Spatiotemporal variation in surface velocity in Chandra basin glacier between 1999 and 2017 using Landsat-7 and Landsat-8 imagery

Abstract

Glacier surface velocity is one of the main parameters of the glaciers used to interpret the glacier dynamics. In the present research paper, surface velocity of four glaciers, namely Bara Shigri, Chhota Shigri, Gepang Gath and Hamtah in Chandra basin between 1999 and 2017 during two time spans of 1999–2002 and 2013–2017, is estimated to analyze spatiotemporal characteristics of surface velocity of these glaciers using a cross-correlation algorithm applied on panchromatic images of Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) and Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) sensors. A decrease of ∼34% and ∼33% in average annual surface velocity is observed during 2013–2017 in comparison with the average annual surface velocity during 1999–2002 for Bara Shigri and Hamtah glaciers mainly due to lowering of glacier surface. However, Gepang Gath has shown a very low reduction of ∼3% during the same period due to the presence of proglacial lake in its terminus. The analysis of transverse velocity profile of all the four glaciers is also carried out to determine the dominant factor responsible for glacier movement.

Keywords:

• Chandra basin
• glacier surface velocity
• spatiotemporal variation
• Landsat-7 ETM + and Landsat-8 OLI panchromatic image

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.