Monitoring and mapping of snow cover variability using topographically derived NDSI model over north Indian Himalayas during the period 2008–19

Sood, Vishakha; Singh, Sartajvir; Taloor, Ajay Kumar; Prashar, Shivendu; Kaur, Ramneet

doi:10.1016/j.acags.2020.100040

Cited by 41 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…The present synthesis shows that procuring a trend in snow cover changes is challenging for the Himalayan region due to the limited number of observations, substantial annual and inter-annual variability, and scarce in-situ snow depth area data (Kulkarni et al, 2021). However, overall, it is widely reported that depleting snow cover and its spatiotemporal changes are associated with changes in climatic variables over the Himalaya (Sood et al, 2020;Desinayak et al, 2022). Understanding variability of snow cover with respect to altitude and air temperature is vital for assessing availability of regional water resources and the impact of climate change in the Himalaya (Immerzeel et al, 2010;Shrestha et al, 2015).…”

Section: Snow Cover Snow Depth and Snow Water Equivalent Variability ...mentioning

confidence: 83%

“…Different techniques were proposed to estimate snow cover over different regions. Some of these techniques were adopted for snow cover monitoring over the Himalaya, and they were reported in Sood et al (2020): normalized difference snow index (NDSI) (Sharma et al, 2012;Rathore et al, 2018), change detection , pan-sharpening (Singh et al, 2020), and snow cover mapping using snow depth maps (Gusain et al, 2016). Other than these techniques, snow cover mapping with interferometry coherence analysis using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data (Kumar and Venkataraman, 2011) and, backscatter ratio-based technique (Thakur et al, 2013) have also been used over different sub-basins in the Himalayan region.…”

Section: Snow Cover Snow Depth and Snow Water Equivalent Variability ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Challenges in Understanding the Variability of the Cryosphere in the Himalaya and Its Impact on Regional Water Resources

et al. 2022

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The Himalaya plays a vital role in regulating the freshwater availability for nearly a billion people living in the Indus, Ganga, and Brahmaputra River basins. Due to climate change and constantly evolving human-hydrosphere interactions, including land use/cover changes, groundwater extraction, reservoir or dam construction, water availability has undergone significant change, and is expected to change further in the future. Therefore, understanding the spatiotemporal evolution of the hydrological cycle over the Himalaya and its river basins has been one of the most critical exercises toward ensuring regional water security. However, due to the lack of extensive in-situ measurements, complex hydro-climatic environment, and limited collaborative efforts, large gaps in our understanding exist. Moreover, there are several significant issues with available studies, such as lack of consistent hydro-meteorological datasets, very few attempts at integrating different data types, limited spatiotemporal sampling of hydro-meteorological measurements, lack of open access to in-situ datasets, poorly accounted anthropogenic climate feedbacks, and limited understanding of the hydro-meteorological drivers over the region. These factors result in large uncertainties in our estimates of current and future water availability over the Himalaya, which constraints the development of sustainable water management strategies for its river catchments hampering our preparedness for the current and future changes in hydro-climate. To address these issues, a partnership development workshop entitled “Water sEcurity assessment in rIvers oriGinating from Himalaya (WEIGH),” was conducted between the 07th and 11th September 2020. Based on the intense discussions and deliberations among the participants, the most important and urgent research questions were identified. This white paper synthesizes the current understanding, highlights, and the most significant research gaps and research priorities for studying water availability in the Himalaya.

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Section: Snow Cover Snow Depth and Snow Water Equivalent Variability ...mentioning

confidence: 83%

Section: Snow Cover Snow Depth and Snow Water Equivalent Variability ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges in Understanding the Variability of the Cryosphere in the Himalaya and Its Impact on Regional Water Resources

et al. 2022

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“…In few studies, climate variations have shown a strong influence on the seasonal distribution of snow cover, which has negatively impacted the snowmelt runoff and glacier mass balances (Singh, Jain, & Goyal, 2021; Singh & Muñoz‐Arriola, 2021). Based on various topographical and weather parameters such as elevation level and temperature variations, the Himalayan climatology can be distributed into three zones namely, upper zones, middle and lower (Sood et al, 2020). A few studies have shown a clear sign of an increase in temperature in the Ganga river basin (Lutz et al, 2019; Mittal et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Glacier changes and their impacts on the melt runoff in high and moderate elevation ranges of Himalayan Upper Ganges Basin

Singh

Jain

Nagale

et al. 2023

Hydrological Processes

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The rise in temperatures over the Himalayan regions due to climate change have shown profound effects on the seasonality and long-term availability of snow melt runoff and glacier melt runoff. As per the sixth assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Himalayan glaciers are retreating and the fraction of precipitation falling as snow is altering. This study analyses the effect of snow-glacier changes on the melt runoff (1986-2020) over the Upper Ganga river basin (up to Rishikesh) using a fully distributed model namely, Spatial Process in Hydrology (SPHY), which governs by Temperature Index Model approach with varying degree-day factors. This study performs the two-step calibration approach for model parameterization and to evaluate the snow and glacier melt runoff utilizing the observed discharge and real time satellite datasets. The SPHY derived snow cover was compared with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) derived snow covers. Results show that the SPHY modelled fractional snow covers found comparable to MODIS derived snow covers ($70%-90% correlation). The R 2 based comparison of SPHY modelled runoff (Q) and observed Q at two gauges namely, Maneri ($0.85) and Rishikesh ($0.80) found reasonable. For the assessment of glacier changes and corresponding melt runoff, temporal glacier maps (i.e., for

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“…The Himalayan glaciers are situated at an altitude above 3,500 m, away from the settlement of human inhabitants (Thayyen et al 2007). The glaciers of central and eastern Himalaya receive moisture from the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM), while the glaciers of western Himalaya pick up a major part of the moisture from the Indian Winter Monsoon (IWM) (Dimri et al 2016;Sharma et al 2016;Sood et al 2020). Hydrogeochemical study of the meltwater drained from different glaciers is important because of increasing requirement of freshwater in downstream regions (Bisht et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrogeochemical analysis and identification of solute sources in the meltwater of Chaturangi glacier, Garhwal Himalaya, India

et al. 2022

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This paper presents an insight on major ion chemistry and identification of solute sources in meltwater of Chaturangi glacier throughout the ablation period 2015 and 2016. The results indicate that meltwater is slightly acidic with Ca–HCO3 and Mg–HCO3 dominated hydrochemical facies. In meltwater, Ca2+ and HCO3− are the most dominant cation and anion, respectively. The Water Quality Index values show that the quality of meltwater is good for both the ablation seasons. An important factor governing the quality of water is the residence time for dissolving minerals from the rocks. Mineralogy of surrounding rocks and Gibbs plot suggest that the meltwater ionic concentration is mostly controlled by weathering of rocks with slight contribution from atmospheric aerosols. For meltwater, the average equivalent ratios of Na/Cl and K/Cl were calculated as 3.36 ± 1.29 and 2.29 ± 0.62 in 2015 and 1.39 ± 0.6 and 0.8 ± 0.2 in 2016, which are considerably higher than the marine aerosols (Na/Cl = 0.85 and K/Cl = 0.017), it also confirmed the less contribution of atmospheric input in meltwater. The petrographic analysis of surrounding rocks indicate positive relationship among the cations (Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+ and K+) and mineral abundance. Our observations suggest that the bedrock mineralogy and weathering reactions together with amount and composition of atmospheric inputs are the main sources of ions, dissolved in the glacier meltwater. It might be due to rate of chemical reaction which leads decomposition of rocks and leaching of minerals into the meltwater. Additionally, the geology of the area plays a significant as the influence of geology and climate on water quality is observed by the quantity and types of dissolved materials and amount of the sediment carried by the streams. The elevated proportion of Ca + Mg in total cations and high Ca + Mg/(Na + K ratios, 1.47 ± 0.14 in the year 2015 and 1.44 ± 0.28 in 2016 clearly reveal that the ionic composition is primarily controlled by carbonate weathering and partly by silicate weathering. Further, the low Na + K/TZ− ratio (0.41 ± 0.02) and (0.22 ± 0.05) in 2015 and 2016, respectively also supports that carbonate weathering is main geochemical process controlling the hydrochemistry of meltwater. In addition, the ion denudation rate was calculated for both the years. The results show that the cation denudation rate of meltwater was 32.84 and 22.30 ton/km2/ablation during 2015 and 2016, respectively, whereas the anion denudation rate was found to be 205.43 in 2015 and 170.24 ton/km2/ablation in 2016.

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Monitoring and mapping of snow cover variability using topographically derived NDSI model over north Indian Himalayas during the period 2008–19

Cited by 41 publications

References 52 publications

Challenges in Understanding the Variability of the Cryosphere in the Himalaya and Its Impact on Regional Water Resources

Challenges in Understanding the Variability of the Cryosphere in the Himalaya and Its Impact on Regional Water Resources

Glacier changes and their impacts on the melt runoff in high and moderate elevation ranges of Himalayan Upper Ganges Basin

Hydrogeochemical analysis and identification of solute sources in the meltwater of Chaturangi glacier, Garhwal Himalaya, India

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