Slight glacier mass loss in the Karakoram region during the 1970s to 2000 revealed by KH-9 images and SRTM DEM

• Published in: Journal of Glaciology
• Main Authors: ZHOU, YUSHAN, LI, ZHIWEI, LI, JIA
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2017
• Subjects: Journal of Glaciology
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jog.2016.142; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143016001428

ABSTRACT An anomalously slight glacier mass gain during 2000 to the 2010s has recently been reported in the Karakoram region. However, to date, no investigations of the region-wide glacier mass balance in the Karakoram prior to 2000 have been reported, leaving a knowledge gap for assessing glacier responses to climate change. We calculated elevation and mass change using DEMs generated from KH-9 images acquired during 1973–1980 and the 1 arc-second SRTM DEM. We find a slight mass loss of −0.09 ± 0.03 m w.e. a −1 (12 366 km 2 ) for 1973–2000, which is less negative than the global average rate for 1971–2009 (−0.31 ± 0.19 m w.e. a −1 ). Within the Karakoram, the glacier change patterns are spatially and temporally heterogeneous. In particular, a nearly stable state in the central Karakoram (−0.04 ± 0.05 m w.e. a −1 during the period 1974–2000) implies that the Karakoram anomaly dates back to the 1970s. Combined with the previous studies, we conclude that the Karakoram glaciers as a whole were in a nearly balanced state during the 1970s to the 2010s.