Monitoring the dynamics of Bara Shigri glacier using Synthetic Aperture Radar data of Sentinel-1 satellite and effect of climate on mass balances

Abstract

A decision rule based classification algorithm is developed to classify the transient glacial zones of Bara Shigri glacier during the end of the ablation periods. The method helps to identify the highest snowlines and mean altitudes which further used to estimate mass balances of the glacier. The mass balance values of the Bara Shigri glacier are −1.37, −1.7, −0.77 and −1.07 m w.e.a−1 for the years 2017–2020 respectively. These values are compared with past mass balance values available for last four decades. A steady rise of mass loss is prominent and the current derived values are falling in that trend. The data of precipitation and land surface temperature during the study period are also studied to understand the controlling force of mass balance and it shows that a heavy precipitation during end of the ablation season has an indirect relation with mass loss amount. Deriving mass balance of the glacier is not a complete analysis until it can be relate with prevailing weather conditions and climatic variability in long term.