TY - JOUR
T1 - Multi-decadal mass balance series of three Kyrgyz glaciers inferred from modelling constrained with repeated snow line observations
AU - Barandun, Martina
AU - Huss, Matthias
AU - Usubaliev, Ryskul
AU - Azisov, Erlan
AU - Berthier, Etienne
AU - Kääb, Andreas
AU - Bolch, Tobias
AU - Hoelzle, Martin
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements. This study is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), grant 200021_155903. Additional support by the German Federal Foreign Office in the frame of the CAWa project (http://www.cawa-project.net) and the support of the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss through the project Capacity Building and Twinning for Climate Observing Systems (CATCOS) Phase 1 & 2, contract nos. 7F-08114.1, 7F-08114.02.01, between the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and MeteoSwiss as well as the project CICADA (Cryospheric Climate Services for improved Adaptation), and contract no. 81049674 between the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the University of Fribourg is equally acknowledged. Etienne Berthier acknowledges support from the French Space Agency (CNES) and the Programme National de Télédétection Spatiale grant PNTS-2016-01. Andreas Kääb and Tobias Bolch acknowledges funding by the ESA (Glaciers_cci project 4000109873/14/I-NB), and the European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP7) under the European Research Council (ERC) contract 320816. We thank Fanny Brun for providing the elevation change data of Abramov, Golubin and Glacier no. 354. Javier Corripio is acknowledged for the software to georeference oblique photographs. We extend our thanks to Tomas Saks, Alyssa Ghirlanda, Abror Gafurov, Marlene Kronenberg, David Sciboz and all others who contributed with fieldwork. We are also grateful for the collaboration of the Central Asian Institute for Applied Geosciences, especially to Bolot Moldobekov for his continuous support. The Kumtor Gold Company provided the meteorological data. We thank Susan Braun-Clarke for the proofreading and linguistic revision. Constructive comments by the anonymous reviewer and Mauri Pelto were very helpful in finalizing the manuscript.
Funding Information:
This study is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), grant 200021-155903. Additional support by the German Federal Foreign Office in the frame of the CAWa project (http://www.cawa-project.net) and the support of the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss through the project Capacity Building and Twinning for Climate Observing Systems (CATCOS) Phase 1 & 2, contract nos. 7F-08114.1, 7F-08114.02.01, between the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and MeteoSwiss as well as the project CICADA (Cryospheric Climate Services for improved Adaptation), and contract no. 81049674 between the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the University of Fribourg is equally acknowledged. Etienne Berthier acknowledges support from the French Space Agency (CNES) and the Programme National de Télédétection Spatiale grant PNTS-2016-01. Andreas Kääb and Tobias Bolch acknowledges funding by the ESA (Glaciers-cci project 4000109873/14/I-NB), and the European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP7) under the European Research Council (ERC) contract 320816. We thank Fanny Brun for providing the elevation change data of Abramov, Golubin and Glacier no. 354. Javier Corripio is acknowledged for the software to georeference oblique photographs. We extend our thanks to Tomas Saks, Alyssa Ghirlanda, Abror Gafurov, Marlene Kronenberg, David Sciboz and all others who contributed with fieldwork. We are also grateful for the collaboration of the Central Asian Institute for Applied Geosciences, especially to Bolot Moldobekov for his continuous support. The Kumtor Gold Company provided the meteorological data. We thank Susan Braun-Clarke for the proofreading and linguistic revision. Constructive comments by the anonymous reviewer and Mauri Pelto were very helpful in finalizing the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© Author(s) 2018.
PY - 2018/6/6
Y1 - 2018/6/6
N2 - Glacier surface mass balance observations in the Tien Shan and Pamir are relatively sparse and often discontinuous. Nevertheless, glaciers are one of the most important components of the high-mountain cryosphere in the region as they strongly influence water availability in the arid, continental and intensely populated downstream areas. This study provides reliable and continuous surface mass balance series for selected glaciers located in the Tien Shan and Pamir-Alay. By cross-validating the results of three independent methods, we reconstructed the mass balance of the three benchmark glaciers, Abramov, Golubin and Glacier no. 354 for the past 2 decades. By applying different approaches, it was possible to compensate for the limitations and shortcomings of each individual method. This study proposes the use of transient snow line observations throughout the melt season obtained from satellite optical imagery and terrestrial automatic cameras. By combining modelling with remotely acquired information on summer snow depletion, it was possible to infer glacier mass changes for unmeasured years. The model is initialized with daily temperature and precipitation data collected at automatic weather stations in the vicinity of the glacier or with adjusted data from climate reanalysis products. Multi-annual mass changes based on high-resolution digital elevation models and in situ glaciological surveys were used to validate the results for the investigated glaciers. Substantial surface mass loss was confirmed for the three studied glaciers by all three methods, ranging from -0.30±0.19 to -0.41±0.33mw.e. yr-1 over the 2004-2016 period. Our results indicate that integration of snow line observations into mass balance modelling significantly narrows the uncertainty ranges of the estimates. Hence, this highlights the potential of the methodology for application to unmonitored glaciers at larger scales for which no direct measurements are available.
AB - Glacier surface mass balance observations in the Tien Shan and Pamir are relatively sparse and often discontinuous. Nevertheless, glaciers are one of the most important components of the high-mountain cryosphere in the region as they strongly influence water availability in the arid, continental and intensely populated downstream areas. This study provides reliable and continuous surface mass balance series for selected glaciers located in the Tien Shan and Pamir-Alay. By cross-validating the results of three independent methods, we reconstructed the mass balance of the three benchmark glaciers, Abramov, Golubin and Glacier no. 354 for the past 2 decades. By applying different approaches, it was possible to compensate for the limitations and shortcomings of each individual method. This study proposes the use of transient snow line observations throughout the melt season obtained from satellite optical imagery and terrestrial automatic cameras. By combining modelling with remotely acquired information on summer snow depletion, it was possible to infer glacier mass changes for unmeasured years. The model is initialized with daily temperature and precipitation data collected at automatic weather stations in the vicinity of the glacier or with adjusted data from climate reanalysis products. Multi-annual mass changes based on high-resolution digital elevation models and in situ glaciological surveys were used to validate the results for the investigated glaciers. Substantial surface mass loss was confirmed for the three studied glaciers by all three methods, ranging from -0.30±0.19 to -0.41±0.33mw.e. yr-1 over the 2004-2016 period. Our results indicate that integration of snow line observations into mass balance modelling significantly narrows the uncertainty ranges of the estimates. Hence, this highlights the potential of the methodology for application to unmonitored glaciers at larger scales for which no direct measurements are available.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85048216064&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.5194/tc-12-1899-2018
DO - 10.5194/tc-12-1899-2018
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85048216064
VL - 12
SP - 1899
EP - 1919
JO - The Cryosphere
JF - The Cryosphere
SN - 1994-0416
IS - 6
ER -
