Google Earth Engine

January 12, 2025

In the 2022/23 glacial budget, Pasterze Glacier, the largest glacier in Austria, experienced an unprecedented retreat of 203.5 meters, marking the greatest loss since measurements began. This retreat equates to a loss of approximately 14.03 million cubic meters of ice at the glacier tongue (source).

To explore this glacial retreat in more depth, I created a Google Earth Engine (GEE) application with interactive features to explore the glacial loss year-on-year. This includes a split screen with various year sliders to allow for greater customisation.

Copernicus Sentinel 2 data was utilised to create a normalised difference snow index (NDSI), and August was chosen as the month for visualisation to allow for clear comparison year-on-year; this is when cloud interference and general snow cover are less likely to interfere. Cloud cover has been set to 5% to minimise noise.

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