Assessment of rock glaciers and permafrost distribution in Uttarakhand, India

Baral, Prashant; Haq, Mohd Anul; Yaragal, Shivaprakash

doi:10.1002/ppp.2008

Cited by 29 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 74 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Figure S3 also illustrates the clustering of rock glaciers around northerly aspects. The results presented here corroborate the findings of other northern hemisphere studies, which have detailed similar relationships 20,[31][32][33] , . Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that northerly aspects with their reduced solar insolation enable rock glacier formation and preservation at lower elevations than other aspects, in particular, southerly aspects.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Furthermore, while systematic rock glacier inventory coverage has increased globally, HMA is comparatively datadeficient 12 . Across HMA, with few exceptions [19][20][21] , rock glacier inventories have been conducted at localised sites, over relatively small spatial scales or are not spatially explicit [22][23][24] . Therefore, the distribution and hydrological significance of rock glaciers remains unknown.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Rock glaciers represent hidden water stores in the Himalaya

Jones

Harrison

Anderson

et al. 2021

Science of The Total Environment

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In High Mountain Asia (HMA), ongoing glacier retreat affects human and ecological systems through reduced water availability. Rock glaciers are climatically more resilient than glaciers and likely contain potentially valuable water volume equivalents (WVEQ). In HMA knowledge of rock glaciers is extremely sparse and here we present the first systematic assessment of rock glaciers for the Himalaya, which encompass ~25,000 landforms with an estimated areal coverage of 3,747 km². We estimate the WVEQ of Himalayan rock glaciers to be 51.80 ± 10.36 km³ (41-62 trillion litres). Their comparative importance vs glaciers (rock glacier: glacier WVEQ ratio) in the Himalaya was 1:24, ranging between 1:42 and 1:17 in the East and Central Himalaya, respectfully. We show that Himalayan rock glaciers constitute hydrologically valuable long-term water stores. In the context of ongoing glacier recession and mass loss, their relative hydrological value in mountain regions will likely increase and deserves greater study. Main In High Mountain Asia (HMA), which comprises the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding mountain ranges (including the Himalaya, Karakoram, Tien Shan, and Pamir), the cryosphere forms natural water towers that are integral for ecosystem services provision, and for supplying multiple societal needs to ~800 million people living in the mountains and surrounding lowlands 1. However, considerable continued glacier mass loss is projected throughout the twenty-first century 2-4. Under high-end climate scenarios, warming that exceeds 2 °C global average during the twenty-first century (RCP8.5), relative to the pre-industrial period will result in projected HMA glacier volume loss of ~95% by 2100, relative to the present-day. Volume losses are driven by an average temperature change of +5.9 °C and +20.9% rise in average precipitation, the latter increasingly of rain (Fig. 1). Indeed, reductions in snow water equivalent have been reported for a number of catchments in HMA, particularly during spring and summer 5. For the RCP4.5 scenario, most basins fed by HMA glaciers are projected to reach peak water by ~2050; 2045 ± 17 years (Indus), 2044 ± 21 years (Ganges) and 2049 ± 18 years (Brahmaputra), for example 6 .

show abstract

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 92%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Rock glaciers represent hidden water stores in the Himalaya

Jones

Harrison

Anderson

et al. 2021

Science of The Total Environment

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Previous studies have successfully applied GEOtop in mountain regions e.g. simulating snow depth (Endrizzi et al, 2014), snow cover mapping (Dall'Amico et al, 2011bEngel et al, 2017;Zanotti et al, 2004), ecohydrological processes (Bertoldi et al, 2010;Chiesa et al, 2014), modelling of ground temperatures in complex topography (Bertoldi et al, 2010;Endrizzi et al, 2014;Fiddes and Gruber, 2012;Gubler et al, 2013), water and energy fluxes (Hingerl et al, 2016;Rigon et al, 2006;Soltani et al, 2019), evapotranspiration (Mauder et al, 2018), and permafrost distribution (Fiddes et al, 2015).…”

Section: Modelling Of Surface Energy Balancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR), recent studies show that the discontinuous permafrost can be found between 3000 and 5500 m a.s.l. (Allen et al, 2016;Baral et al, 2019;Pandey, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The surface energy balance in a cold and arid permafrost environment, Ladakh, Himalayas, India

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Recent studies have shown the cold and arid trans-Himalayan region comprises significant areas underlain by permafrost. While the information on the permafrost characteristics of this region started emerging, the governing energy regime is of particular interest. This paper presents the results of a surface energy balance (SEB) study carried out in the upper Ganglass catchment in the Ladakh region of India which feeds directly into the Indus River. The point-scale SEB is estimated using the 1D mode of the GEOtop model for the period of 1 September 2015 to 31 August 2017 at 4727 m a.s.l. elevation. The model is evaluated using field-monitored snow depth variations (accumulation and melting), outgoing long-wave radiation and near-surface ground temperatures and showed good agreement with the respective simulated values. For the study period, the SEB characteristics of the study site show that the net radiation (29.7 W m−2) was the major component, followed by sensible heat flux (−15.6 W m−2), latent heat flux (−11.2 W m−2) and ground heat flux (−0.5 W m−2). During both years, the latent heat flux was highest in summer and lowest in winter, whereas the sensible heat flux was highest in post-winter and gradually decreased towards the pre-winter season. During the study period, snow cover builds up starting around the last week of December, facilitating ground cooling during almost 3 months (October to December), with sub-zero temperatures down to −20 ∘C providing a favourable environment for permafrost. It is observed that the Ladakh region has a very low relative humidity in the range of 43 % compared to e.g. ∼70 % in the European Alps, resulting in lower incoming long-wave radiation and strongly negative net long-wave radiation averaging ∼-90 W m−2 compared to −40 W m−2 in the European Alps. Hence, land surfaces at high elevation in cold and arid regions could be overall colder than the locations with higher relative humidity, such as the European Alps. Further, it is found that high incoming short-wave radiation during summer months in the region may be facilitating enhanced cooling of wet valley bottom surfaces as a result of stronger evaporation.

show abstract

“…While the GT data set with a large number (1,061) of samples is representative in most of the TP, the sample sites are relatively inadequate with most (96.1%) measurements in areas with slope angle <20°. The RG datasets are from Jones, Harrison, Anderson, Selley, et al (2018) and Baral et al (2020). These were derived based on image interpretation in Google Earth by professional technicians.…”

Section: Study Area and Inventory Of Permafrost Presence Or Absencementioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying Overestimated Permafrost Extent Driven by Rock Glacier Inventory

Cao

Feng

et al. 2021

Geophysical Research Letters

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Dramatic warming caused by climate change puts the large quantities of soil organic carbon and ground ice loss from thawing permafrost at risk of degradation (Daout et al., 2020;Y. Ran et al., 2018;T. Wang et al., 2020). The assessment of future changes to carbon and ground ice conditions requires the scientific community to provide reliable maps of permafrost extent, perhaps the most basic yet crucial information. However, permafrost is a hidden phenomenon that cannot be easily observed. The harsh climate and difficult access in many permafrost areas further complicate fundamental compilation and validation (Cao et al., 2019a).Current state-of-the-art land surface models include notable uncertainties in permafrost simulation (e.g.,

show abstract

Assessment of rock glaciers and permafrost distribution in Uttarakhand, India

Cited by 29 publications

References 74 publications

Rock glaciers represent hidden water stores in the Himalaya

Rock glaciers represent hidden water stores in the Himalaya

The surface energy balance in a cold and arid permafrost environment, Ladakh, Himalayas, India

Quantifying Overestimated Permafrost Extent Driven by Rock Glacier Inventory

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About