Recent Glacier Mass Balance and Area Changes from DEMs and Landsat Images in Upper Reach of Shule River Basin, Northeastern Edge of Tibetan Plateau during 2000 to 2015

Abstract

Glacier changes in the Upper Reach of the Shule River Basin (URSRB) serve as a good indicator of climate change in the western part of the Qilian Mountains, located on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. However, information on recent glacier changes in the URSRB is limited. In this study, the changes in ice surface elevation were determined using geodetic methods based on digital elevation models (DEMs) derived from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) (2000), and from pairs of Third Resources Satellite (ZY-3) of China (taken around 2013). In addition, glacier area changes from 2000-2015, were derived from Landsat TM/ETM+/OLI images. The results suggest that 478 glaciers with an area of 375.1 ± 2.68 km 2 remained in the URSRB in 2015. Ice cover diminished by 57.5 ± 2.68 km 2 (11.9 ± 0.60%), or 0.79 ± 0.04% a −1 and 35 small glaciers disappeared from 2000 to 2015 in the URSRB. The most pronounced glacier shrinkage occurred during 2004 to 2009. The average ice surface elevation of the URSRB from 1999 to 2013 reduced by about 4.98 ± 0.6 m, which is equal to a mass loss of 0.383 ± 0.046 m•a −1. This reduction indicates that the ice storage loss has accelerated since 1999, compared to a mass loss of 0.21 ± 0.04 m•a −1 around Tuanjiefeng from 1966 to 1999, as reported by Xu et al. (2013).

Projected glacier meltwater and river run‐off changes in the Upper Reach of the Shule River Basin, north‐eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau

“…According to the CGI, the glacier area of the URSRB was 481.50 km 2 in the 1970s. It continuously shrank to 432.63, 421.50, 393.88, and 374.58 km 2 during 2000/2001, 2004/2005, 2008/2009, and 2012/2013, respectively, based on observations (X. W. Zhang et al, ; Figure ). Between the 1970s and 2012/2013, the glacier area was reduced by 106.92 km 2 (approximately 22.21%) at a rate of 2.49 km 2 a −1 (approximately 0.52% a −1 ), which is larger than the average reduction rate of 0.33% a −1 between the 1970s and 2000/2001.…”

“…The NSE and R 2 were higher for the glacier area between 3 and 8 km 2 and greater than 8 km 2 than for the glacier areas between 1 and 3 km 2 and less than 1 km 2 , which indicates that VIC‐CAS better simulates glacier area changes for larger glaciers. Although there are only six glaciers with areas greater than 8 km 2 , they have approximately 19% of the total glacier area and 10% of the total ice volume of the URSRB (X. W. Zhang et al, ), which is important for water resources management in the URSRB.…”

“…Glacier meltwater run‐off was simulated by VIC‐CAS with a dynamic area, and each single glacier was taken as one subbasin. The impacts of topography and aspect on air temperature and precipitation in each altitude zone of the glacier were considered (Q. D. Zhao et al, , ), and the simulated area changes of each single glacier could then be compared with those observed by remote sensing data at different periods (X. W. Zhang et al, ), which performed better and decreased the uncertainty in simulated glacier run‐off and river run‐off. In this study, glacier area changes during five periods were used to calibrate and validate the VIC‐CAS model (Figures and ).…”

“…In this study, we compared two schemes of VIC-CAS model parame- Moreover, the outlines of each glacier during 2000-2001, 2004-2006, 2007, 2008-2009, and 2012-2013 were derived from visual interpretation from Landsat TM/ETM+/OLI images (X. W. Zhang, Li, Zhang, Wu, & Zhang, 2018), and the glacier area changes between these periods were then used to compare with the simulated glacier area changes.…”

Perspectives of XRF and XANES Applications in Cryospheric Sciences Using Chinese SR Facilities

“…Moreover, changes in the cryosphere may reflect global climate changes [1]. For instance, environmental water resources [2] or the pollutant mercury [3] have recently been extensively investigated in China in order to understand global climatic changes and other environmental issues.…”