Multi-temporal and multi-source cartography of the glacial cover of Nevado Coropuna (Arequipa, Peru) between 1955 and 2003

This study reports on the glacial cover evolution of the Nevado Coropuna between 1955 and 2003, based on Peruvian topographic maps and satellite images taken from the Landsat 2 and 5 multispectral scanner (MSS), Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) and Landsat 7 (ETM+). The normalized difference snow index has been applied to these images to estimate the glacierized area of Coropuna. The satellite-based results show that the glacier area was 105 ± 16 km2 in 1975 (Landsat 2 MSS), which then reduced to 96 ± 15 km2 in 1985 (Landsat 5 MSS), 64 ± 8 km2 in 1996 (Landsat 5 TM) and 56 ± 6 km2 in 2003 (Landsat 5 TM). Altogether, between 1955 and 2003, Coropuna lost 66 km2 of its glacial cover, which represents a mean retreat of 1.4 km2 year−1, that is, a loss of 54% in 48 years (11% loss per decade). The maximum rate of retreat occurred during the 1980s and 1990s, a phenomenon probably linked with the pluviometric deficit of El Niño events of 1983 and 1992.