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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Owen KingORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© Copyright: Glaciers are crucial sources of freshwater in particular for the arid lowlands surrounding High Mountain Asia. To better constrain glacio-hydrological models, annual, or even better, seasonal information about glacier mass changes is highly beneficial. In this study, we evaluate the suitability of very-high-resolution Pléiades digital elevation models (DEMs) to measure glacier mass balance at annual and seasonal scales in two regions of High Mountain Asia (Muztagh Ata in Eastern Pamirs and parts of western Nyainqêntanglha, south-central Tibetan Plateau), where recent estimates have shown contrasting glacier behaviour. The average annual mass balance in Muztagh Ata between 2019 and 2022 was -0.07ĝ€¯±ĝ€¯0.20ĝ€¯mĝ€¯w.e.ĝ€¯a-1, suggesting the continuation of a recent phase of slight mass loss following a prolonged period of balanced mass budgets previously observed. The mean annual mass balance in western Nyainqêntanglha was highly negative for the same period (-0.60ĝ€¯±ĝ€¯0.15ĝ€¯mĝ€¯w.e.ĝ€¯a-1), suggesting increased mass loss rates compared to the approximately previous 5 decades. The 2022 winter (+0.13ĝ€¯±ĝ€¯0.24ĝ€¯mĝ€¯w.e.) and summer (-0.35ĝ€¯±ĝ€¯0.15ĝ€¯mĝ€¯w.e.) mass budgets in Muztagh Ata and western Nyainqêntanglha (-0.03ĝ€¯±ĝ€¯0.27ĝ€¯mĝ€¯w.e. in winter; -0.63ĝ€¯±ĝ€¯0.07ĝ€¯mĝ€¯w.e. in summer) suggest winter- and summer-accumulation-type regimes, respectively. We support our findings by implementing the Sentinel-1-based Glacier Index to identify the firn and wet-snow areas on glaciers and characterize the accumulation type. The good match between the geodetic and Glacier Index results supports the potential of very-high-resolution Pléiades data to monitor mass balance at short timescales and improves our understanding of glacier accumulation regimes across High Mountain Asia.
Author(s): Falaschi D, Bhattacharya A, Guillet G, Huang L, King O, Mukherjee K, Rastner P, Yao T, Bolch T
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Cryosphere
Year: 2023
Volume: 17
Issue: 12
Pages: 5435-5458
Online publication date: 20/12/2023
Acceptance date: 21/11/2023
Date deposited: 15/01/2024
ISSN (print): 1994-0416
ISSN (electronic): 1994-0424
Publisher: Copernicus Publications
URL: https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-5435-2023
DOI: 10.5194/tc-17-5435-2023
Data Access Statement: The glacier elevation change grids in this study are available from Zenodo at the following DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10392969 (Falaschi et al., 2023b). [List continues at https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-5435-2023 ]
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