3D animations of future glacier retreat using PGO data

A High-Level International Conference on Glaciers’ Preservation was held from 29 to 31 May 2025 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The conference was organized by the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan in cooperation with the United Nations and other development partners, in support of the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation (2025).

The principal aims were to highlight the importance of glaciers and the urgency of stopping the accelerated melting, calving and retreating of glaciers on the Global Agenda, and to advance global efforts in addressing glacier melt and its wide-ranging impacts through collaborative action, scientific innovation, and policy alignment.

At the conference, the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) presented several 3D animations of future glacier retreat from the present day to 2100. The animations were prepared on the basis of physical glacier modeling driven by scenarios of global climate change.

High-resolution digital surface models and orthoimages from the Pléiades Glacier Observatory (PGO) provided the essential dataset to visually represent terrain topography and surface texture in the animations, enabling a realistic depiction of iconic sites of glacier change in the 21st century.

Find here other animations prepared by the University of Fribourg

Contact LEGOS : enrico.matteaNO SPAM -- FILTER@NO SPAM -- FILTERunifr.ch

Plus d'actualités

Beyond Pléiades. 4D-Earth ?

Pléiades will be flying until 2026, maybe slightly later. Another key stereo mission, ASTER on-board TERRA, will stop acquiring images in 2026 or 2027. A large scientific community (in particular glaciologists) is worried about the lack of follow up stereo missions. See here a Letter to the Editor in Nature. This is why we propose […]

PGO data help to guide fieldwork in the Andes

We are delighted to read that Pléiades ortho-images and DSM were useful to guide a recent field campaign on the Quelccaya Ice Cap. PGO data will certain be also useful for the science to come out of these field observations. Congrtulation to the Deplete and Retreat: Andes Water Towers team.

Map of elevation changes: quick-looks

The ultimate PGO products are the maps of glacier elevation changes over 5-yr periods. They will soon be available on a web server. To keep you waiting, find below a gallery of such maps for 2016-2021, 2017-2022 or 2018-2023. Maybe you can spot your favorite glacier? [click on the first image to start the slideshow] […]

Rechercher