Superficie glaciar actual en los Pirineos: Una actualización para 2016

Abstract

Glacier area studies in the Pyrenees reported over 2000 ha in 1850, 806.5 ha in the 1980s and 310.33 ha in 2008. In this work we carried out an updated (2016) estimation of the current glacier area of the Pyrenees, based on remote sensing and contrasted with in-situ observations of the most representative glaciers. Our results yield a glacier area of 242.06 ha for 2016. This implies a reduction of 88.25 % since 1850, and a rapid wastage since 1980s, confirming the accelerated shrinkage during the end of the 20 th century and the first decade of the 21 st century.