Glacier monitoring using satellites is helping scientists to track ice melt and launch early warning systems to prevent climate-related disasters.
Formed from snow that has accumulated on land over centuries, glaciers store around 70% of the planet’s fresh water.
Their high reflectivity has a regulating effect on the climate as they reflect the Sun’s rays back into space, reducing the absorption of solar energy on the Earth’s surface.
Climate change and rising temperatures are causing glaciers to melt at an alarming rate, the consequences of which scientists have warned us about for some time.
A study published in February 2025 in Nature reported that between 2000 and 2023 the world’s mountain glaciers on average lost 6,542 billion tonnes of ice. This glacier ice loss has directly contributed approximately 1.9cm to global sea‑level rise.
Based on data gathered by satellites – some of which has been developed by Airbus – the study revealed that, since 2000, the Earth’s 275,000 mountain glaciers...
