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. 2017 Jul 27;7(1):6712.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-07133-8.

A decreasing glacier mass balance gradient from the edge of the Upper Tarim Basin to the Karakoram during 2000-2014

Hui Lin  1   2   3 , Gang Li  4 , Lan Cuo  5   6   7 , Andrew Hooper  8 , Qinghua Ye  5
Affiliations

A decreasing glacier mass balance gradient from the edge of the Upper Tarim Basin to the Karakoram during 2000-2014

Hui Lin et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

In contrast to the glacier mass losses observed at other locations around the world, some glaciers in the High Mountains of Asia appear to have gained mass in recent decades. However, changes in digital elevation models indicate that glaciers in Karakoram and Pamir have gained mass, while recent laser altimetry data indicate mass gain centred on West Kunlun. Here, we obtain results that are essentially consistent with those from altimetry, but with two-dimensional observations and higher resolution. We produced elevation models using radar interferometry applied to bistatic data gathered between 2011 and 2014 and compared them to a model produced from bistatic data collected in 2000. The glaciers in West Kunlun, Eastern Pamir and the northern part of Karakoram experienced a clear mass gain of 0.043 ± 0.078~0.363 ± 0.065 m w.e. yr-1. The Karakoram showed a near-stable mass balance in its western part (-0.020 ± 0.064 m w.e. yr-1), while the Eastern Karakoram showed mass loss (-0.101 ± 0.058 m w.e. yr-1). Significant positive glacier mass balances are noted along the edge of the Upper Tarim Basin and indicate a decreasing gradient from northeast to southwest.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Glacier mass balance in the Karakoram and its surroundings during 2000~2014. The areas of the darker parts of triangles indicate glacier mass balance in terms of m w.e. (water equivalent) yr−1, whereas the lighter parts indicate the estimated standard error. The coloured dashed lines indicate the boundaries of each sub-region covered by TSX/TDX images. We subdivided the Extended West Kunlun, which surrounds the West Kunlun, into zones A-G. The Pamir was separated into western, central and eastern parts, which are shown with purple dashed lines. All figures are generated by Gang Li. This figure was generated with ArcGIS 10.2 software (http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgis-for-desktop).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Decadal glacier height changes for the West Kunlun region and its extent during 2000~2014. Locations of A-G are indicated in Fig. 1. Yellow lines separate this region into western, central and eastern parts. Their annual glacier mass balances are shown in units of m w.e. yr−1. Glacierized areas without observations are shown in white. This figure was generated with ArcGIS 10.2 software (http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgis-for-desktop).
Figure 3
Figure 3
As Fig. 2, but for Eastern Karakoram. The blue line naturally separates this region into the Upper Tarim Basin and the Upper Indus Basin. The boundary of the Eastern Karakoram region is indicated with a green dashed line. SA: Siachen; BA, Baltoro. This figure was generated with ArcGIS 10.2 software (http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgis-for-desktop).
Figure 4
Figure 4
As Fig. 3, but for the Western Karakoram. BI, Biafo; CH, Chogo Lungma; HI, Hispar; BT, Batura. This figure was generated with ArcGIS 10.2 software (http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgis-for-desktop).
Figure 5
Figure 5
As Fig. 2, but for the Western Pamir region. The Fedchenko Glacier is indicated by the bold boundary. The yellow line separates the rest of the glaciers into two sub-regions. The purple dashed line represents the TSX/TDX coverage. This figure was generated with ArcGIS 10.2 software (http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgis-for-desktop).
Figure 6
Figure 6
As Fig. 2, but for the Eastern Pamir region. The purple dashed line represents the TSX/TDX coverage. KK, Kekesayi glacier; MA, Muztag Ata glacier. This figure was generated with ArcGIS 10.2 software (http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgis-for-desktop).
Figure 7
Figure 7
Glacier height changes in different elevation layers in the Western Kunlun. (a) Changes in glacier height for non-surging glaciers in each elevation bin. Error bars only indicate standard deviation in height changes in each elevation bin. (b) Glacier height distributions for both total glacierized area and the measured area of non-surging glaciers.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Glacier height changes in different elevation layers along 36.5 N°. (a) Glacier height changes in each elevation bin for seven pairs of bistatic images along 36.5 N° (shown in different colours) from the Hindu Kush to the eastern extent of the West Kunlun. The specific position of the coverage refers to Figure S1 in the supplementary. (b) Glacier height distribution for seven pairs of image coverages. Different colours indicate different frames. (c) Annual glacier height changes for the total region, accumulation area and ablation area in seven pairs of bistatic images along 36.5 N°. The horizontal axis indicates the longitude at the centre of each image.
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