Debris-covered glacier anomaly? Morphological factors controlling changes in the mass balance, surface area, terminus position, and snow line altitude of Himalayan glaciers

Salerno, Franco; Thakuri, Sudeep; Tartari, Gianni; Nuimura, T.; Sunako, Sojiro; Sakai, Akiko; Fujita, Koji

doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2017.04.039

Cited by 110 publications

(104 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…These attempts to select the best performing model in an objective way were not successful. Instead, we favor variables that are often selected in the literature, such as the supraglacial debris cover or the avalanche contributing area (Huss et al, ; Salerno et al, ). We subjectively choose the final variables analyzed hereafter and retain the tongue slope, the mean elevation, the area percentage of supraglacial debris cover, and the avalanche contributing area.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This finding is in apparent contradiction with the reduced ablation expected for ice beneath a thick debris layer (e.g., Nicholson & Benn, ). Salerno et al () also investigated this question and found that the presence of supraglacial debris cover was not a significant contributor to differences in thinning rates among the studied glaciers. However, they examined a restricted sample of glaciers ( n = 28) and analyzed only tongue‐averaged thinning rates, which are less straightforward to interpret than glacier‐wide mass balances as they result from the sum of surface mass balance and emergence velocity (e.g., Cuffey & Paterson, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

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Heterogeneous Influence of Glacier Morphology on the Mass Balance Variability in High Mountain Asia

et al. 2019

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We investigate the control of the morphological variables on the 2000–2016 glacier‐wide mass balances of 6,470 individual glaciers of High Mountain Asia. We separate the data set into 12 regions assumed to be climatically homogeneous. We find that the slope of the glacier tongue, mean glacier elevation, percentage of supraglacial debris cover, and avalanche contributing area all together explain a maximum of 48% and a minimum of 8% of the glacier‐wide mass balance variability, within a given region. The best predictors of the glacier‐wide mass balance are the slope of the glacier tongue and the mean glacier elevation for most regions, with the notable exception of the inner Tibetan Plateau. Glacier‐wide mass balances do not differ significantly between debris‐free and debris‐covered glaciers in 7 of the 12 regions analyzed. Lake‐terminating glaciers have more negative mass balances than the regional averages, the influence of lakes being stronger on small glaciers than on large glaciers.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Heterogeneous Influence of Glacier Morphology on the Mass Balance Variability in High Mountain Asia

et al. 2019

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“…Furthermore, Salerno et al (2017) revealed that the surface lowering of 28 glaciers in the Khumbu region was due primarily to the surface slope gradient, which exhibited strong correlations with ice-flow velocity and secondary to proglacial ponds.…”

Section: Influence Of Ice-flow Velocity and Supraglacial Ponds On Surmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The ALOS stereo models and triangulated irregular network (TIN) model were produced from the RPC data and the Leica Photogrammetry Suite (LPS) workstation. However, automatic terrain extraction of TIN models often contains many errors, especially in areas of highly irregular and abrupt changes in topography, which typically consist of high relief, shadowed, and low-contrast regions in the images, leading to an inaccurate terrain representation (Lamsal et al, 2011;Sawagaki et al, 2012). It is thus necessary to edit the mass points, which are the sets of vertices in XYZ space that define the vector-based terrain surface, to obtain an accurate terrain representation.…”

Section: Dem Generation From Alos Prism Imagerymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Surface lowering of the debris-covered area of Kanchenjunga Glacier in the eastern Nepal Himalaya since 1975, as revealed by Hexagon KH-9 and ALOS satellite observations

2017

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Abstract. This study presents the geodetic mass balance of Kanchenjunga Glacier, one of the largest debris-covered glaciers in the easternmost Nepal Himalaya, which possesses a negative mass balance of −0.18 ± 0.17 m w.e. a −1 for the 1975-2010 study period, estimated using digital elevation models (DEMs) generated from Hexagon KH-9 and ALOS PRISM stereo images. Accurate DEMs, with a relative uncertainty of ±5.5 m, were generated from the intensive and manual editing of triangulated irregular network (TIN) models on a stereo MirrorTM/3D Monitor. The glacier ice-flow velocity field was also calculated using a feature-tracking method that was applied to two ALOS orthoimages taken in 2010. The elevation differences between the two DEMs highlight considerable surface lowering across the debriscovered area, and a slight thickening in the accumulation area of Kanchenjunga Glacier between 1975 and 2010. The magnitude and gradient of surface lowering are similar among the six glacier tributaries, even though they are situated at different elevations, which may reflect variations in the iceflow velocity field. The pattern of surface lowering correlates well with the ice-flow velocity field over the debriscovered portion of the main tributary, suggesting that the glacier dynamics significantly affect surface lowering by altering the emergence velocity along the glacier, particularly in the compressive ablation area. Surface-lowering patterns partially correspond to the supraglacial pond area fraction of the glacier, with enhanced surface lowering observed in areas that possess a larger pond area fraction. These findings support the hypothesis that supraglacial ponds may intensify ice wastage and play a key role in the heterogeneous surface lowering of debris-covered glaciers. The estimated mass loss of Kanchenjunga Glacier is moderate compared with other debris-covered glaciers in neighboring Himalayan regions, which may be due to the lower pond area fraction of Kanchenjunga Glacier relative to other glaciers.

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Supraglacial Ponds Regulate Runoff From Himalayan Debris‐Covered Glaciers

Irvine‐Fynn

Porter

Rowan

et al. 2017

Geophysical Research Letters

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Meltwater and runoff from glaciers in High Mountain Asia is a vital freshwater resource for one‐fifth of the Earth's population. Between 13% and 36% of the region's glacierized areas exhibit surface debris cover and associated supraglacial ponds whose hydrological buffering roles remain unconstrained. We present a high‐resolution meltwater hydrograph from the extensively debris‐covered Khumbu Glacier, Nepal, spanning a 7 month period in 2014. Supraglacial ponds and accompanying debris cover modulate proglacial discharge by acting as transient and evolving reservoirs. Diurnally, the supraglacial pond system may store >23% of observed mean daily discharge, with mean recession constants ranging from 31 to 108 h. Given projections of increased debris cover and supraglacial pond extent across High Mountain Asia, we conclude that runoff regimes may become progressively buffered by the presence of supraglacial reservoirs. Incorporation of these processes is critical to improve predictions of the region's freshwater resource availability and cascading environmental effects downstream.

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Debris-covered glacier anomaly? Morphological factors controlling changes in the mass balance, surface area, terminus position, and snow line altitude of Himalayan glaciers

Cited by 110 publications

References 53 publications

Heterogeneous Influence of Glacier Morphology on the Mass Balance Variability in High Mountain Asia

Heterogeneous Influence of Glacier Morphology on the Mass Balance Variability in High Mountain Asia

Surface lowering of the debris-covered area of Kanchenjunga Glacier in the eastern Nepal Himalaya since 1975, as revealed by Hexagon KH-9 and ALOS satellite observations

Supraglacial Ponds Regulate Runoff From Himalayan Debris‐Covered Glaciers

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