The Cryosphere
The Cryosphere
TC
Articles | Volume 19, issue 12
Articles | Volume 19, issue 12
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-6629-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-6629-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 19, issue 12
Brief communication
 | 
08 Dec 2025
Brief communication |  | 08 Dec 2025

Brief communication: Tropical glaciers on Puncak Jaya (Irian Jaya/West Papua, Indonesia) close to extinction

David Ibel, Thomas Mölg, and Christian Sommer

Related authors

SNOWstorm (v1.0) – a deep-learning based model for near-surface winds and drifting snow in mountain environments
Manuel Saigger, Brigitta Goger, and Thomas Mölg
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5608,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5608, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Geoscientific Model Development (GMD).
Short summary
Brief Communication: Inferring Glacier Equilibrium Line Altitudes in Central Europe with FROST
Oskar Herrmann, Veena Prasad, Anna Zöller, Alexander R. Groos, Samuel Cook, Christian Sommer, and Johannes J. Fürst
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5486,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5486, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for The Cryosphere (TC).
Short summary
The system of atmosphere, land, ice and ocean in the region near the 79N Glacier in northeast Greenland: synthesis and key findings from the Greenland Ice Sheet–Ocean Interaction (GROCE) experiment
Torsten Kanzow, Angelika Humbert, Thomas Mölg, Mirko Scheinert, Matthias Braun, Hans Burchard, Francesca Doglioni, Philipp Hochreuther, Martin Horwath, Oliver Huhn, Maria Kappelsberger, Jürgen Kusche, Erik Loebel, Katrina Lutz, Ben Marzeion, Rebecca McPherson, Mahdi Mohammadi-Aragh, Marco Möller, Carolyne Pickler, Markus Reinert, Monika Rhein, Martin Rückamp, Janin Schaffer, Muhammad Shafeeque, Sophie Stolzenberger, Ralph Timmermann, Jenny Turton, Claudia Wekerle, and Ole Zeising
The Cryosphere, 19, 1789–1824, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1789-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1789-2025, 2025
Short summary
Assessing supraglacial lake depth using ICESat-2, Sentinel-2, TanDEM-X, and in situ sonar measurements over Northeast and Southwest Greenland
Katrina Lutz, Lily Bever, Christian Sommer, Thorsten Seehaus, Angelika Humbert, Mirko Scheinert, and Matthias Braun
The Cryosphere, 18, 5431–5449, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-5431-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-5431-2024, 2024
Short summary
The weather today rocks or sucks for my tree: exploring the understanding of climate impacts on forests at high school level through tweets
Thomas Mölg, Jan C. Schubert, Annette Debel, Steffen Höhnle, Kathy Steppe, Sibille Wehrmann, and Achim Bräuning
Geosci. Commun., 7, 215–225, https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-7-215-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-7-215-2024, 2024
Short summary
More articles (6)

Cited articles

Airbus Defence and Space Intelligence: Pléiades Imagery: User Guide, https://storage.googleapis.com/p-ssp-iep-prod-8ff-strapi-uploads/210415_Airbus_Pleiades_Imagery_user_guide_be12b8f35b/210415_Airbus_Pleiades_Imagery_user_guide_be12b8f35b.pdf (last access: 26 January 2025), 2021. 
Allison, I.: Morphology and dynamics of the tropical glaciers of Irian Jaya, Zeitschrift für Gletscherkunde und Glazialgeologie, 10, 129–152, 1974. 
Allison, I. and Kruss, P.: Estimation of Recent Climate Change in Irian Jaya by Numerical Modeling of Its Tropical Glaciers, Arctic Alpine Res., 9, 49–60, https://doi.org/10.2307/1550408, 1977. 
Allison, I. and Peterson, J. A.: Ice areas on Mt. Jaya: Their extent and recent history, in: The equatorial glaciers of New Guinea: Results of the 1971 - 1973 Australian Univ., expeditions to Irian Jaya, survey, glaciology, meteorology, biology and palaeoenvironments, edited by: Hope, G. S., Peterson, J. A., Radok, U., and Allison, I., Balkema, Rotterdam, 27–38, ISBN 9061910129, 1976. 
Anderson, E. G.: Topographic survey and cartography, in: The equatorial glaciers of New Guinea: Results of the 1971 - 1973 Australian Univ., expeditions to Irian Jaya, survey, glaciology, meteorology, biology and palaeoenvironments, edited by: Hope, G. S., Peterson, J. A., Radok, U., and Allison, I., Balkema, Rotterdam, 15–26, ISBN 9061910129, 1976. 
More articles (47)
Download
Short summary
As the majority of (tropical) glaciers retreat on a global scale, we analysed area changes of the Puncak Jaya glaciers in South East Asia on West Papua, Indonesia, using high resolution optical satellite imagery, supported by historical glacier accounts. The results show a decrease of total glacier surface area by more than 99 % since 1850 and by ~65 % since the last survey in 2018, with glacier area (in 2024) amounting to 0.165 km2 ± 5 %. Puncak Jaya glaciers will likely disappear around 2030.
Read more
Share