Mass-balance observations and reconstruction for Haxilegen Glacier No.51, eastern Tien Shan, from 1999 to 2015

Hui Zhang,Xiaofan Zhu,Zhongqin Li,Lin Wang,Ping Zhou

doi:10.1017/jog.2018.58

Abstract

ABSTRACTHaxilegen Glacier No.51 (43.731°N, 84.391°E; CN5Y741C0051) is located in the Kuytun river basin, Erenharbirga range, eastern Tien Shan. This study presents the annual mass balance of Haxilegen Glacier No.51 for 7 hydrological years and uses a temperature-index and an accumulation model to reconstruct the annual mass balance from 1999 to 2015. The model is calibrated against annual altitudinal mass-balance measurements and then applied to the period with no measurements. We find an accumulated mass balance of −6.06 ± 0.88 m w.e.a−1 over the period of 16 hydrological years, with an average annual value of −0.32 ± 0.22 m w.e.a−1. The mean glacier-wide annual, summer and winter balances for 1999 to 2015 are −0.37, −0.54 and 0.16 ± 0.22 m w.e.a−1, respectively, with a high correlation coefficient (r = 0.95, p < 0.001) between annual balance and summer balance. The calculated mass-balance sensitivity of the glacier to temperature is −0.51 m w.e.a−1 °C−1 and to precipitation is 0.08 m w.e.a−1 for a 10% increase. The sensitivity of seasonal mass balance indicates that temperature during the melt season (May–August) and annual precipitation are the major contributors to mass-balance fluctuation.

Highlights

Glacier mass balance reflects short- and long-term climatic fluctuation on broader spatial scales (Oerlemans, 1994; Haeberli and others, 2007; Masiokas and others, 2015), which clearly indicates the mass budget on the glacier surface
Glacier mass balance in the Tien Shan has been monitored on several glaciers since the 1950s, in most cases by the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)
Annual mass balances for 7 hydrological years were obtained based on the mass-balance maps (Fig. 5)

Summary

Introduction

Glacier mass balance reflects short- and long-term climatic fluctuation on broader spatial scales (Oerlemans, 1994; Haeberli and others, 2007; Masiokas and others, 2015), which clearly indicates the mass budget on the glacier surface. Due to the lagged response of glacier extent to climate change (Oerlemans, 2005; Marzeion and others, 2014), the interaction between the glacier and atmospheric conditions is not instantly revealed, whereas mass-balance response is direct and undelayed (Huss and others, 2008; Zemp and others, 2009). Tuyuksu Glacier (northern Tien Shan, Kyrgyzstan) have been monitored and provide long-term mass-balance series, which have been annually submitted to the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS). The mass-balance change of the entire Tien Shan has been constrained by large-scale satellite measurements (e.g. ICESat, GRACE, satellite stereo-imagery) and glaciological modelling integrated with in situ mass balances (Farinotti and others, 2015; Pieczonka and Bolch, 2015; Yi and others, 2016; Brun and others, 2017). The potential bias of the results is still large, due to the sparsity of in situ mass-balance observation and the limitations of remote-sensing data (e.g. sparse spatial sampling, low spatial resolution)

Methods

Results

Conclusion