Remote Sensing of Glaciers in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Bishop, Michael P.; Shroder, John F.; Ali, Ghazanfar; Bush, Andrew B. G.; Haritashya, Umesh K.; Roohi, Rakhshan; Sarıkaya, Mehmet Akif; Weihs, Brandon J.

doi:10.1007/978-3-540-79818-7_23

Cited by 11 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…The conventional understanding is that larger glaciers respond to climate over longer time intervals, while smaller glaciers respond to climate change over shorter time scales [169]. Nevertheless, research has demonstrated significant changes over relatively short time scales in: (1) glacier geometry and state across all altitudes [27]; (2) glacier hydrology [144]; (3) supraglacial lakes [95]; (4) ice cliffs [138]; (5) ablation dynamics [130]; and (6) ice-flow velocities [146] for glaciers of varying size. Numerous glaciers in the Karakoram are clearly responding to increased mass loading and/or melt water production, as they exhibit annual increases in ice-flow velocities due to driving stresses and/or increased basal water pressures [33].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Karakoram Himalaya exhibits complex climate-glacier dynamics that operate within a mountain geodynamics framework [27,56,105]. High-magnitude erosion and uplift governed by climate forcing is responsible for relief production and extreme topographic anisotropy that is also governed by lithological variations.…”

Section: Climate and Topographymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…High-magnitude erosion and uplift governed by climate forcing is responsible for relief production and extreme topographic anisotropy that is also governed by lithological variations. Collectively, such complex topographic variation regulates precipitation rates, orographic precipitation gradients, shortwave and longwave irradiance fluxes, glacier debris-load depth, and highly variable glacier states and dynamics [27,33,66,106]. Consequently, precipitation forcing is responsible for positive glacier mass-balance conditions and advancing glaciers [30,59], although the issue of mass loading as a contributing factor to the surging mechanism is not known with certainty [107].…”

Section: Climate and Topographymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, we do not know to what degree glaciers are responding to internal and/or external forcing factors. The scientific community, however, recognizes that climate, topography, and supraglacial debris cover are fundamental factors that must be better understood [27,46,53,59]. Nevertheless, the topography governs the magnitude of surface processes that regulates ablation, debris-cover depth, debris-cover mineralogy, sediment fluxes, glacier erosion, rock strength, relief production, and tectonic deformation and uplift; all of which feedback on and govern glacier dynamics at a variety of spatio-temporal scales.…”

Section: Climate and Topographymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Karakoram Mountain Range in Pakistan features some of the largest glaciers on Earth outside of the Polar Regions. Most of these glaciers are heavily debris-covered and avalanche-fed, and some of them appear to be departing from the global trend of recession [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. Moreover, a controversial and incorrect statement about the disappearance of Himalayan glaciers by the year Advancing glaciers and positive mass balance conditions in the Karakoram are related to the region's unique snowfall regime [61].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Climate–Glacier Dynamics and Topographic Forcing in the Karakoram Himalaya: Concepts, Issues and Research Directions

Dobreva

Bishop

Bush

2017

Water

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Abstract:Understanding climate-glacier dynamics in High Mountain Asia is of critical importance to address issues including water resources, sea-level rise, mountain geodynamics, natural hazards and ecosystem sustainability. The Karakoram Himalaya is arguably the least understood region, given its extreme topography, climate-system coupling, and advancing and surge-type glaciers that exhibit complex flow patterns. Glacier fluctuations in the Karakoram Himalaya are highly variable in space and time because of numerous controlling factors, including the westerlies, the Indian summer monsoon, various teleconnections, topographic effects, glacier debris-cover characteristics, glacier dynamics, and geological conditions. The influence of the integrative coupling of forcing factors, however, has not been adequately assessed for characterizing the glaciers in the Karakoram Himalaya. Given the scarcity of in-situ data and the difficulty of conducting fieldwork on these glaciers, recent research has focused on utilizing remote sensing, geospatial technologies, and scientific modeling to obtain baseline information about the state of glaciers in the region. This review summarizes our current knowledge of glaciers, climate-glacier interaction, and topographic forcing in the Karakoram Himalaya, and demonstrates the complexities in mountain geodynamics that influence climate-glacier dynamics. Innovative analysis is also presented in support of our review and discussion.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Climate and Topographymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Climate and Topographymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Climate and Topographymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Climate–Glacier Dynamics and Topographic Forcing in the Karakoram Himalaya: Concepts, Issues and Research Directions

Dobreva

Bishop

Bush

2017

Water

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Investigation of temporal change in glacial extent of Chitral watershed using Landsat data: a critique

Rashid

Abdullah

2016

Environ Monit Assess

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Himalayan glaciers are showing consistent signs of recession similar to glaciers elsewhere in the world with the exception of slight mass gain or stability in Karakoram. Deficient knowledge regarding the processes controlling the glacier dynamics together with remoteness, rugged terrain, insufficient in situ measurements, unsuitable datasets, and scanty network of meteorological stations has always been a big challenge in projecting future glacier dynamics in the region. Here, we present a number of scientific concerns regarding the appropriateness of data sets and methods adopted by a study carried out by Naeem et al. (2016), published in the journal of Environmental Monitoring and Assessment to investigate and project glacier dynamics in Chitral watershed using Landsat data. The use of predominantly snow and cloud covered satellite images especially for 2006 and 2007 strongly questions the glacier fluctuation estimates put forth by the authors. The inferences from existing scientific literature suggesting robustness of semi-automatic methods for glacier mapping challenge the use of unsupervised classification approach for delineating glacier extents as adopted in Naeem et al. (2016). Considering the scientific concerns and loopholes in the study by Naeem et al. (2016), the glacier fluctuations in Chitral watershed need to be reassessed.

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Watersheds of Want

Shroder

2014

Natural Resources in Afghanistan

Self Cite

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Remote Sensing of Glaciers in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Cited by 11 publications

References 60 publications

Climate–Glacier Dynamics and Topographic Forcing in the Karakoram Himalaya: Concepts, Issues and Research Directions

Climate–Glacier Dynamics and Topographic Forcing in the Karakoram Himalaya: Concepts, Issues and Research Directions

Investigation of temporal change in glacial extent of Chitral watershed using Landsat data: a critique

Watersheds of Want

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