Assessment of the Reduction of the Icesnow Coverage at the TransMexican Volcanic Belt Through Empirical Mode Decomposition on Satellite Imagery

The drastic decrease in snow and ice cover on the main peaks of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt has been observed by both the civilian population and scientists. This decrease has occurred particularly in the once considered permanent glaciers on such peaks. Here, Landsat images are used to evaluate the change in snow and ice cover on the three main peaks of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt: Iztaccíhuatl (5,230 m.a.s.l.), Popocatépelt (5,426 m.a.s.l.) and Citlaltépetl (5,636 m.a.s.l). Through image segmentation techniques, we obtain a time series of snow and ice cover for each volcano. Subsequently, temporal tendencies were obtained through the empirical mode decomposition technique. For the study period between 1985 and 2020, the analysis show a clear decreasing trend in the area covered by snow and ice (an average reduction of 27.74% for Iztaccíhuatl and Citlaltépetl). This is particularly intense for Popocatépetl volcano (99.93 % from 1985 to 2020). The behaviour of the snow and ice cover time series seems to be attributed to some periodicities in the solar cycle, as well as the eruptive activity of Popocatépetl volcano since 1999; another potential cause could be the impact of global warming in the region.