Ablation of Ice and Snow of Kara-Batkak Glacier and Its Impact on River Flow

Abstract

This paper considers the results of complex glaciological and hydro meteorological observations in the basin of Chon Kyzyl Suu river for the period of 2013-2017; the analysis of flow formation from the Kara Batkak glacier was carried out. The main and minor factors of ice and snow ablation of Kara Batkak glacier are shown. The analysis of the main climatic parameters (air temperature and precipitation), which are changing in concordance with global warming, has been carried out. In the last 70 years the area of the Kara Batkak glacier has decreased by 21.8%, showing a pronounced trend of diminishing the area of this glacier, which is a consequence of global warming. It is established that the trend of increasing ablation over the entire observation period on the Kara Batkak glacier is associated with an increase in air temperatures over the last few decades.There is a good synchronization of annual trends of rise in air temperature at the three meteo stations for the period from 1961 to 2015 with a maximum of 7.0 °C at Kara-Batkak. This suggests that the same trend happens in all the regions of Teskey Ala Too, which in recent years, increase the trend of daily melting of ice. The mass balance in these basins over 60 years is negative due to rise in temperature and add to river runoff due to degradation and the reduction in the area of its glaciation confirmed the water-ice balance of mountain-glacial basins of the "continental" type glaciers. The close connection between the changes in climatic parameters, state of glaciations and glacial runoff in these river basin were established in this study.

Reconstruction of the Historical (1750–2020) Mass Balance of Bordu, Kara-Batkak and Sary-Tor Glaciers in the Inner Tien Shan, Kyrgyzstan

“…However, in 1990, all measurements were interrupted. In 2014, detailed MB measurements were reinitiated by the Tien Shan High Mountain Scientific Research Center as part of the CHARIS Project (Satylkanov, 2018). MB measurements on Bordu glacier were started in 2015 and are continued today.…”

“…Hence, the mass balance data of 1957-1998 are associated with a larger uncertainty compared to direct measurements. In 2013, glaciological measurements were reinitiated (Satylkanov, 2018).…”

“…However, almost all of these observation programmes were abandoned during the (early) 1990s. In 2010, in situ glacier observations were reinitiated by different international projects such as Capacity Building and Twinning for Climate Observing Systems (CATCOS), Central Asian Water (CAWa), Cryospheric Climate Services for improved Adaptation (CICADA) and Contribution to High Asia Runoff from Ice and Snow (CHARIS) (Hoelzle et al, 2017;Satylkanov, 2018). Consequently, the number of glaciers under observation in Kyrgyzstan has been steadily increasing.…”

Measuring and inferring the ice thickness distribution of four glaciers in the Tien Shan, Kyrgyzstan

“…SMB measurements on Ashu-Tor and Bordu glaciers were initiated in 2014 and continue today. Kara-Batkak glacier is located on the northern slope of the Terskey Ala-Too range with a slightly higher total precipitation (Satylkanov, 2018). This glacier is significantly smaller than the three other glaciers.…”

“…SMB measurements on this glacier started in 1947 and continued up to 1998. The measurements on this glacier were reinitiated in 2013 by the Tien Shan High Mountain Scientific Research Center as part of the CHARIS Project (Contribution to High Asian Runoff from Ice and Snow/Ice and snow contribution to the flow of High Asia) (Satylkanov, 2018).…”