Etienne BERTHIER
CNRS Senior scientist at LEGOS
Team ECHOS
14 av. Ed. Belin - 31400 - Toulouse
etienne.berthieruniv-tlse3.fr
in english
GPS in Trapridge (YT)



Research Thems My Publications CV Projet PGO Projet Spirit Tutorials for data processing


Highligths: recent papers/projects/field trips



Chungthang
Rapid global glacier decline measured from Space

The GlaMBIE team, Nature, 2025






Chungthang
Glacier retreat and permafrost thaw triggered the castrophic glacier outburst flood in Sikkim (October 2023)

Sattar, Cook et al., Science, 2025






Andes
Exceptional thinning of Mont-Blanc glaciers during glaciological year 2021/2022

Berthier, Vincent, Six, Journal of Glaciology, 2023






Andes
What fraction of the Earth's glacier mass disappeared from 2000 to 2019? Answer in French in:

Hugonnet, Millan et al., La Météorologie, 2023

Th entire issue is available here






Andes
Melting away: Glacier disappearance faster than previously thought

Rounce et al., Science, 5 January 2023

More info on twitter






Unesco
Publication of the Unesco report, jointly with ETH-Zurich.
World heritage glaciers: sentinels of climate change.
A call for drastic reduction in greenhouse gazes emission ahead of COP72





Andes
PHD opportunity: Mass losses of the polar ice sheets, Antarctica and Greenland. New constraints from stereoscopic imagery and laser altimetry.
Applications opened until 11 June. The selected candidate will then apply in late June to a fellowship from the doctoral school (sdu2e).
More info here and here





Andes
No good news on the glacier front
More details in this thread on twitter

"Glaciers are sending a clear message: It's up to us to step up and halt the rise in global temperatures" Garry Clarke, UBC professor





Andes
A massive rock avalanche caused the 7 February 2021 catastrophic flood in India
More details on the blog multitemp





Andes
The imbalance and retreat of the Kaskawulsh Glacier (Yukon Territory, Canada)
Young & al, Journal of Glaciology, January 2021





Andes
Two decades of glacier mass loss along the Andes
Dussaillant & al, Nature Geoscience, September 2019
A free read-only version is available here





Eyja
An intriguing 100-depression after a massive rock avalanche on Siachen Glacier
Berthier & Brun, Journal of Glaciology, May 2019





Eyja
7 decades of glacier change at Eyjafjallajökull ice cap
Belart et al., Journal of Glaciology, April 2019





Aru
Himalayan and (some) other Asian glaciers put the brakes on
Dehecq et al., Nature Geoscience, December 2018
See the ESA press release and BBC coverage





Aru
Spectacular collapse of two glaciers over the Tibetan Plateau
Kääb et al., Nature Geoscience, February 2018





Karakoram
High spatial variability of glacier mass change in High Mountain Asia
Brun et al., Nature Geoscience, Online publication 7 August 2017





Bompi
The mascot of our observatory Bompi is back from a 5-week field trip in Himalaya. He details (in French) all the measurements performed to take the pulse of glaciers in the Everest area.





Pleiades
The climate drivers of glacier wastage at Kerguelen have been explored using field observations, remote sensing data and modelling. After a period of stability between 1950 and 1960, glaciers experienced a massive reduction mainly explained by a drought due to man-made atmospheric warming and the ozone hole Favier et al., Scientific Reports, 2016





Pleiades
Unlocking archives using high resolution Pleiades images

Here, a report in French to understand how we used high resolution Pléiades topography and images to document the state of remote glaciers in the Canadian Arctic. They melt 5 to 6 faster now than during the last 5-6 decades.
Papasodoro et al., The Cryosphere, 2015





TrainClimat
From 11 to 17 octobre, I will be one of the scientists
onboard the "Train du Climat". See you at platform 9 3/4


Pleiades Pléiades DEM for Glaciology
Berthier et al., The Cryosphere, 2014

French Side of the Mont-Blanc summit. Virtual 3D view created from Pléiades stereo-images (19 August 2012)


Pleiades Rapid Mass losses in the North Antarctic Peninsula
Scambos et al., The Cryosphere, 2014
See also NSIDC highlight

Photo: Ice terrasses in 2004. 2 years only after the collapse of the Larsen-B ice shelf, the glacier thinned already by 100 m!


Pleiades Motion of the Mer de Glace between summer 2012 and 2013 from shaded relief images of the Pléiades DEMs
(clic on the image to open a higher resolution version)

PKH Contrasted glacier mass balances in the Pamir - Karakorum - Himalaya, 1999-2011
Gardelle et al., The Cryosphere, 2013
Paper downloaded >28000 times!

Perito Reconciled glacier contribution to sea-level rise, 2003-2009
Gardner et al., Science, 2013

Myrdals Contribution of Icelandic ice caps to sea-level rise
Björnsson et al., GRL, 2013

Fitz Roy Fieldwork in Patagonia - March 2013

Everest Glacier mass change in the Himalaya
Kääb et al., Nature, 2012

3D CRANE High and Unabated Mass loss 10 year after ice shelf collapse (Antarctic Peninsula)
Berthier et al., GRL, 2012

3D Kara Le comportement hors norme des glaciers du Karakorum
Gardelle et al., Nature Geosci., 2012

ISPRS logo The Korona et al., 2009 paper presenting the SPIRIT IPY project was nominated paper of the year 2009 by the ISPRS.

Retreat Columbia 1980-2007 Improved estimate of Alaskan glacier contribution to sea level rise

SPIRIT, année polaire 23 years evolution at Jakobshavn Isbrae (low resolution & high resolution, 3 Mo)

Kerguelen Kerguelen : Glacier retreat since 1963