Articles | Volume 19, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-911-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-911-2025
Brief communication
 | 
26 Feb 2025
Brief communication |  | 26 Feb 2025

Brief communication: Potential of satellite optical imagery to monitor glacier surface flow velocity variability in the tropical Andes

Etienne Ducasse, Romain Millan, Jonas Kvist Andersen, and Antoine Rabatel

Related authors

Modeling Lake Titicaca's water balance: the dominant roles of precipitation and evaporation
Nilo Lima-Quispe, Denis Ruelland, Antoine Rabatel, Waldo Lavado-Casimiro, and Thomas Condom
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 655–682, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-655-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-655-2025, 2025
Short summary
TICOI: an operational Python package to generate regularized glacier velocity time series
Laurane Charrier, Amaury Dehecq, Lei Guo, Fanny Brun, Romain Millan, Nathan Lioret, Luke Copland, Nathan Maier, Christine Dow, and Paul Halas
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3409,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3409, 2025
Short summary
A new method for large scale snow depth estimates using Sentinel-1 and ICESat-2
Rasmus Meyer, Mathias Preisler Schødt, Mikkel Lydholm Rasmussen, Jonas Kvist Andersen, Mads Dømgaard, and Anders Anker Bjørk
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3850,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3850, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for The Cryosphere (TC).
Short summary
Distributed surface mass balance of an avalanche-fed glacier
Marin Kneib, Amaury Dehecq, Adrien Gilbert, Auguste Basset, Evan S. Miles, Guillaume Jouvet, Bruno Jourdain, Etienne Ducasse, Luc Beraud, Antoine Rabatel, Jérémie Mouginot, Guillem Carcanade, Olivier Laarman, Fanny Brun, and Delphine Six
The Cryosphere, 18, 5965–5983, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-5965-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-5965-2024, 2024
Short summary
The future of Upernavik Isstrøm through the ISMIP6 framework: sensitivity analysis and Bayesian calibration of ensemble prediction
Eliot Jager, Fabien Gillet-Chaulet, Nicolas Champollion, Romain Millan, Heiko Goelzer, and Jérémie Mouginot
The Cryosphere, 18, 5519–5550, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-5519-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-5519-2024, 2024
Short summary

Related subject area

Discipline: Glaciers | Subject: Tropical Glaciers
El Niño enhances snow-line rise and ice loss on the Quelccaya Ice Cap, Peru
Kara A. Lamantia, Laura J. Larocca, Lonnie G. Thompson, and Bryan G. Mark
The Cryosphere, 18, 4633–4644, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-4633-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-4633-2024, 2024
Short summary
New insights into the decadal variability in glacier volume of a tropical ice cap, Antisana (0°29′ S, 78°09′ W), explained by the morpho-topographic and climatic context
Rubén Basantes-Serrano, Antoine Rabatel, Bernard Francou, Christian Vincent, Alvaro Soruco, Thomas Condom, and Jean Carlo Ruíz
The Cryosphere, 16, 4659–4677, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4659-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4659-2022, 2022
Short summary
Brief communication: Glacier thickness reconstruction on Mt. Kilimanjaro
Catrin Stadelmann, Johannes Jakob Fürst, Thomas Mölg, and Matthias Braun
The Cryosphere, 14, 3399–3406, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3399-2020,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3399-2020, 2020
Short summary
The influence of water percolation through crevasses on the thermal regime of a Himalayan mountain glacier
Adrien Gilbert, Anna Sinisalo, Tika R. Gurung, Koji Fujita, Sudan B. Maharjan, Tenzing C. Sherpa, and Takehiro Fukuda
The Cryosphere, 14, 1273–1288, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1273-2020,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1273-2020, 2020

Cited articles

Autin, P., Sicart, J. E., Rabatel, A., Soruco, A., and Hock, R.: Climate controls on the interseasonal and interannual variability of the surface mass and energy balances of a tropical glacier (Zongo Glacier, Bolivia, 16° S): new insights from the multi-year application of a distributed energy balance model, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 127, e2021JD035410, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JD035410, 2022. 
Basantes-Serrano, R., Rabatel, A., Francou, B., Vincent, C., Soruco, A., Condom, T., and Ruíz, J. C.: New insights into the decadal variability in glacier volume of a tropical ice cap, Antisana (0°29 S, 78°09 W), explained by the morpho-topographic and climatic context, The Cryosphere, 16, 4659–4677, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4659-2022, 2022. 
Cusicanqui, D., Lacroix, P., Bodin, X., Robson, B. A., Kääb, A., and MacDonell, S.: Detection and reconstruction of rock glaciers kinematic over 24 years (2000–2024) from Landsat imagery, EGUsphere [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2393, 2024. 
Derkacheva, A., Mouginot, J., Millan, R., Maier, N., and Gillet-Chaulet, F.: Data reduction using statistical and regression approaches for ice velocity derived by Landsat-8, Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2, Remote Sens.-Basel, 12, 1935, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12121935, 2020. 
Ducasse, E., Millan, R., and Rabatel, A.: Annual glacier surface flow velocity product from Sentinel-2 data for some mountain ranges in the Tropical Andes, Recherche Data Gouv [data set], https://doi.org/10.57745/OJBTSE, 2024. 
Download
Short summary
Our study examines glacier movement in the tropical Andes from 2013 to 2022 using satellite data. Despite challenges like small glacier size and frequent cloud cover, we tracked annual speeds and seasonal changes. We found stable annual speeds but significant shifts between wet and dry seasons, likely due to changes in meltwater production and glacier–bedrock conditions. This research enhances understanding of how tropical glaciers react to climate change.
Share