Glacier mass loss in the Alaknanda basin, Garhwal Himalaya on a decadal scale

Abstract

The Himalayan glaciers significantly contribute to the largest river systems like the Indus, Ganga, and the Brahmaputra. The change in glacial area and mass can affect the mountain community and people living in the Indo-Gangetic plain. The present study adopted the geodetic method to estimate the elevation change and mass budget of 61 glaciers in the Alaknanda Basin, using the satellite data of Cartosat-1 (2011, 2014, 2017) and SRTM (2000). Besides, the DEM of 1962 (SOI Toposheet) and 2000 (SRTM) is used to estimate the mass budget of Satopanth (SPG) and Bhagirath Kharak glaciers (BKG). The field debris thickness of SPG (2015-2017) is compared with the elevation change (2000-2017). Further, we have compared the mass loss of the glaciers with their volume. The results suggest the sustained mass loss of 1.85 ± 0.10 Gt out of 33.9 ± 8.8 Gt for 61 glaciers in the basin from 2000-2017. The mass loss of SPG and BKG during 2000-2017 is 0.20 ± 0.02 Gt and 0.24 ± 0.03 Gt, whereas from 1962 to 2000, is 0.083 ± 0.03 Gt and 0.091 ± 0.04 Gt, respectively. The analysis facilitates a better understanding of glacier mass changes in the Alaknanda basin on a multi-decadal scale.

Keywords:

• Alaknanda Basin
• debris thickness
• geodetic method
• mass budget
• Satopanth Glacier

Acknowledgments

We are expressing our sincere thanks to Divecha Centre for Climate Change (DCCC), IISc Bangalore, and IIT-ISM, Dhanbad, for providing the workspace and logistics to conduct this research. We are thanking the Department of Science and Technology (DST) for the necessary financial support provided. We are also thankful to USGS for the availability of data sources such as Landsat-8, Sentinel-2, Corona images, and SRTM DEM. We are grateful to the team of HNB Garhwal University Srinagar, Garhwal, Uttarakhand for providing the field data and the necessary facilities to conduct the field observation. Further, we acknowledge the valuable comments and the discussion with Babu Govindha Raj, ISRO; Shashank Bhushan, University of Washington; Pradeep S, DCCC, IISc Bangalore; Aarti Soni, IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, and Argha Banerjee, IISER Pune.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.