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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ftuillchicagofig:oai:figshare.com:article/23146103 2023-06-18T03:41:08+02:00 The Evolution of the Two Largest Tropical Ice Masses since the 1980s Andrew Malone Eleanor T Broglie Mary Wrightsman 2022-09-30T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.25417/uic.23146103.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/The_Evolution_of_the_Two_Largest_Tropical_Ice_Masses_since_the_1980s/23146103 unknown doi:10.25417/uic.23146103.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/The_Evolution_of_the_Two_Largest_Tropical_Ice_Masses_since_the_1980s/23146103 CC BY 4.0 Earth sciences Geology Geophysics Physical geography and environmental geoscience Environmental engineering Geomatic engineering 37 Earth Sciences 3709 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience glaciers climate change remote sensing Landsat 0403 Geology 0907 Environmental Engineering 0909 Geomatic Engineering 3705 Geology 3706 Geophysics Text Journal contribution 2022 ftuillchicagofig https://doi.org/10.25417/uic.23146103.v1 2023-06-05T18:13:56Z 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. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ice cap Indigo - University of Illinois at Chicago Austral |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Indigo - University of Illinois at Chicago |
op_collection_id |
ftuillchicagofig |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Earth sciences Geology Geophysics Physical geography and environmental geoscience Environmental engineering Geomatic engineering 37 Earth Sciences 3709 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience glaciers climate change remote sensing Landsat 0403 Geology 0907 Environmental Engineering 0909 Geomatic Engineering 3705 Geology 3706 Geophysics |
spellingShingle |
Earth sciences Geology Geophysics Physical geography and environmental geoscience Environmental engineering Geomatic engineering 37 Earth Sciences 3709 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience glaciers climate change remote sensing Landsat 0403 Geology 0907 Environmental Engineering 0909 Geomatic Engineering 3705 Geology 3706 Geophysics Andrew Malone Eleanor T Broglie Mary Wrightsman The Evolution of the Two Largest Tropical Ice Masses since the 1980s |
topic_facet |
Earth sciences Geology Geophysics Physical geography and environmental geoscience Environmental engineering Geomatic engineering 37 Earth Sciences 3709 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience glaciers climate change remote sensing Landsat 0403 Geology 0907 Environmental Engineering 0909 Geomatic Engineering 3705 Geology 3706 Geophysics |
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 |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Andrew Malone Eleanor T Broglie Mary Wrightsman |
author_facet |
Andrew Malone Eleanor T Broglie Mary Wrightsman |
author_sort |
Andrew 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 |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.25417/uic.23146103.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/The_Evolution_of_the_Two_Largest_Tropical_Ice_Masses_since_the_1980s/23146103 |
geographic |
Austral |
geographic_facet |
Austral |
genre |
Ice cap |
genre_facet |
Ice cap |
op_relation |
doi:10.25417/uic.23146103.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/The_Evolution_of_the_Two_Largest_Tropical_Ice_Masses_since_the_1980s/23146103 |
op_rights |
CC BY 4.0 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.25417/uic.23146103.v1 |
_version_ |
1769006576381722624 |