A disappearing tropical glacier is being preserved in digital form
One of the world’s last tropical glacier systems has been captured in a detailed 3D model as researchers race to document ice that may disappear within the decade. The work focuses on glaciers near the summit of Puncak Jaya in Indonesia’s Central Papua Province, where climate change has driven a rapid collapse in ice cover over recent decades.
The mapping effort was led by explorer, photographer and scientist Klaus Thymann, who traveled to the remote highlands in late 2025 to record the remaining ice in centimeter-level detail. The project is both scientific and archival: a measurement tool for tracking change and a lasting record of a landscape that may soon be gone.
The remaining ice has already shrunk dramatically
According to the supplied source text, the glaciers in the area lost 97% of their ice cover between 1980 and 2024. Four of the original six glaciers have already disappeared, and the final two are expected to be gone by 2030.
The scale of the retreat is striking not only in percentage terms but in how fast it compresses what was once a far larger frozen landscape. The article says the glaciers used to cover an area about twice the size of Central Park. By 2024, their total area was smaller than Grand Central Station.
Tropical glaciers are rare, which makes their loss especially significant. They exist in climates more commonly associated with rainforest and coastline, surviving only because altitude keeps temperatures below freezing. Their disappearance therefore acts as a vivid climate signal: even high-elevation cold refuges in the tropics are failing under sustained warming.
A difficult site required drones, helicopters and armed guards
The expedition also highlights how challenging climate documentation can become when the most vulnerable environments are hard to reach. The glacier site lies in a rebel-held area where Indonesia has banned hiking because of civil unrest. Thymann reportedly had to wait days for a helicopter window, then travel with guides and armed guards to access the mountain.
Once there, he used drones to photograph the landscape from multiple angles, later stitching overlapping images together to create a 3D model of the site and one of the remaining glaciers, East Northwall Firn. That glacier has already split into three parts as it melts.
Cloud cover makes this work especially valuable. The source notes that the region receives rain roughly 300 days a year, complicating efforts to monitor the glacier accurately with satellites alone. The field-mapping approach, aided by Trimble geolocation technology, provides a level of spatial precision that remote sensing may struggle to achieve under persistent cloud.
An open-source climate record and a cultural archive
The resulting dataset is open source, allowing scientists to track the ecosystem as it changes. That makes the model more than a one-off visual project. It becomes a reference point for future measurement, comparison and ecological study as the glacier continues to retreat.
But the digital record also carries cultural meaning. The glaciers are important to local communities, and preserving a detailed model helps document more than physical ice. It captures a place with social and symbolic value before that landscape is transformed irreversibly.
The project sits at the intersection of science, technology and environmental memory. As physical systems cross thresholds faster than many people realize, high-resolution 3D documentation offers a way to hold onto evidence, create baseline data and make distant changes visible to broader audiences.
In that sense, the Indonesian glacier model is not just about one mountain. It reflects a growing need to archive parts of the natural world while they still exist in recognizable form. When scientists say the last tropical glaciers in this region may disappear by 2030, a digital twin becomes both a research tool and a warning: some landscapes are moving from observation to remembrance within a single generation.
This article is based on reporting by Fast Company. Read the original article.
Originally published on fastcompany.com