Can the snowline be used as an indicator of the equilibrium line and mass balance for glaciers in the outer tropics?

Rabatel, Antoine; Bermejo, Ana; Loarte, Edwin; Soruco, Álvaro; Gómez, Jesus Antonio Berrocal; Leonardini, Gonzalo; Vincent, Christian; Sicart, J.

doi:10.3189/2012jog12j027

Cited by 97 publications

(114 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…It has been applied in many different mountain ranges (Kulkarni, 1992;Rabatel et al, 2008;Chinn et al, 2012;Stumm, 2011), and it is often used to relate temperature and precipitation with mass balance (Kuhn, 1984;Ohmura et al, 1992). Generally, ELA and the annual mass balance are well correlated (Rabatel et al, 2005(Rabatel et al, , 2012. The advantage of using ELA and AAR is their straightforward mapping using remote sensing data (Rabatel et al, 2013).…”

Section: Snow Line Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Re-establishing glacier monitoring in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, Central Asia

Hoelzle

Azisov

Barandun

et al. 2017

Geosci. Instrum. Method. Data Syst.

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Abstract. Glacier mass loss is among the clearest indicators of atmospheric warming. The observation of these changes is one of the major objectives of the international climate monitoring strategy developed by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS). Long-term glacier mass balance measurements are furthermore the basis for calibrating and validating models simulating future runoff of glacierised catchments. This is essential for Central Asia, which is one of the driest continental regions of the Northern Hemisphere. In the highly populated regions, water shortage due to decreased glacierisation potentially leads to pronounced political instability, drastic ecological changes and endangered food security. As a consequence of the collapse of the former Soviet Union, however, many valuable glacier monitoring sites in the Tien Shan and Pamir Mountains were abandoned. In recent years, multinational actors have re-established a set of important in situ measuring sites to continue the invaluable long-term data series. This paper introduces the applied monitoring strategy for selected glaciers in the Kyrgyz and Uzbek Tien Shan and Pamir, highlights the existing and the new measurements on these glaciers, and presents an example for how the old and new data can be combined to establish multi-decadal mass balance time series. This is crucial for understanding the impact of climate change on glaciers in this region.

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Section: Snow Line Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Re-establishing glacier monitoring in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, Central Asia

Hoelzle

Azisov

Barandun

et al. 2017

Geosci. Instrum. Method. Data Syst.

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“…However, inter-annual variation is likely due to temperature and precipitation 27 . Here, the uncertainty estimated in satellite-derived TSL altitude is  230 m.…”

Section: Satellite-derived and Modelled Transient Snowlinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The uncertainty in satellite-derived snowline elevation is estimated by adding independent sources of uncertainty 27,40 : (i) altitude estimation by DEM (11 m); (ii) variations in slope near TSL and (iii) spatial variation of elevation along TSL.…”

Section: Satellite-derived Transient Snowlinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Field-estimated ELA is not feasible for every glacier in a basin because of difficulties associated with access to mountainous terrain. However, snowlines are easily identifiable on satellite images and the transient snowline (TSL) at the end of the glaciological year coincides with ELA on temperate glaciers 15,[25][26][27] . Therefore, many studies in different parts of the Himalaya have used satellite-derived ELA 23,[28][29][30][31] and the resultant AAR in the regression developed by Kulkarni et al 23 for estimation of glacier mass balance.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Estimation of Glacier Mass Balance on a Basin Scale:An Approach Based on Satellite-Derived Snowlines and a Temperature Index Model

Tawde¹,

Kulkarni²,

Bala³

2016

Current Science

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Mass balance is an important metric to assess the growth or decline of water stored in a glacier. The Accumulation Area Ratio (AAR) method where mass balance is proportional to AAR has been used to estimate glacier mass balance by several studies in the past. Since field estimates of AAR are not feasible on every glacier, it is usually estimated by identifying the snowline at the end of ablation season as a proxy of Equilibrium Line Altitude (ELA) on satellite images. However, locating ELA on satellite images is challenging due to temporal gaps, cloud cover and fresh snowfall on glaciers. Hence, the highest observed snowline has been traditionally used to estimate AAR, which usually leads to an underestimate of mass loss. To rectify this problem we propose a method to estimate the position of ELA by combining satellite images with in situ meteorological observations and a snowmelt model. The main advantage of this method is that it can be used to estimate the mass balance of individual glaciers and basins. Application of the method to eight glaciers in the Chandra basin, Western Himalaya is found to reduce the bias in mass balance estimates compared to the traditional AAR technique and the modelled estimates are in good agreement with the geodetic method. When applied to 12 selected glaciers in the Chandra basin, the modelled cumulative mass balance is -1.67  0.72 Gt (-0.79  0.34 m w.e. a -1 ) during 1999/2000-2008/09. This method can also be used to estimate the future deviations in mass balance using climate change projections of temperature and precipitation.

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“…Errors occurred due to the pixel size of the images, slope of the terrain, the accuracy of the georeferencing and the quality of the DEM (Rabatel et al, 2012). In view of the fact that the border between ice and snow is not a clearly defined line, operator expertise is desired and beneficial.…”

Section: Snowline Delineationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-decadal mass balance series of three Kyrgyz glaciers inferred from transient snowline observations

Barandun

Huss

Kääb

et al. 2017

Preprint

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Abstract.Glacier mass balance observations in the Tien Shan and Pamir mountains are sparse and often discontinuous. Nevertheless, glaciers are one of the most important components of the high-mountain cryosphere in the region; they strongly influence water availability in the arid, continental and intensely populated downstream areas. This study provides reliable and continuous mass balance series for selected glaciers located in the Tien Shan and Pamir-Alay. A combination of three independent methods was 5 used to reconstruct for the past two decades the mass balance of the three benchmark glaciers, Abramov, Golubin and No.354. By applying different approaches, it was possible to compensate for the limitations and shortcomings of each individual method. This study proposes the use of transient snowline observations throughout the melting season obtained from satellite imagery and terrestrial automatic cameras. By combining modelling with remotely acquired information on summer snow depletion, it was possible to infer glacier mass changes for unmeasured years. Multi-annual mass changes based on high-10 accuracy digital elevation models and in situ glaciological surveys were used to validate the results for the investigated glaciers. balance modelling significantly narrows the uncertainty ranges of the estimates, and hence highlights the potential of the methodology for application to inaccessible glaciers at larger scales for which no direct measurements are available.

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Can the snowline be used as an indicator of the equilibrium line and mass balance for glaciers in the outer tropics?

Cited by 97 publications

References 26 publications

Re-establishing glacier monitoring in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, Central Asia

Re-establishing glacier monitoring in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, Central Asia

Estimation of Glacier Mass Balance on a Basin Scale:An Approach Based on Satellite-Derived Snowlines and a Temperature Index Model

Multi-decadal mass balance series of three Kyrgyz glaciers inferred from transient snowline observations

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