Abstract
This study presents the modern glacier dynamics in Mt. Tsambagarav in the Mongolian Altai Mountain Range over the last four decades. This is the first review of this type of glacier dynamics for this massif. Changes in glacier area in Mt. Tsambagarav are estimated using normalized indexes (Normalized Difference Snow Index and Normalized Difference Principal Component Snow Index). Spatial distribution of the modern glaciers delineated with Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS: resolution of 80 m), Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM: resolution of 30 m) and Landsat Operational Land Imager (OLI: resolution of 30 m) imageries. Result shows that Mt. Tsambagarav has lost 51.7% of the glacier area from 132.24 km2 in 1977 to 63.92 km2 in 2017. The loss in glacier area for Mt. Tsambagarav during the last 40 years reflect the rapid response of the modern glacier to climate change, i.e., it is highly sensitive to solar insolation and/or rapidly rising local and regional mean annual temperatures. The remote sensing data and field survey suggest that the modern glaciers would be disappeared on a scale of decades. Rapid melting of the glacier in this massif contributes to surface water resources in western Mongolia. This study demonstrates the importance of spatial analysis in the remote area for understanding the context of changes in the modern glaciers.
Highlights
As an important source of freshwater (e.g., Brown, 2000; Yang et al, 2003; Zhou and Li, 2003), estimating glacier dynamics on high mountains is crucial for understanding and hypothesizing local and regional hydrological cycles
Changes in modern glaciers in the Mongolian Altai Mountain Range are an important component of the hydrological balance in the watersheds in western Mongolia (Orkhonselenge and Harbor, 2018)
The modern glaciers in Mongolia constitute over 70% of freshwater resources (Davaa, 2010) and/or water resources of 19.4 km3 (Davaa, 2015), the glacier areas rapidly decrease over the last half-century
Summary
As an important source of freshwater (e.g., Brown, 2000; Yang et al, 2003; Zhou and Li, 2003), estimating glacier dynamics on high mountains is crucial for understanding and hypothesizing local and regional hydrological cycles. Changes in modern glaciers in the Mongolian Altai Mountain Range are an important component of the hydrological balance in the watersheds in western Mongolia (Orkhonselenge and Harbor, 2018). An area of the maximum glaciers in the Mongolian Altai Mountain Range during the Pleistocene decreased from 62900 km to only 1100 km (Orkhonselenge and Harbor, 2018). Recent studies show that modern glaciers occupy small areas in these mountain ranges (Blomdin et al, 2016) and play a vital role in water resources in Central Asia (Orkhonselenge and Harbor, 2018). To advance the knowledge on the modern glacier in this massif, we estimated and compiled the changes in area of the modern glacier in Mt. Tsambagarav in 1977, 1991, 2002 and 2017 based on NDSI, Normalized Difference Principal Component Snow Index (NDPCSI) and Landsat images. According to the Khovd meteorological station, lying at 88 km southeast of the mountain, annual average air temperature is 1.8oC with monthly average temperatures of 19oC in summer and -25.5oC in winter, and annual average precipitation is 210 mm
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