The South Inylchek Glacier Activity Analysis over a Ten-year Interval in Surface Velocity with Multi-source Spaceborne Imagery

Abstract

Ice movement is one of the most important characteristics in describing mountain glacier activity, which is a sensitive natural indicator of climate change. However, the short-term ice movement with a single data source could not precisely and sufficiently demonstrate the response of glaciers to climate change. In order to extract the reliable signal corresponding to climate change, the long-term monitoring of glacier movement should be widely exploited. This paper presents the ice motion distribution of the South Inylchek Glacier by improving pixel tracking algorithm with both synthetic aperture radar and optical imagery in 2007-2008 and 2017-2018. The analysis in spatiotemporal characteristics of the glacier velocity indicates that the South Inylchek Glacier remained almost stable in a ten-year interval with the average velocity of 32cm/d, which are computed with quasi-synchronization multi-source imagery. And the consistency of the velocity results was also verified with both optical and SAR imagery during the same period. Therefore, it would be valuable in expanding the research temporal cycle of glacier movement by uniting multi-source data. We also suggest that long-term ice motion should be collected for further analysis in mass balance prediction and assessing the climate change effects in the High Mountain Asia.