A regional-scale assessment of Himalayan glacial lake changes using satellite observations from 1990 to 2015

Abstract

The Himalaya, the world's highest mountain ranges, are home to a large group of glaciers and glacial lakes. Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) in this region have resulted in catastrophic damages and fatalities in the past decades. The recent warming has caused dramatic glacial lake changes and increased potential GLOF risk in the Himalaya. However, our knowledge on the current state and change of glacial lakes in the entire Himalaya is limited. This study maps the current (2015) distribution of glacial lakes across the entire Himalaya and monitors the spatially-explicit evolution of glacial lakes over five time periods from 1990 to 2015 using a total of 348 Landsat images at 30m resolution. The results show that 4950 glacial lakes in 2015 cover a total area of 455.3±72.7km2, mainly located between 4000m and 5700m above sea level. Himalayan glacial lakes expanded by approximately 14.1% from 1990 to 2015. The changing patterns of supraglacial lakes and proglacial lakes are rather complex, involving both lake disappearance and emergence. Many emergent glacial lakes are found at higher elevations, especially the new proglacial lakes, which have formed as a result of glacier retreat. Spatially heterogeneous changes of Himalayan glacial lakes are observed, with the most significant expansion occurring in the southern slopes of the central Himalaya. Increasing glacier meltwater induced by the Himalayan atmospheric warming is a primary cause for the observed lake expansion. This study provides primary data for future GLOF risk assessments. A total of 118 rapidly expanded glacial lakes are identified as potential vulnerable lakes for the priority of risk assessment.