Abstract
Monitoring glacier changes is essential for estimating the water mass balance of the Tibetan Plateau. Recent research indicates that glaciers at individual regions on the Tibetan Plateau and surroundings are shrinking and thinning during the last decades. Studies considering large regions often ignored however the impact of locally varying weather conditions and terrain characteristics on glacial evolution, i.e. the impact of orographic precipitation and variation in solar radiation. Our hypothesis is therefore that adjacent glaciers of opposite orientation change in a different way. In this study, we exploit Ice Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat)/ Geoscience Laser Altimetry System (GLAS) data in combination with the NASA Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) digital elevation model (DEM) and the Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) glacier mask to estimate glacial thickness change trends between 2003 and 2009 on the whole Tibetan Plateau. The results show that 90 glacial areas could be distinguished. Most of observed glacial areas on the Tibetan Plateau are thinning, except for some glaciers in the Northwest. In general, glacial elevations on the whole Tibetan Plateau decreased at an average rate of -0.17 ± 0.47 meters per year (m a-1) between 2003 and 2009, taking together glaciers of any size, distribution, and location of the observed glacial area. Moreover, the results show that glacial elevation changes indeed strongly depend on the relative position in a mountain range.
Highlights
The Tibetan Plateau has steep and rough terrain and contains ~37,000 glaciers, occupying an area of ~56,560 km2 (Li, 2003)
This study exploits ICESat/Geoscience Laser Altimetry System (GLAS) data for monitoring glacial thickness changes on the whole Tibetan Plateau, identifying sampled glacial areas based on ICESat footprints and glacier orientation
The result indicates that 90 glacial areas on the whole Tibetan Plateau are sampled by enough ICESat footprints to estimate thickness change
Summary
The Tibetan Plateau has steep and rough terrain and contains ~37,000 glaciers, occupying an area of ~56,560 km (Li, 2003). Trang 130 retreating significantly in the last decades These studies were in different parts of the Tibetan Plateau, such as the Himalayas (excluding the Karakoram) (Yao et al, 2012), the Tien Shan Mountains (Sorg et al, 2012), the Middle Qilian. The results indicated that most of the glacial sub-regions had a negative trend in glacial thickness change, excluding one subregion in the western Mt. Kunlun in the Northwest of the Tibetan Plateau. This study exploits ICESat/GLAS data for monitoring glacial thickness changes on the whole Tibetan Plateau, identifying sampled glacial areas based on ICESat footprints and glacier orientation. In. TAÏP CHÍ PHAÙT TRIEÅN KH&CN, TAÄP 19, SOÁ K4-2016 addition, we explore the ICESat/GLAS data by applying criteria impacting the quality of footprints including acquisition condition and terrain surface characteristics
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