Before-and-After Satellite Images Show Upsetting Glacier Loss in Swiss Alps

The European Alps get over over 600 miles ( 1,000 kilometre ) across eight European country , and their cooler upper climes curb thousands of glaciers . Unfortunately , NASA orbiter imagery recently captured 40 years of regress in the Alps ’ largest chunk of meth , the Great Aletsch Glacier .

The figure of speech — see below , and contract in 1984 and 2024 — were snapped by NASA ’s Landsat 5 ’s Thematic Mapper and Landsat 8 ’s Operational Land Imager ( OLI ) , respectively . The changes to the glacier ’s length and width are apparent , reflect a retirement of more than 4,300 substructure ( 1,300 meter ) in those 40 years .

grant to a NASA Earth Observatoryrelease , the glacier has also thinned in that time — to the melody of about 141 feet ( 43 meters ) of weewee , based on data point from the Swiss Glacial Monitoring web ( GLAMOS ) . In other Bible , its step has shrivel up in both proportion .

A view of glacial melt in the Swiss Alps.

A view of glacial melt in the Swiss Alps.Image: NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.

Despite some cloud cover in the newer image , the loss of ice is clear . Where ice once excogitate burnished white back up towards the atmosphere , there are more gray - chocolate-brown stone underneath . consort to the NASA liberation , it was too early in the year to capture imagination of the glacier without seasonal Charles Percy Snow covering the amount of glacial melt that ’s occurred in the intervening days .

Alpine glaciers are retreating across the display board . The nearby Oberaletsch glacier has pull away more than 787 understructure ( 240 meters ) since 1984 , and the Fiescher Glacier ’s retirement over the same fourth dimension period has been a staggering 3,281 pes ( 1,000 meters ) .

accord to a Reuters reportpublishedlate last year , Swiss glaciers evaporate at an above - fair pace in 2024 , despite dense snowfalls in winter and spring . The winter storms were simply not enough to counteract platter ice losses in the face of a fond August — and even a Zen of Sahara desert dust , which made it harder for the Swiss ice mainsheet to mull sunlight back into the atmosphere .

In 2024 , Swiss glaciers lose 2.5 % of their volume , according to Reuters . Central Europe , admit Switzerland , lost a staggering 39 % of its glacial ice between 2000 and 2024 , as a team of researchersreportedin Nature this class .

A Monumental Storm send away 16 Billion Tons of Snow on Greenland , Slowing Melt of Ice Sheet

The NASA imagery put those changes into sharp ministration . come out of a book warm February — thethird - warmeston phonograph record , according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — there ’s a real worry ( and expectation ) that we ’ll likely see more photograph of glacial losses in the near future .