Thomas Vijayan's Image
Thomas Vijayan (Canada) uses his drone to show the epic scale of the Bråsvellbreen glacier.
Encapsulating the magnificence of the Austfonna ice cap required meticulous planning and favourable weather conditions.
Thomas’s image is a stitched panorama of 26 individual frames. Together they provide a spectacular summer view of meltwater plunging 24 metres (79 feet) over the edge of the Bråsvellbreen glacier.
The Bråsvellbreen glacier is part of Austfonna, Europe’s third largest ice cap. This dome of ice is one of several that cover the land area of the Svalbard archipelago.
Historically, glacier size has been maintained by a layer of compressed snow called firn. This would soak up about half the meltwater and store it until it froze again in winter.
Two decades of rapid Arctic warming have led to more days above freezing, a greater flow of meltwater rivers and waterfalls, and the loss of much of Svalbard’s firn.
Some scientific models suggest that Svalbard’s glaciers could disappear completely within 400 years.
