Recent glacier variations on Mount Melimoyu (44°50'S-72°51'W), Chilean Patagonia, using Sentinel-2 data

Abstract

This work analyzed the application of Sentinel-2 multispectral imagery and GLIMS data for mapping glacier retreat and to estimate glacier area changes of Mount Melimoyu, located in northern Patagonia, Chile for the period between 1970 and 2017. The results showed a decrease of about 35.61% in the area for the period analyzed and there is a continuing retreating trend in the region. The decreasing trend in mean annual precipitation may explain the recent glacier changes, which indicates a large sensibility for meteorological variability of glaciers, which is influenced by geomorphometry and glacier area, in the region. Using Sentinel 2 imagery, we provided inventory of rock glaciers in the study area. Glacier outlines obtained through manual delineation showed comparable results with the glacier outlines using Sentinel-2 MSI data in the study area, which shows greater accuracy in glacier mapping using Sentinel-2 data.