Abstract
Glacier mass balance is the direct and undelayed response to climate change and hence it is one of the essential variables required for climate system monitoring. This paper presents a brief review of the glacier mass balance status and their analysis under the changing climate in the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR). The reported results of mass balance in the region give the view of continuous negative mass balance with few exceptions for a year or two reflecting the overall negative mass balance with increasing trend in recent decades. This has coordination with continuous increasing pattern of temperature and decreasing (few not significant) pattern of precipitation. The continuous negative mass balance and rising temperature in the region clearly indicate the impact of warming in reducing the storage of snow and ice in the region with the future implication of shortage of fresh water availability in the snow-glacier fed river system. This will have further implication to the downstream communities for their livelihood.
Highlights
In Twenty first century, climate change is one among many challenges to fight with
The mass balance of Indian Himalayan glacier is showing the influence of weather parameters especially temperature and precipitation
All the reported studies indicate about the warming trend in Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) at different rate depending on the region and season but there is a need of more studies to elaborate the reason behind the warming of IHR
Summary
In Twenty first century, climate change is one among many challenges to fight with. Rise in average temperature of earth surface is not the only issue to concern about but decreasing trend of precipitation which further affect the water cycle and affecting it’s availability for drinking, agriculture, hydropower, industrial and domestic purposes, alarms the situation. The result indicated higher warming in minimum temperature than maximum temperature during analysis period of 1985–2009 This has an impact of increased melting in winter reduction of winter snow cover in the basin and reduction in glacial mass storage. Temperature record of North-western Indian Himalaya is showing the warming trend of about 0.16 ◦C/decade in last century (1901–2000) with winter warming at a faster rate (Bhutiyani et al, 2007) In another analysis for the period of 1876–2006, Bhutiyani et al (2010) reported an increase of 0.11 ◦C/decade in Northwest Indian Himalaya. Tav: 0.60 Tav: 0.16 (A), 0.17 (W) Tav: 0.11 (A), 0.14 (W) Tmean: In different season: 0.009–0.064 and annually: 0.035
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