| 05 Mar 2025
Brief communication: Tropical glaciers on Puncak Jaya (Irian Jaya/West Papua, Indonesia) close to extinction
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 brief report, we document area changes of the Puncak Jaya glaciers in South-East Asia on West Papua, Indonesia, until the present. The survey was based on 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 (DOI requested from Pangäa). 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 shrinkage of (tropical) glaciers. Assuming the current area retreat rates to continue, it is very likely that Puncak Jaya glaciers will disappear around 2030.
Competing interests: At least one of the (co-)authors is a member of the editorial board of The Cryosphere.
Publisher's note: Copernicus Publications remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims made in the text, published maps, institutional affiliations, or any other geographical representation in this preprint. The responsibility to include appropriate place names lies with the authors.
