings have implications for these ice masses as sustained water resources for downstream communities. |
format |
Text |
author |
Andrew G. O. Malone Eleanor T. Broglie Mary Wrightsman |
author_facet |
Andrew G. O. Malone Eleanor T. Broglie Mary Wrightsman |
author_sort |
Andrew G. O. Malone |
title |
The Evolution of the Two Largest Tropical Ice Masses since the 1980s |
title_short |
The Evolution of the Two Largest Tropical Ice Masses since the 1980s |
title_full |
The Evolution of the Two Largest Tropical Ice Masses since the 1980s |
title_fullStr |
The Evolution of the Two Largest Tropical Ice Masses since the 1980s |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Evolution of the Two Largest Tropical Ice Masses since the 1980s |
title_sort |
evolution of the two largest tropical ice masses since the 1980s |
publisher |
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences12100365 |
op_coverage |
agris |
geographic |
Austral |
geographic_facet |
Austral |
genre |
Ice cap |
genre_facet |
Ice cap |
op_source |
Geosciences; Volume 12; Issue 10; Pages: 365 |
op_relation |
Cryosphere https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/geosciences12100365 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences12100365 |
container_title |
Geosciences |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
365 |
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1774718621603332096 |