Facies detection of surge-type glaciers, Karakoram Himalaya using Sentinel-1 images

Abstract

Glacier facies or radar glacier zones (RGZs) of the surge-type glaciers of the Karakoram Himalaya were classified based on the differences in the backscatter values utilizing multi-temporal SAR data from Sentinel-1 satellite of the years 2018 and 2019. Distinct zones of glaciers such as dry snow zones, percolation zones, wet snow zone, bare ice zone and debris-covered area can be discernible on the false-color composite image made from the early summer-late summer-winter (R-G-B) of SAR images obtained from Sentinel-1. The result suggests an interesting blended pattern of facies distribution on surge-type glaciers showing the impression of accumulation zones at the lower most parts of the glaciers contrary to typical non surge-type glaciers. We found that the facies of the surge-type glaciers of the Karakoram Himalaya did not follow the relationship with the elevation in terms of their distribution on the surface of glaciers. We also compared our results with the surface temperature of the glaciers derived from the thermal band of Landsat ETM+.