Closing Data Gaps in Regional Glacier Trends of the Wind River Range, Wyoming, USA

Glaciers in Wind River Range, Wyoming, have experienced substantial reductions in surface area and volume in recent decades, yet existing inventories contain temporal gaps and often mix glaciers with seasonal snowpack. We mapped and classified glacier outlines using high-resolution satellite imagery in 2006 in Google Earth Pro (version 7.3.7.1327) and compared them against inventories from 1963–1974, 2015, and 2020. A classification approach was applied to distinguish glaciers from snowpack based on Welch’s t-test of significant difference in elevation changes within and surrounding mapped outlines based on four digital elevation models from 2000 to 2019. Results show an 11% decrease in mapped glacier/snowpack features from 1963–1974 to 2006 (476 to 423), with a 21% reduction in mapped outlines classified as glaciers (314 to 247). Total glacier area declined from 48.35 km2 in 1963–1974 to 34.06 km2 in 2006, while volume decreased from 0.998 km3 to 0.701 km3. From 1963–1974 to 2015, area and volume losses reached 47% and 49%, respectively, consistent with accelerated regional retreat. An unusually low reduction observed from 2015 to 2020 is likely caused by methodological inconsistencies between existing inventories. This study underscores the need for standardized mapping protocols and robust classification between glaciers and snowpack to accurately document glacier changes and assess their impact on water resources.