Assessment of the Baspa basin glaciers mass budget using different remote sensing methods and modeling techniques

Abstract

Glacial melt water is the key source for various socio-industrial and domestic activities in the Himalayas. Several recent studies suggest that glaciers are experiencing rapid melt. The glaciers health can be best assessed by mass balance. However, the mass balance investigations using in-situ methods for a large sample of glaciers are highly difficult in the Himalaya. Hence, remote sensing methods and modelling techniques are preferred. However, there is a lack of information on uncertainties associated with these methods in assessing the regional scale mass balance. Hence, these methods are applied to evaluate the regional scale mass budget of Baspa basin, Western Himalaya between 2000 and 2011. The total mass loss estimated using geodetic method amounts to −0.49 ± 0.1 gigatons, temperature index method to −0.43 ± 0.012 gigatons and AAR method to −0.36 ± 0.1 gigatons. Furthermore, this study highlights the limitations of these methods in mass loss evaluation in data scarce Himalayan regions.

Keywords:

• Geodetic method
• accumulation area ratio method
• temperature index method
• Baspa basin
• mass balance

Acknowledgements

Authors would like to thank Dr. Ravichandran, Director, Dr. Thamban Meloth, (Project Director) and other team members of Cryosphere Science Division, NCAOR for continuous discussions and infrastructure support provided during the study. A special thanks to Dr. Helgi Bjornsson (University of Iceland), Dr. Tobias Bolch (University of Zurich), Dr. Ian M. Howat and Dr. Myoung-Jong Noh (Byrd polar and Climate Research Centre- Ohio State University) and Dr. Rajesh kumar (Sharda university) for the technical suggestions during the study. I would also like to thank USGS for providing the SRTM, LPDAAC for AST14DMO Digital Elevation Models and Hydrology Division, BBMB for providing the meteorological data of Rakcham Observatory. This is NCPOR contribution number 41/2018.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.