Comprehensive mass balance analysis reveals accelerated glacier loss in Nevado Coropuna, suggesting implications for tropical icefields.
The first comprehensive mass balance estimation for the world’s largest tropical icefield is presented. Geodetical mass balance was calculated using photogrammetry from aerial and satellite images spanning from 1955 to 2024. The results meet expected quality standards using some new satellite sources, such as the Peruvian PeruSAT-1, although the quality of airborne imagery is consistently lower than that of satellite sources. The Nevado Coropuna icefield remained almost stable between 1955 and 1986 with −0.04 m dh yr−1. Since then, it has undergone a sustained and accelerated negative mass balance, reaching a maximum annual dh yr−1 of −0.73 ± 0.19 in the 2020–2023 timeframe. The glacier loss is not equal across the entire ice mass, but more acute in the northern and northeastern outlet tongues. Debris-covered ice and rock glaciers show a much weaker negative mass balance signal. The impact of ENSO events is not evident in the overall ice evolution, although their long-term relevance is acknowledged. Overall, the negative response of Nevado Coropuna to global warming (−0.36 ± 0.12 m.w.e. yr−1 for the 2013 to 2024 period) is less pronounced than that of other Peruvian glaciers, but more severe than that reported for the nearby Dry Andes of Chile and Argentina.
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Llanto et al. (2025) studied this question.
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