Ibel, David; Mölg, Thomas; Sommer, Christian (2025): Surveying tropical glacier change on Puncak Jaya (Irian Jaya/West Papua, Indonesia) in recent years using multispectral high-resolution satellite imagery, publishing updated map of change 1850-2024 [dataset]. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.979847
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Published: 2025-03-25 • DOI registered: 2025-04-23
Abstract:
Glaciers have been retreating for many decades on a global scale due to anthropogenic climate change, including the mostly small glaciers in the Tropics. In this paper, we document area changes of the Puncak Jaya glaciers in South-East Asia on West Papua, Indonesia, until the present. The survey was done using using high resolution multispectral satellite imagery of PlanetScope and Pléiades missions from 2023 and 2024. Additionally, we digitized and georeferenced historical glacier accounts from analogue maps, resulting in a new overview map of glacier change on Puncak Jaya since 1850, and some further delineation was performed ranging from 2002 to 2023 to complete the map. The results show a decrease of total glacier surface area by more than 99% since 1850 and by 64% since the last survey in 2018. Current glacier area (in 2024) amounts to 0.165 km². The development of Puncak Jaya glaciers is thus in line with the global development of (tropical) glaciers. Assuming the current area retreat rates to continue, it is very likely that Puncak Jaya glaciers will disappear around 2030.
Keyword(s):
Supplement to:
Ibel, David; Mölg, Thomas; Sommer, Christian (preprint): Brief communication: Tropical glaciers on Puncak Jaya (Irian Jaya/West Papua, Indonesia) close to extinction. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-415
Related to:
Klein, Andrew G; Kincaid, Joni L (2006): Retreat of glaciers on Puncak Jaya, Irian Jaya, determined from 2000 and 2002 IKONOS satellite images. Journal of Glaciology, 52(176), 65-79, https://doi.org/10.3189/172756506781828818
Permana, Donaldi S; Thompson, Lonnie G; Mosley-Thompson, Ellen; Davis, M E; Lin, Ping-Nan; Nicolas, Julien P; Bolzan, J F; Bird, Broxton W; Mikhalenko, Vladimir N; Gabrielli, Paolo; Zagorodnov, Victor; Mountain, Keith R; Schotterer, Ulrich; Hanggoro, Wido; Habibie, Muhammad N; Kaize, Yohanes; Gunawan, Dodo; Setyadi, Gesang; Susanto, R Dwi; Fernández, Alfonso; Mark, Bryan G (2019): Disappearance of the last tropical glaciers in the Western Pacific Warm Pool (Papua, Indonesia) appears imminent. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(52), 26382-26388, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1822037116
Coverage:
Latitude: -4.057084 * Longitude: 137.155466
Date/Time Start: 1850-01-01T00:00:00 * Date/Time End: 2024-06-29T12:32:00
Minimum ELEVATION: 4682 m a.s.l. * Maximum ELEVATION: 4843 m a.s.l.
Event(s):
Parameter(s):
| # | Name | Short Name | Unit | Principal Investigator | Method/Device | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Geospatial vector, shapefiles | Shapefile | Ibel, David | Satellite imagery (SATI) | ||
| 2 | Geospatial vector, shapefiles (File Size) | Shapefile (Size) | Bytes | Ibel, David | Satellite imagery (SATI) | |
| 3 | Method comment | Method comm | Ibel, David | |||
| 4 | LATITUDE | Latitude | Ibel, David | Geocode | ||
| 5 | Latitude 2 | Latitude 2 | Ibel, David | |||
| 6 | LONGITUDE | Longitude | Ibel, David | Geocode | ||
| 7 | Longitude 2 | Longitude 2 | Ibel, David | |||
| 8 | ELEVATION | Elevation | m a.s.l. | Ibel, David | Geocode – min | |
| 9 | ELEVATION | Elevation | m a.s.l. | Ibel, David | Geocode – max | |
| 10 | DATE/TIME | Date/Time | Ibel, David | Geocode |
License:
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY-4.0)
Status:
Curation Level: Basic curation (CurationLevelB)
Size:
32 data points