Abstract
Mountain chains of Central Asia host a large number of glaciated areas that provide critical water supplies to the semi-arid populated foothills and lowlands of this region. Spatio-temporal variations of glacier flows are a key indicator of the impact of climate change on water resources as the glaciers react sensitively to climate. Satellite remote sensing using optical imagery is an efficient method for studying ice-velocity fields on mountain glaciers. In this study, temporal and spatial changes in surface velocity associated with the Inylchek glacier in Kyrgyzstan are investigated. We present a detailed map for the kinematics of the Inylchek glacier obtained by cross-correlation analysis of Landsat images, acquired between 2000 and 2011, and a set of ASTER images covering the time period between 2001 and 2007. Our results indicate a high-velocity region in the elevated part of the glacier, moving up to a rate of about 0.5 m/day. Time series analysis of optical data reveals some annual variations in the mean surface velocity of the Inylchek during 2000–2011. In particular, our findings suggest an opposite trend between periods of the northward glacial flow in Proletarskyi and Zvezdochka glacier, and the rate of westward motion observed for the main stream of the Inylchek.
Highlights
The glaciated mountains of Central Asia represent one of the greatest concentrations of permanent snow and ice in the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere
Slope masking has been applied using the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) digital elevation model, and the displacement map has been overlaid on a Landsat image
To investigate the surface velocity variations during the time span covered in this study, we firstly focused on absolute displacements along a longitudinal profile of 28 km (P1 in Figure 1) obtained from Landsat images
Summary
Mountain glaciers are the only renewable fresh water resource in Central Asia, dominated in part by large deserts and arid lowlands with very low precipitation and extremely dry climates [2]. USSR and China, compiled for the Tien Shan Mountains using data from the 1950s–1970s, contained just under 16.000 glaciers with a total area of about 15.400 km and a total volume of 1,048 km at that time. These glaciers are a vital source of fresh water, feeding into the densely populated foothills with a mean annual precipitation of 200–600 mm. Predominantly agricultural, economies rely on the glacier-fed river systems in this region for irrigation [2,3]
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