Seasonal variations in glacier velocity in the High Mountain Asia region during 2015–2020

Velocity is an important component of glacier dynamics and directly reflects the response of glaciers to climate change.As a result,an accurate determination of seasonal variation in glacier velocity is very important in understanding the annual variation in glacier dynamics.However,few studies of glacier velocity in the High Mountain Asia(HMA)region were done.Along these lines,in this work,based on Sentinel-1 glacier velocity data,the distribution of glacier velocity in the HMA region was plotted and their seasonal variations during 2015-2020 were systematically analysed.The average glacier velocity in the HMA region was 0.053 m/d,and was positively correlated with the glacier area and slope.Glaciers in the Karakoram Mountains had the fastest average flow velocity(0.060 m/d),where the glaciers exhibited the largest average area and average slope.Moreover,glaciers in the GangdisêMountains had the slowest velocity(0.022 m/d)and the smallest average glacier area.The glacier flows were the fastest in spring(0.058 m/d),followed by summer(0.050 m/d),autumn(0.041 m/d),and winter(0.040 m/d).In addition,the glacier flows were the maximum in May,being 1.4 times of the annual average velocity.In some areas,such as the Qilian,Altun,Tibetan Interior,Eastern Kunlun,and Western Kunlun mountains,the peak glacier velocities appeared in June and July.The glacier velocity in the HMA region decreased in midsummer and reached the minimum in December when it was 75%of the annual average.These results highlight the role of meltwater in the seasonal variation in glacier flows in late spring and early summer.The seasonal velocity variation of lake-terminating glaciers was similar to that of land-terminating ones,but the former flowed faster.The velocity difference close to the mass balance line between the lake-and land-terminating glaciers was obviously greater in spring than in other seasons.In summer,the difference between the lake-and land-terminating glaciers at a normalized distance of 0.05-0.40 from the terminus was significantly greater than those of other seasons.The velocity difference between the lake-and land-terminating glaciers is closely related to the variable of ice thickness,and also to the frictional force of the terminal base reduced by proglacial lakes.Thus,it can be concluded that in addition to the variation of the glacier thickness and viscosity,the variation of glacier water input also plays a key role in the seasonal variation of glacier velocity.

Analysis on factors of glacier velocity:A case study of the Qiyi Glacier,Qilian Mountains

Glacier shape factors （area, length, and thickness）, climatic factors （annual temperature and precipitation）, mass balance, and other influence factors, of the Qiyi glacier velocity and their intensity were analyzed with the application of the path analysis method during 1958-2007. Results indicate that glacier velocity was mainly influenced by glacier shape, followed by mass balance and climatic conditions. Among the influence factors, glacier area and thickness are most significant, and direct and indirect path coef- ficients are respectively 6.56, 4.71, 19.29 and 13.57. This research provides information for further understanding glacier velocity and its influencing factors.

Comprehensive analysis of glacier recession(2000-2020)in the Nun-Kun Group of Glaciers,Northwestern Himalaya

Himalayan glaciers are shrinking rapidly,especially after 2000.Glacier shrinkage,however,shows a differential pattern in space and time,emphasizing the need to monitor and assess glacier changes at a larger scale.In this study,changes of 48 glaciers situated around the twin peaks of the Nun and Kun mountains in the northwestern Himalaya,hereafter referred to as Nun-Kun Group of Glaciers(NKGG),were investigated using Landsat satellite data during 2000-2020.Changes in glacier area,snout position,Equilibrium Line Altitude(ELA),surface thickness and glacier velocity were assessed using remote sensing data supplemented by field observations.The study revealed that the NKGG glaciers have experienced a recession of 4.5%±3.4%and their snouts have retreated at the rate of 6.4±1.6 m·a^(-1).Additionally,there was a 41%increase observed in the debris cover area during the observation period.Using the geodetic approach,an average glacier elevation change of-1.4±0.4 m·a^(-1)was observed between 2000 and 2012.The observed mass loss of the NKGG has resulted in the deceleration of glacier velocity from 27.0±3.7 m·a^(-1)in 2000 to 21.2±2.2 m·a^(-1)in 2020.The ELA has shifted upwards by 83.0±22 m during the period.Glacier morphological and topographic factors showed a strong influence on glacier recession.Furthermore,a higher recession of 12.9%±3.2%was observed in small glaciers,compared to 2.7%±3.1%in larger glaciers.The debris-covered glaciers showed lower shrinkage(2.8%±1.1%)compared to the clean glaciers(9.3%±5%).The glacier depletion recorded in the NKGG during the last two decades,if continued,would severely diminish glacial volume and capacity to store water,thus jeopardizing the sustainability of water resources in the basin.

Multi-decadal variations in glacier flow velocity and the influencing factors of Urumqi Glacier No.1 in Tianshan Mountains, Northwest China

Urumqi Glacier No. 1 is a representative glacier in the inland areas of Central Asia and is the only Chinese reference glacier in the World Glacier Monitoring Service. In this study, we explored multi-decadal variations in the flow velocity of the glacier and the influencing factors based on continuous field observations and path coefficient analysis. Results show that the glacier flow velocity decreased from 5.5 m/a in 1980/1981 to 3.3 m/a in 2010/2011. The annual variation in the direction of glacier flow velocity in the western branch and eastern branch was less than 1°–3°, and the change of glacier flow velocity in the western branch was more dramatic than that in the eastern branch. Glacier flow velocity was influenced by glacier morphology（including glacier area, glacier length, and ice thickness）, glacier mass balance and local climate conditions（air temperature and precipitation）, the glacier morphology being the leading factor. The long-term flow velocity data set of Urumqi Glacier No. 1 contributes to a better understanding of glacier dynamics within the context of climatic warming.

The presence and influence of glacier surging around the Geladandong ice caps,North East Tibetan Plateau

Many glaciers and ice caps on the Tibetan Plateau have retreated and lost mass in recent years in response to temperature increases,providing clear evidence of the impact of climate change on the region.There is increasing evidence that many of the glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau have also shown periodically dynamic behaviour in the form of glacier surging and some even catastrophic collapse events.In this study,we examine the prevalence of glacier surging at the Geladandong ice caps,North East Tibetan Plateau,to better understand the role of surge events in the evolution of glacier mass loss budgets.Using glacier surface elevation change data over the period 1969—2018 and glacier surface velocity data from the ITS_LIVE dataset,we find that 19 outlet glaciers of the ice caps are of surge-type.Our multi-temporal measurements of glacier mass balance show that surge-type glacier mass budgets vary depending on the portion of the surge-cycle captured by geodetic data.At the regional level,pre-and post-surge glacier mass loss variability does not bias regional mass budget estimates,but enhanced,or suppressed,mass loss estimates are likely when small groups of glaciers are examined.Our results emphasise the importance of accurate surge-type glacier inventories and the need to maximise geodetic data coverage over glacierised regions known to contain surge-type glaciers.

Capturing the crack process of the Antarctic A74 iceberg with Sentinel-1 based offset tracking and radar interferometry techniques

In this paper,the crack process of the A74 iceberg is carefully monitored in different aspects by using synthetic aperture radar(SAR)images.First,a offset tracking strategy is designed to retrieve the temporal evolution of the glacier velocity field.Secondly,a signal coherence factor(SCF)is proposed to analyze the interferometric signals.The resulting SCF maps can present a more distinct rupture pattern than the SAR magnitude images,which enables the development of rift to be tracked more precisely.Thirdly,a new approach is proposed to explore the temporal change of the ice flow.Since this approach is based on interferometric phase signals,it is more sensitive than the offset tracking technique.Consequently,the abnormal variation signals associated with the rupture process can be discovered from the experimental results in an earlier stage.The results also show that the area with abnormal signals is almost identical to the region of the calved ice,which demonstrates that the scale of the iceberg might be predicted at least two months before the rupture event.Furthermore,such a consistent pattern may indicate a total alteration of ice characteristics,implying that the complete separation between A74 and BIS is inevitable.