An international research team, under the coordination of the WGMS, carried out the so-called Glacier Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise (GlaMBIE). The research community collected, homogenized, combined, and analyzed glacier mass changes from different field and satellite observation methods. The team then compared and combined the results from the different methods into an annual time series of glacier mass changes for all glacier regions in the world from 2000 to 2023.
The results are published in Nature, data and code are available open access, and the study is explained in a video animation produced in collaboration with ESA and Planetary Visions [Video: revealed glacier ice loss over two decades].
The GlaMBIE team. Community estimate of global glacier mass changes from 2000 to 2023. Nature. 19 February 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08545-z
The European Space Agency (ESA) funded the project with additional support from the International Association for Cryospheric Sciences (IACS).
A fleet of satellites has been used to monitor glaciers worldwide using optical, radar, laser and gravity measurements. From top: CryoSat, Terra, ICESat, and the twin GRACE spacecraft, above a map of elevation change for the Vatnajökull ice cap on Iceland. Source: ESA, NASA, and Planetary Visions
