Mount Kilimanjaro's Vanishing Snow Cap

  • Credit

    NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Monthly Average Erythemal Index (UV exposure) for 2000-2001 (WMS)

Mount Kilimanjaro's Vanishing Snow Cap (WMS)

The Erythemal Index is a measure of ultraviolet (UV) radiation at ground level on the Earth. (The word 'erythema' means an abnormal redness of the skin, such as is caused by spending too much time in the sun--a sunburn is damage to your skin cells caused by UV radiation.) Atmospheric ozone shields life at the surface from most of the harmful components of solar radiation. Chemical processes in the atmosphere can affect the level of protection provided by the ozone in the upper atmosphere. This thinning of the atmospheric ozone in the stratosphere leads to elevated levels of UV at ground level and increases the risks of DNA damage in living organisms.

During the last few decades, the permanent snow and ice ony the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro has almost completely disappeared, at the rate of about a foot and a half of glacial ice lost per year. This loss is primarily due to increasing average annual temperatures in the region, and scientists are speculating that the glaciers could be completely gone from Kilimanjaro by the year 2015. This ice cap formed more that 11,000 years ago, and 80% of the ice fields have been lost in only the last century. The shrinkage is illustrated here in Landsat images from 1993, 2000, and 2002, with the 1993 image showing a significant ice cap and the more recent images showing only small glaciers and snow regions remaining.

Landsat imagery of Mount Kilimanjaro acquired on June 2, 2002.

Metadata

  • Sensor

  • Animation ID

    3125

  • Start Timecode

    00:00:00:00

  • End Timecode

    00:00:00:00

  • Animator

    James W. Williams, Horace Mitchell, Marte Newcombe

  • Studio

    SVS

  • Visualization Date

    2005/03/07

  • Scientist

    Darrel Williams (NASA/GSFC)

  • Keywords

    GCMD--EARTH SCIENCE--Cryosphere--Snow/Ice--Snow Cover, GCMD--EARTH SCIENCE--Cryosphere--Glaciers/Ice Sheets--Glaciers

  • DLESE Subject

    Cryology

  • Georeference Data

    [37.04000,-3.35296,37.59296,-2.80000]

  • Data Date

    1993/02/17, 2000/02/21, 2002/06/02

  • Story URL

    stories/kilimanjaro_20021216/index.html

  • Animation Type

    Regular