Characteristics of recent temperate glacier fluctuations in the Parlung Zangbo River basin, southeast Tibetan Plateau

Yang, Wei; Yao, Tandong; Xu, Bin; Ma, Lili; Wang, Zhihui; Wu, Ming

doi:10.1007/s11434-010-3214-4

Cited by 42 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 23 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Due to the differences in the periods studied and spatial scales, the length changes of glacier centre lines in this study are less than in previous studies, except for the Azha Glacier Yang et al, 2010;T. Yao et al, 2012).…”

Section: Changes In Glacier Area and Lengthcontrasting

confidence: 65%

“…The changes in air temperature and precipitation were confirmed with data from the three nearest meteorological stations, Bomê, Zuogong and Zayü (2423 m a.s.l.) Yang et al, 2010). Air temperature at these stations increased slightly from 1980 to 2000 and then significantly after 2000.…”

Section: Climatic Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…Air temperature at these stations increased slightly from 1980 to 2000 and then significantly after 2000. Despite large interannual precipitation fluctuations statistically significant trends are not evident at the three stations (Wu et al, 2016a;Yang et al, 2010).…”

Section: Climatic Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They experienced a substantial reduction in area and length from 1980 to 2013 and a mass deficit from 2005 to 2009 Yang et al, 2010Yang et al, , 2008T. Yao et al, 2012), based on inventories from maps and remote sensing or field measurements.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Recent glacier mass balance and area changes in the Kangri Karpo Mountains from DEMs and glacier inventories

Liu

Jiang

et al. 2018

The Cryosphere

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Due to the influence of the Indian monsoon, the Kangri Karpo Mountains in the south-east of the Tibetan Plateau is in the most humid and one of the most important and concentrated regions containing maritime (temperate) glaciers. Glacier mass loss in the Kangri Karpo is an important contributor to global mean sea level rise, and changes run-off distribution, increasing the risk of glaciallake outburst floods (GLOFs). Because of its inaccessibility and high labour costs, information about the Kangri Karpo glaciers is still limited. Using geodetic methods based on digital elevation models (DEMs) derived from 1980 topographic maps from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) (2000) and from TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X (2014), this study has determined glacier elevation changes. Glacier area and length changes between 1980 and 2015 were derived from topographical maps and Landsat TM/ETM+/OLI images. Results show that the Kangri Karpo contained 1166 glaciers with an area of 2048.50 ± 48.65 km 2 in 2015. Ice cover diminished by 679.51 ± 59.49 km 2 (24.9 ± 2.2 %) or 0.71 ± 0.06 % a −1 from 1980 to 2015, although nine glaciers advanced. A glacierized area of 788.28 km 2 , derived from DEM differencing, experienced a mean mass loss of 0.46 ± 0.08 m w.e.

show abstract

Section: Changes In Glacier Area and Lengthcontrasting

confidence: 65%

Section: Climatic Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 87%

Section: Climatic Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Recent glacier mass balance and area changes in the Kangri Karpo Mountains from DEMs and glacier inventories

Liu

Jiang

et al. 2018

The Cryosphere

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, they attributed regional differences to local climate settings, the average elevations of glacier termini and the glacier size distribution. Great differences in glacier size have also been reported from the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in China [40,41]. Although the measurement techniques used and time periods observed may affect the results, patterns of strong retreat and differentiated regional changes in glacier size are obvious.…”

Section: Regional Differencesmentioning

confidence: 97%

Recent glacial retreat and its effect on water resources in eastern Xinjiang

Gao

et al. 2011

Chin. Sci. Bull.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The eastern Xinjiang Basin is desperately short of water. Most rivers in the basin originate in the high eastern Tianshan, which has abundant precipitation and numerous alpine glaciers. Fieldwork conducted on three reference glaciers around Mt. Bogda in 1981 and suggests that they all strongly melt in summer, a process that has tended to accelerate in recent decades. Based on topographic maps from 1962 and 1972 and 2005/2006 . South-facing glaciers lost more of their area than those that are north facing, yielding an areal loss of 25.3% and 16.9% for southern and northern slopes of Mt. Bogda, respectively, and 12.3% and 6.6% for the comparable slopes of Mt. Harlik. Glaciers smaller than 0.5 km 2 in area experienced the strongest retreat, whereas glaciers larger than 2 km 2 in area experienced gentle recession but may be the main contributors in the future to river runoff. Glacial ablation in eastern Xinjiang tends to be strong, and the water resources in this region are deteriorating. Also, a heavy reduction in the capacity of the local karez system, as well as a significant change in river runoff, can be related to glacial retreat. Combined, this will adversely affect the downstream city of Urumqi and the Turfan Basin. Climate change is of great concern the world over, particularly regarding the effect of humanity on the existing environment and vice versa. Under continued warming over the last several decades, alpine glacier retreat has accelerated. Surface melting has occurred even on high-altitude glaciers [1]. Moreover, about 75% of the fresh water of the world comes from glaciers [2], thus retreating glaciers will have a strong influence on the regional hydrologic balance and economic sustainability. Climate warming, regardless of whether it is caused by anthropogenic factors or by nature, has led to strong global glacier recession. In fact, changes in alpine glaciers are one of the best natural indicators of climate change because a small change in climatic parameters will result in pronounced geometric changes in glacier shape and size. Many studies show that strong glacial wastage has been the major trend [3,4] over the period from 1993 to 2003 during which time sea level has risen about 0.77 ± 0.18 mm as a result, primarily, of that glacier melting [5]. Using two climate models, sea level is estimated to rise 0.046 m and 0.051 m as a result of mountain glaciers and ice caps melting by 2100 [6]. The estimate of China's potential contribution to cryospheric change is a sea level rise of 0.14-0.16 mm a 1 , of which the contribution of meltwaters from glaciers is assessed at about 0.12 mm a 1 [7]. The problems associated with strong mountain glacier melt are glacial hazards such as glacial lake outburst floods and

show abstract

Light‐absorbing impurities enhance glacier albedo reduction in the southeastern Tibetan plateau

et al. 2017

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Light‐absorbing impurities (LAIs) in snow of the southeastern Tibetan Plateau (TP) and their climatic impacts are of interest not only because this region borders areas affected by the South Asian atmospheric brown clouds but also because the seasonal snow and glacier melt from this region form important headwaters of large rivers. In this study, we collected surface snow and snowpit samples from four glaciers in the southeastern TP in June 2015 to investigate the comprehensive observational data set of LAIs. Results showed that the LAI concentrations were much higher in the aged snow and granular ice than in the fresh snow and snowpits due to postdepositional processes. Impurity concentrations fluctuated across snowpits, with maximum LAI concentrations frequently occurring toward the bottom of snowpits. Based on the SNow ICe Aerosol Radiative model, the albedo simulation indicated that black carbon and dust account for approximately 20% of the albedo reduction relative to clean snow. The radiative forcing caused by black carbon and dust deposition on the glaciers were between 1.0–141 W m−2 and 1.5–120 W m−2, respectively. Black carbon (BC) played a larger role in albedo reduction and radiative forcing than dust in the study area, enhancing approximately 15% of glacier melt. Analysis based on the Fire INventory from NCAR indicated that nonbiomass‐burning sources of BC played an important role in the total BC deposition, especially during the monsoon season. This study suggests that eliminating anthropogenic BC could mitigate glacier melt in the future of the southeastern TP.

show abstract

Characteristics of recent temperate glacier fluctuations in the Parlung Zangbo River basin, southeast Tibetan Plateau

Cited by 42 publications

References 23 publications

Recent glacier mass balance and area changes in the Kangri Karpo Mountains from DEMs and glacier inventories

Recent glacier mass balance and area changes in the Kangri Karpo Mountains from DEMs and glacier inventories

Recent glacial retreat and its effect on water resources in eastern Xinjiang

Light‐absorbing impurities enhance glacier albedo reduction in the southeastern Tibetan plateau

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About