Melting Glacier: A 37-Year (1984-2020) High-Resolution Glacier-Cover Record of MT. Kilimanjaro

Shuai Yuan; Juepeng Zheng; Lixian Zhang; Runmin Dong; Yile Xing; Yuhan She; Haohuan Fu; Ray C. C. Cheung

doi:10.1109/IGARSS46834.2022.9883229

Melting Glacier: A 37-Year (1984-2020) High-Resolution Glacier-Cover Record of MT. Kilimanjaro

Shuai Yuan
, Juepeng Zheng
, Lixian Zhang
, Runmin Dong
, Yile Xing
, Yuhan She
, Haohuan Fu
, Ray C. C. Cheung^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Electrical Engineering

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary Works › RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication) › peer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Commonly recognized as an important symbol of the tropics and global warming, the glacier loss on Mt. Kilimanjaro has received worldwide attention for decades. In this paper, we propose a high-resolution glacier-cover (GC) record of Mt. Kilimanjaro over the period from 1984 to 2020, using a novel deep learning-based semantic segmentation method and Google Earth images, as well as digital elevation model (DEM) and ERA5-Land (ERA5) for snowline and temperature variations analysis. Our method achieves an accuracy of 94.37%, which proves the model's capability to record the GC areas precisely. The results show that (1) the GC area dramatically decreases from 19.2 km² to 3.6 km² during 37 years, which decreases about 4% and 2% per year from 1984 to 2000 and from 2000 to 2020 respectively, (2) the snowline altitude rises from 4,651 m to 5,088 m by about 437 m, and (3) the average 5,000 m air temperature on Mt. Kilimanjaro increases from -2.1 °C to -1.1 °C by about 1 °C. This study indicates that there will be no GC within a few decades if the current loss continues.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	IGARSS 2022 - 2022 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium
Subtitle of host publication	Proceedings
Publisher	IEEE
Pages	3943-3946
ISBN (Electronic)	9781665427920, 978-1-6654-2791-3
ISBN (Print)	978-1-6654-2793-7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/IGARSS46834.2022.9883229
Publication status	Published - 2022
Event	2022 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS 2022) - Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre & Virtual, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Duration: 17 Jul 2022 → 22 Jul 2022 https://igarss2022.org/#

Publication series

Name	International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS)
ISSN (Print)	2153-6996
ISSN (Electronic)	2153-7003

Conference

Conference	2022 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS 2022)
Place	Malaysia
City	Kuala Lumpur
Period	17/07/22 → 22/07/22
Internet address	https://igarss2022.org/#

Research Keywords

climate change
deep learning
glacier loss
high-resolution images

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10.1109/IGARSS46834.2022.9883229

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Cite this

Yuan, S., Zheng, J., Zhang, L., Dong, R., Xing, Y., She, Y., Fu, H., & Cheung, R. C. C. (2022). Melting Glacier: A 37-Year (1984-2020) High-Resolution Glacier-Cover Record of MT. Kilimanjaro. In IGARSS 2022 - 2022 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium: Proceedings (pp. 3943-3946). (International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS)). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/IGARSS46834.2022.9883229

@inproceedings{05fc67182be0425284e8455330ed9cfe,

title = "Melting Glacier: A 37-Year (1984-2020) High-Resolution Glacier-Cover Record of MT. Kilimanjaro",

abstract = "Commonly recognized as an important symbol of the tropics and global warming, the glacier loss on Mt. Kilimanjaro has received worldwide attention for decades. In this paper, we propose a high-resolution glacier-cover (GC) record of Mt. Kilimanjaro over the period from 1984 to 2020, using a novel deep learning-based semantic segmentation method and Google Earth images, as well as digital elevation model (DEM) and ERA5-Land (ERA5) for snowline and temperature variations analysis. Our method achieves an accuracy of 94.37\%, which proves the model's capability to record the GC areas precisely. The results show that (1) the GC area dramatically decreases from 19.2 km2 to 3.6 km2 during 37 years, which decreases about 4\% and 2\% per year from 1984 to 2000 and from 2000 to 2020 respectively, (2) the snowline altitude rises from 4,651 m to 5,088 m by about 437 m, and (3) the average 5,000 m air temperature on Mt. Kilimanjaro increases from -2.1 °C to -1.1 °C by about 1 °C. This study indicates that there will be no GC within a few decades if the current loss continues.",

keywords = "climate change, deep learning, glacier loss, high-resolution images",

author = "Shuai Yuan and Juepeng Zheng and Lixian Zhang and Runmin Dong and Yile Xing and Yuhan She and Haohuan Fu and Cheung, \{Ray C. C.\}",

year = "2022",

doi = "10.1109/IGARSS46834.2022.9883229",

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isbn = "978-1-6654-2793-7",

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publisher = "IEEE",

pages = "3943--3946",

booktitle = "IGARSS 2022 - 2022 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium",

address = "United States",

note = "2022 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS 2022) ; Conference date: 17-07-2022 Through 22-07-2022",

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Yuan, S, Zheng, J, Zhang, L, Dong, R, Xing, Y , She, Y, Fu, H & Cheung, RCC 2022, Melting Glacier: A 37-Year (1984-2020) High-Resolution Glacier-Cover Record of MT. Kilimanjaro. in IGARSS 2022 - 2022 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium: Proceedings. International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), IEEE, pp. 3943-3946, 2022 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS 2022), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 17/07/22. https://doi.org/10.1109/IGARSS46834.2022.9883229

Melting Glacier: A 37-Year (1984-2020) High-Resolution Glacier-Cover Record of MT. Kilimanjaro. / Yuan, Shuai; Zheng, Juepeng; Zhang, Lixian et al.
IGARSS 2022 - 2022 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium: Proceedings. IEEE, 2022. p. 3943-3946 (International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS)).

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary Works › RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication) › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - Melting Glacier

T2 - 2022 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS 2022)

AU - Yuan, Shuai

AU - Zheng, Juepeng

AU - Zhang, Lixian

AU - Dong, Runmin

AU - Xing, Yile

AU - She, Yuhan

AU - Fu, Haohuan

AU - Cheung, Ray C. C.

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Commonly recognized as an important symbol of the tropics and global warming, the glacier loss on Mt. Kilimanjaro has received worldwide attention for decades. In this paper, we propose a high-resolution glacier-cover (GC) record of Mt. Kilimanjaro over the period from 1984 to 2020, using a novel deep learning-based semantic segmentation method and Google Earth images, as well as digital elevation model (DEM) and ERA5-Land (ERA5) for snowline and temperature variations analysis. Our method achieves an accuracy of 94.37%, which proves the model's capability to record the GC areas precisely. The results show that (1) the GC area dramatically decreases from 19.2 km2 to 3.6 km2 during 37 years, which decreases about 4% and 2% per year from 1984 to 2000 and from 2000 to 2020 respectively, (2) the snowline altitude rises from 4,651 m to 5,088 m by about 437 m, and (3) the average 5,000 m air temperature on Mt. Kilimanjaro increases from -2.1 °C to -1.1 °C by about 1 °C. This study indicates that there will be no GC within a few decades if the current loss continues.

AB - Commonly recognized as an important symbol of the tropics and global warming, the glacier loss on Mt. Kilimanjaro has received worldwide attention for decades. In this paper, we propose a high-resolution glacier-cover (GC) record of Mt. Kilimanjaro over the period from 1984 to 2020, using a novel deep learning-based semantic segmentation method and Google Earth images, as well as digital elevation model (DEM) and ERA5-Land (ERA5) for snowline and temperature variations analysis. Our method achieves an accuracy of 94.37%, which proves the model's capability to record the GC areas precisely. The results show that (1) the GC area dramatically decreases from 19.2 km2 to 3.6 km2 during 37 years, which decreases about 4% and 2% per year from 1984 to 2000 and from 2000 to 2020 respectively, (2) the snowline altitude rises from 4,651 m to 5,088 m by about 437 m, and (3) the average 5,000 m air temperature on Mt. Kilimanjaro increases from -2.1 °C to -1.1 °C by about 1 °C. This study indicates that there will be no GC within a few decades if the current loss continues.

KW - climate change

KW - deep learning

KW - glacier loss

KW - high-resolution images

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85140382207

UR - https://www.scopus.com/record/pubmetrics.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85140382207&origin=recordpage

U2 - 10.1109/IGARSS46834.2022.9883229

DO - 10.1109/IGARSS46834.2022.9883229

M3 - RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication)

SN - 978-1-6654-2793-7

T3 - International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS)

SP - 3943

EP - 3946

BT - IGARSS 2022 - 2022 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium

PB - IEEE

Y2 - 17 July 2022 through 22 July 2022

ER -

Yuan S, Zheng J, Zhang L, Dong R, Xing Y , She Y et al. Melting Glacier: A 37-Year (1984-2020) High-Resolution Glacier-Cover Record of MT. Kilimanjaro. In IGARSS 2022 - 2022 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium: Proceedings. IEEE. 2022. p. 3943-3946. (International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS)). Epub 2022 Sept 28. doi: 10.1109/IGARSS46834.2022.9883229

Melting Glacier: A 37-Year (1984-2020) High-Resolution Glacier-Cover Record of MT. Kilimanjaro

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