Special cameras have been set up to view the glaciers of Aneto and Monte Perdido in the Pyrenees.
Free to use, these fantastic windows over two of the most dramatic mountain landscapes in Spain allow users to gaze upon areas which they may have only dreamed of reaching when looking up from lower altitudes.
The time-lapse cameras have been installed by investigators from the Cryosphere Research Group in the Pyrenees (CryoPyr), who work under the umbrella of the government science body, CSIC.
Their remit is to study ‘the spatial and temporal evolution of the elements that make up the cryosphere such as snow, glaciers and permafrost, their response to climate change, and the influence they have on hydrology, and various environmental and socioeconomic processes’.
The cryosphere is the region of the earth’s surface where water is found in the form of ice or snow.
A CryoPyr spokesperson explained that the cameras are designed to improve their monitoring of the shrinking glaciers.
“They are also giving an opportunity to the general public to see in real time the condition of two of the most emblematic glaciers in the Pyrenees,” they noted.
The cameras capture ‘sequential images’, which can be viewed via their website.
They will help the scientists to observe the evolution of the glaciers throughout the year, viewing the snow cover as it changes with the seasons.
This will allow them to determine the periods of accumulation and fusion of snow, ‘which has a big influence on the mass of the glaciers’.
The cameras will also give very valuable information to meteorologists, mountain rescue teams and mountaineers who aim to walk across or around the glaciers in order to reach the summits.
They can be viewed via their website at https://cryopyr.csic.es
Spain’s glaciers have been badly hit by rising temperatures. There were 52 of them in the mountain chain in 1850, 39 in 1984, with just 21 remaining in 2020.
Over that period the glaciated area has shrunk by 88.8%.
The largest remaining glacier is in the Maladeta massif below the summit of Aneto, the highest mountain in the Pyrenees at 3,404 metres, which can be viewed on the CryoPyr camera.
Scientists investigating ice loss examined the evolution of Aneto’s glacier from 1981 to 2022.
During that time, the glacier surface has diminished by 64.7%, from 1.36 km2 to 0.48 km2.
Tragically, the scientists have concluded that it is ‘in its terminal stage’.
The Monte Perdido glacier is also losing ice at an unsustainable rate.
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