The Pleaides satellites have captured shocking high-resolution images of how tropical glaciers in the Pacific have retreated over the past decade.

West Papua New Guinea's Carstenz Glacier, for instance, has nearly disappeared, while the East Northwall Firn has broken up into a number of much smaller fragments.

Led by scientists at Plymouth University and the Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth (BRNC), this discovery underscores the global impact of climate change and record-breaking temperatures reported in recent years.

"The years 2011-2015 have been the warmest five-year period on record, with many extreme weather events influenced by climate change. So it is not surprising then that the present observed speed of glacier retreat world-wide has been historically unprecedented," explained Chris Lavers, lecturer in Radar and Telecommunications based at BRNC. "This is visual confirmation of the ablation of equatorial glaciers, with the Carstenz Glacier revealed to have almost completed melted away in the last 15 years."

To get a better picture of glacial retreat in the Pacific, researchers arranged for the Pleaides satellites to take the images in June 2015 as it passed over Papua New Guinea. These images were then compared to similar pictures taken between 2000 and 2002.

Remote sensing of West Papua New Guinea is a useful tool for monitoring glacial retreat, as the area is considered too dangerous or difficult to visit.

While the Carstenz Glacier - first discovered in 1623 - has nearly disappeared, the satellite images revealed the once expansive 1.33-million-square-meter East Northwall Firn has split into a number of smaller fragments, the largest of which is only 313,334 square meters.

To make matters worse, the Grasberg mine - the world's largest gold and copper mine - has continued to grow in the area, causing further damage to the already unstable glaciers.

"A combination of large-scale open cast industrial mining, high rainfall and enhanced glacial melt is having a profound impact on mineral and sediment transport in the local river systems upon which both the local Amungme tribe and wildlife depend," Lavers added.

Mountain peaks near the equator in South America, Africa and tropical Asia have supported glaciers for thousands of years, but many have lost more than half of their ice in the last few decades.

"Tropical glaciers can be considered as 'canary in the cage' sensitive markers, responding in near real-time to rapid temperature change trends, and as such, they provide a window to look at consequent environmental impact," Lavers said. "Societal change is likely to reflect, on a much magnified scale, some of the local changes, such as water scarcity and deforestation, which will affect the Papuan Amungme tribe."

Their findings will be published in the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society quarterly publication Sensed.