Satellite images highlighted last week by NASA reveal the
rapid disappearance of Indonesia's only glaciers.
The images, captured by the Thematic Mapper (TM) on Landsat
4 and Landsat 5, show glaciers on Puncak Jaya, a 4,884-meter (16,020-foot)
mountain peak in Indonesian New Guinea, in 1989 and 2009. The 1989 image shows
five glaciers on Puncak Jaya, but by 2009, two of the glaciers had disappeared
completely while the remaining three had retreated dramatically.
NASA says that at current rates, all of New Guinea's
glaciers will likely be gone within 20 years.
Scientists haven't definitively determined what's causing
the glacier retreat, but shifts in temperature, humidity, precipitation, and
cloud cover could all be factors. Both climate change and local deforestation
could contribute to such changes.