Brief communication: Tropical glaciers on Puncak Jaya (Irian Jaya/West Papua, Indonesia) close to extinction

Abstract. The majority of glaciers have been retreating for many decades on a global scale due to anthropogenic climate change, including the mostly small glaciers in the Tropics. In this brief report, we document area changes of the Puncak Jaya glaciers in South-East Asia on West Papua, Indonesia, until the present. The survey was based on recent high resolution multispectral satellite imagery of PlanetScope and Pléiades missions from 2023 and 2024. Additionally, we digitized and georeferenced historical glacier extents from analogue maps, resulting in a new overview map of glacier change on Puncak Jaya since 1850. The results show a decrease of total glacier surface area by more than 99 % since 1850 and by ∼ 65 % since the last survey in 2018. In 2024, glacier area was 0.165 km2 ± 5 %. The development of Puncak Jaya glaciers is thus in line with the global shrinkage of (tropical) glaciers. Assuming the current area retreat rates to continue, it is very likely that Puncak Jaya glaciers will disappear around 2030.