TPRoGI: a comprehensive rock glacier inventory for the Tibetan Plateau using deep learning

• Main Authors: Sun, Zhangyu, Hu, Yan, Racoviteanu, Adina, Liu, Lin, Harrison, Stephan, Wang, Xiaowen, Cai, Jiaxin, Guo, Xin, He, Yujun, Yuan, Hailun
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: permafrost
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-28; https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2024-28/

Rock glaciers – periglacial landforms commonly found in high mountain systems – are of significant scientific value for inferring the presence of permafrost, understanding mountain hydrology, and assessing climate impacts on high mountain environments. However, inventories remain patchy in many alpine regions, and as a result they are poorly understood for some areas of High Mountain Asia such as the Tibetan Plateau. To address this gap, we compiled a comprehensive inventory of rock glaciers across the entire Tibetan plateau, i.e., TPRoGI [v1.0], developed using an innovative deep learning method. This inventory consists of a total of 44,273 rock glaciers, covering approximately 6,000 km 2 , with a mean area of 0.14 km 2 . They are predominantly situated at elevations ranging from 4,000 to 5,500 m.a.s.l., with a mean of 4,729 m.a.s.l. widespread in the northwestern and southeastern areas, with dense concentrations in the Western Pamir and Nyainqêntanglha, while they are sparsely distributed in the inner part. Our inventory serves as a benchmark dataset, which will be further They tend to occur on slopes with gradients between 10° and 25°, with a mean of 17.7°. Across the plateau, rock glaciers are maintained and updated in the future. This dataset constitutes a significant contribution towards understanding, future monitoring and assessment of permafrost on the Tibetan Plateau in the context of climate change.