Quantification of annual glacier surface mass balance for the Chhota Shigri Glacier, Western Himalayas, India using an Equilibrium-Line Altitude (ELA) based approach

Chandrasekharan, Anita; Ramsankaran, Raaj; Pandit, Ankur; Rabatel, Antoine

doi:10.1080/01431161.2018.1506182

Cited by 17 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…For instance, on the basis of the three glaciers in the French Alps, Rabatel et al (2005) quantified a coefficient of variation of the mass balance gradient of 30%. However, several studies demonstrated that choosing a regional ∂b/∂z does not depreciate the results and leads to similar results that individual glacier ∂b/∂z estimates (Rabatel et al, 2005(Rabatel et al, , 2016Chandrasekharan et al, 2018). This underlines the low sensitivity of the SLAmethod to the ∂b/∂z value, which allows using the SLAmethod on unmonitored glaciers and avoiding calibration.…”

Section: Reconstructing Annual Surface Mass Balance Time Series From mentioning

confidence: 80%

“…In this study, we propose an automation and a regional application of the SLA-method based on the estimation of the end-of-summer snowline altitude (SLA), a known proxy of the equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) for glacier where superimposed ice is negligible (Lliboutry, 1965), and whose position is a predictor of annual mass change (e.g., Braithwaite, 1984;Rabatel et al, 2005Rabatel et al, , 2017Pelto, 2011;Chandrasekharan et al, 2018). Regional application was so far limited due to the absence of both automatic SLA delineation and multi-decadal geodetic mass balance estimates (Rabatel et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Region-Wide Annual Glacier Surface Mass Balance for the European Alps From 2000 to 2016

et al. 2020

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Studying glacier mass changes at regional scale provides critical insights into the impact of climate change on glacierized regions, but is impractical using in situ estimates alone due to logistical and human constraints. We present annual mass-balance time series for 239 glaciers in the European Alps, using optical satellite images for the period of 2000 to 2016. Our approach, called the SLA-method, is based on the estimation of the glacier snowline altitude (SLA) for each year combined with the geodetic mass balance over the study period to derive the annual mass balance. In situ annual mass-balances from 23 glaciers were used to validate our approach and underline its robustness to generate annual mass-balance time series. Such temporally-resolved observations provide a unique potential to investigate the behavior of glaciers in regions where few or no data are available. At the European Alps scale, our geodetic estimate was performed for 361 glaciers (75% of the glacierized area) and indicates a mean annual mass loss of −0.74 ± 0.20 m w.e. yr −1 from 2000 to 2016. The spatial variability in the average glacier mass loss is significantly correlated to three morpho-topographic variables (mean glacier slope, median, and maximum altitudes), altogether explaining 36% of the observed variance. Comparing the mass losses from in situ and SLAmethod estimates and taking into account the glacier slope and maximum elevation, we show that steeper glaciers and glaciers with higher maximum elevation experienced less mass loss. Because steeper glaciers (>20 •) are poorly represented by in situ estimates, we suggest that region-wide extrapolation of field measurements could be improved by including a morpho-topographic dependency. The analysis of the annual mass changes with regard to a global atmospheric dataset (ERA5) showed that: (i) extreme climate events are registered by all glaciers across the European Alps, and we identified opposite weather regimes favorable or detrimental to the mass change; (ii) the interannual variability of glacier mass balances in the "central European Alps" is lower; and (iii) current strong imbalance of glaciers in the European Alps is likely mainly the consequence of the multi-decadal increasing trend in atmospheric temperature, clearly documented from ERA5 data.

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Section: Reconstructing Annual Surface Mass Balance Time Series From mentioning

confidence: 80%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Region-Wide Annual Glacier Surface Mass Balance for the European Alps From 2000 to 2016

et al. 2020

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“…Keeping the above limitations in mind, the following strategy is adopted for modelling surface mass balance: Estimation of equilibrium line altitude (ELA): For estimating ELA, the methodology proposed by 26 was used. Using that method, for every year in the period spanning 2002–2011, Landsat 5 and 7 imagery between June and Oct months were used to delineate the ELA.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling evolution of a large, glacier-fed lake in the Western Indian Himalaya

Gantayat¹,

Ramsankaran²

2023

Sci Rep

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In this study, we simulated the evolution of a large glacier-fed lake called the Gepan Gath lake located in Western Himalayas by numerically modelling the evolution of the Gepan Gath glacier that feeds the lake. Due to the extremely large volume and steep lake sidewalls, the lake has been classified as ‘critical’ or prone to hazards such as lake outburst floods in the future, by various scientific investigations. This modelling was carried out by a 1D model that is based on the principle of mass conservation. The 1D model was forced with the glacier surface mass balance (SMB). Due to non-availability of published in-situ estimates, the SMB was estimated using an energy balance-based model on station derived and reanalysis derived meteorological data. Modelled glacier length fluctuations for over 134 years matched reasonably well with that of observed within the RMSE error ~ 320 m. In addition to that, between 2004 and 2019, the modelled and observed lake lengths were in agreement with each other with the RMSE ~ 110 m. Modelled glacier lake lengths also match well with published, satellite imagery derived lengths within 15% uncertainty. The uncertainty in future lake length fluctuations is within 100–200 m. Our ultimate aim is to show that numerical ice-flow modelling can be an asset in modelling glacier-fed lake evolution even in the case of highly data-sparse regions of the IHR.

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“…They demonstrated this method over French alpine glaciers and showed that the mass balance of individual glaciers in a basin can be estimated reliably by using field-based observation of at least one representative glacier in the same basin. In the Himalaya, Chandrasekharan et al (2018) and Garg et al (2021) have used this method for estimating mass balance over some glaciers. This approach seems to have good potential for annual mass balance estimation.…”

Section: Remote Sensing Based Estimatesmentioning

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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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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Quantification of annual glacier surface mass balance for the Chhota Shigri Glacier, Western Himalayas, India using an Equilibrium-Line Altitude (ELA) based approach

Cited by 17 publications

References 42 publications

Region-Wide Annual Glacier Surface Mass Balance for the European Alps From 2000 to 2016

Region-Wide Annual Glacier Surface Mass Balance for the European Alps From 2000 to 2016

Modelling evolution of a large, glacier-fed lake in the Western Indian Himalaya

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

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