Mass and Energy Balance Estimation of Yala Glacier (2011–2017), Langtang Valley, Nepal

Acharya, Anushilan; Kayastha, Rijan Bhakta

doi:10.3390/w11010006

Cited by 20 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 52 publications

(82 reference statements)

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“…Regional ELAs estimated in the current study for 2011 and 2012 (5,424 and 5,467 m a.s.l.) are also in agreement with ELA values reported in Acharya and Kayastha (2019) for the Yala glacier (5,441 and 5,412 m a.s.l., respectively). The higher annual ELAs in 2015 and 2016 in the Trishuli (ELA: 5,567 and 5,495 m a.s.l., respectively) ( Figure 8) are in agreement with Acharya and Kayastha (2019) (ELA: 5,451 m.a.s.l.…”

Section: Monthly Snowline Fluctuation In the Hunza (2013) And Trishulsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…The headwaters of glaciers in the Trishuli basin originate from China; our study area spans both the southern and the northern slopes of the Himalaya ( Figure 1C). ELA measurements are scarce in this area as well, and most estimates come from indirect methods (Kayastha and Harrison, 2008) or modeling approaches (Acharya and Kayastha, 2019).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In HMA, only a handful of glaciers have been surveyed systematically for mass balance (Bolch et al, 2012;Azam et al, 2018). Field-based ELAs for HMA are reported in Wagnon et al ( , 2013 for Chhota Shigri and Mera/Pokalde glaciers in the Khumbu region and Acharya and Kayastha (2019) for Yala glacier in Trishuli basin in Nepal. However, long-term records are limited.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Automated Approach for Estimating Snowline Altitudes in the Karakoram and Eastern Himalaya From Remote Sensing

2019

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The separation of fresh snow, exposed glacier ice and debris covered ice on glacier surfaces is needed for hydrologic applications and for understanding the response of glaciers to climate variability. The end-of-season snowline altitude (SLA) is an indicator of the equilibrium line altitude (ELA) of a glacier and is often used to infer the mass balance of a glacier. Regional snowline estimates are generally missing from glacier inventories for remote, high-altitude glacierized areas such as High Mountain Asia. In this study, we present an automated, decision-based image classification algorithm implemented in Python to separate snow, ice and debris surfaces on glaciers and to extract glacier snowlines at monthly and annual time steps and regional scales. The method was applied in the Hunza basin in the Karakoram and the Trishuli basin in eastern Himalaya. We automatically partitioned the various types of surfaces on glaciers at each time step using image band ratios combined with topographic criteria based on two versions of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission elevation dataset. SLAs were extracted on a pixel-by-pixel basis using a "buffer" method adapted for each elevation dataset. Over the period studied (2000-2016), end-of-the-ablation season annual ELAs fluctuated from 4,917 to 5,336 m a.s.l. for the Hunza, with a 16-year average of 5,177 ± 108 m a.s.l., and 5,395-5,565 m a.s.l. for the Trishuli, with an average of 5,444 ± 63 m a.s.l. Snowlines were sensitive to the manual corrections of the partition, the topographic slope, the elevation dataset and the band ratio thresholds particularly during the spring and winter months, and were not sensitive to the size of the buffer used to extract the snowlines. With further refinement and calibration with field measurements, this method can be easily applied to higher resolution Sentinel-2 data (5 days temporal resolution) as well as daily PlanetScope to derive sub-monthly snowlines.

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Section: Monthly Snowline Fluctuation In the Hunza (2013) And Trishulsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Automated Approach for Estimating Snowline Altitudes in the Karakoram and Eastern Himalaya From Remote Sensing

2019

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“…Farther west, in the Langtang valley, the debris-free Yala Glacier (1.37 km 2 , elevation range 5143–5681 m a.s.l., ~125 km from Mera Glacier) had a mean glacier-wide mass balance of −0.81 ± 0.27 m w.e. a −1 between November 2011 and November 2017 (Acharya and Kayastha, 2019), compared to −0.42 ± 0.17 m w.e. a −1 for Mera Glacier over the same period.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Reanalysing the 2007–19 glaciological mass-balance series of Mera Glacier, Nepal, Central Himalaya, using geodetic mass balance

et al. 2020

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The 2007–19 glaciological mass-balance series of Mera Glacier in the Everest Region, East Nepal, is reanalysed using the geodetic mass balance assessed by differencing two DEMs obtained from Pléiades stereo-images acquired in November 2012 and in October 2018. The glaciological glacier-wide annual mass balance of Mera Glacier has to be systematically decreased by 0.11 m w.e. a−1 to match the geodetic mass balance. We attribute part of the positive bias of the glaciological mass balance to an over-estimation of the accumulation above 5520 m a.s.l., likely due to a measurement network unable to capture its spatial variability. Over the period 2007–19, Mera Glacier has lost mass at a rate of −0.41 ± 0.20 m w.e. a−1, in general agreement with regional averages for the central Himalaya. We observe a succession of negative mass-balance years since 2013.

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“…Annual and seasonal mass balance data on Yala Glacier were from Acharya et al. (2019). The SRTM data is provided by the US Geological Survey (https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/).…”

Section: Data Availability Statementmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of Key Climate Variables on Mass Balance of Naimona'nyi Glacier on a North‐Facing Slope in the Western Himalayas

et al. 2021

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Glacier mass changes in the Himalayas impact on sustainable water resources and hazards in downstream regions. However, mass balance variation and its drivers on north‐facing slopes in the Himalayas are not well understood. This study presents the meteorological conditions, energy and mass balance characteristics for Naimona'nyi Glacier on a north‐facing slope in the western Himalayas, based on energy‐mass balance model and high‐altitude measurements from October 2010 to September 2018. The average annual mass balance measured for Naimona'nyi Glacier was −0.39 m water equivalent a−1 and point mass balances below 6,070 m above sea level were always negative. Simulations showed that melt during the ablation season dominated the annual mass balance and the interannual variability in the mass balance, and that variability in melt energy was controlled by albedo during the ablation season. The annual mass balance was found to be significantly correlated with annual precipitation during the 2011–2018 period, which is accounted for by the change in ablation‐season albedo and melt energy. The average mass balance for glaciers in the western Himalayas were higher during the 2010–2019 period than during the 2000–2009 period, partly because of higher annual precipitation during the 2010–2019 period. Over the last 20 years, the increased precipitation in the cold season was driven by a cyclonic circulation anomaly over the northwestern Indian Peninsula, which may be linked to the strengthened North Atlantic Oscillation, and the increased precipitation in the ablation season was driven by an anomaly in the cyclonic circulation over Central India, which may be related to enhanced deep convection over the Indian subcontinent and the enhanced Atlantic multidecadal oscillation.

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Mass and Energy Balance Estimation of Yala Glacier (2011–2017), Langtang Valley, Nepal

Cited by 20 publications

References 52 publications

An Automated Approach for Estimating Snowline Altitudes in the Karakoram and Eastern Himalaya From Remote Sensing

An Automated Approach for Estimating Snowline Altitudes in the Karakoram and Eastern Himalaya From Remote Sensing

Reanalysing the 2007–19 glaciological mass-balance series of Mera Glacier, Nepal, Central Himalaya, using geodetic mass balance

The Influence of Key Climate Variables on Mass Balance of Naimona'nyi Glacier on a North‐Facing Slope in the Western Himalayas

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