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Annual to seasonal glacier mass balance in High Mountain Asia derived from Pléiades stereo images: examples from the Pamir and the Tibetan Plateau

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Owen KingORCiD

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).


Abstract

© 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.


Publication metadata

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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Funding

Funder referenceFunder name
200021E_177652/1
4000136930/22/I-NB
DFG Research Unit GlobalCDA
ESA
FOR2630
NRSCC
Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
Swiss National Science Foundation
XDA20100300

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