Modelling Permafrost Distribution in Western Himalaya Using Remote Sensing and Field Observations
The presence and extent of permafrost in the Himalaya, which is a vital component of the cryosphere, remains severely under-researched with its future climatic-driven trajectory only partly understood and the future consequences on high-altitude ecosystem tentatively sketched out. Previous studies a...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:41c8515f1f564188a4732c8f62e8de9c 2023-05-15T17:55:17+02:00 Modelling Permafrost Distribution in Western Himalaya Using Remote Sensing and Field Observations Md Ataullah Raza Khan Shaktiman Singh Pratima Pandey Anshuman Bhardwaj Sheikh Nawaz Ali Vasudha Chaturvedi Prashant Kumar Champati Ray 2021-11-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13214403 https://doaj.org/article/41c8515f1f564188a4732c8f62e8de9c EN eng MDPI AG https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/21/4403 https://doaj.org/toc/2072-4292 doi:10.3390/rs13214403 2072-4292 https://doaj.org/article/41c8515f1f564188a4732c8f62e8de9c Remote Sensing, Vol 13, Iss 4403, p 4403 (2021) permafrost Western Himalaya MODIS temperature remote sensing Science Q article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13214403 2022-12-31T15:11:19Z The presence and extent of permafrost in the Himalaya, which is a vital component of the cryosphere, remains severely under-researched with its future climatic-driven trajectory only partly understood and the future consequences on high-altitude ecosystem tentatively sketched out. Previous studies and available permafrost maps for the Himalaya relied primarily upon the modelled meteorological inputs to further model the likelihood of permafrost. Here, as a maiden attempt, we have quantified the distribution of permafrost at 30 m grid-resolution in the Western Himalaya using observations from multisource satellite datasets for estimating input parameters, namely temperature, potential incoming solar radiation (PISR), slope, aspect and land use, and cover. The results have been compared to previous studies and have been validated through field investigations and geomorphological proxies associated with permafrost presence. A large part of the study area is barren land (~69%) due to its extremely resistive climate condition with ~62% of the total area having a mean annual air temperature of (MAAT) <1 °C. There is a high inter-annual variability indicated by varying standard deviation (1–3 °C) associated with MAAT with low standard deviation in southern part of the study area indicating low variations in areas with high temperatures and vice-versa. The majority of the study area is northerly (~36%) and southerly (~38%) oriented, receiving PISR between 1 and 2.5 MW/m 2 . The analysis of permafrost distribution using biennial mean air temperature (BMAT) for 2002-04 to 2018-20 suggests that the ~25% of the total study area has continuous permafrost, ~35% has discontinuous permafrost, ~1.5% has sporadic permafrost, and ~39% has no permafrost presence. The temporal analysis of permafrost distribution indicates a significant decrease in the permafrost cover in general and discontinuous permafrost in particular, from 2002-04 to 2018-20, with a loss of around 3% for the total area (~8340.48 km 2 ). The present study will ... Article in Journal/Newspaper permafrost Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Remote Sensing 13 21 4403 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
language |
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topic |
permafrost Western Himalaya MODIS temperature remote sensing Science Q |
spellingShingle |
permafrost Western Himalaya MODIS temperature remote sensing Science Q Md Ataullah Raza Khan Shaktiman Singh Pratima Pandey Anshuman Bhardwaj Sheikh Nawaz Ali Vasudha Chaturvedi Prashant Kumar Champati Ray Modelling Permafrost Distribution in Western Himalaya Using Remote Sensing and Field Observations |
topic_facet |
permafrost Western Himalaya MODIS temperature remote sensing Science Q |
description |
The presence and extent of permafrost in the Himalaya, which is a vital component of the cryosphere, remains severely under-researched with its future climatic-driven trajectory only partly understood and the future consequences on high-altitude ecosystem tentatively sketched out. Previous studies and available permafrost maps for the Himalaya relied primarily upon the modelled meteorological inputs to further model the likelihood of permafrost. Here, as a maiden attempt, we have quantified the distribution of permafrost at 30 m grid-resolution in the Western Himalaya using observations from multisource satellite datasets for estimating input parameters, namely temperature, potential incoming solar radiation (PISR), slope, aspect and land use, and cover. The results have been compared to previous studies and have been validated through field investigations and geomorphological proxies associated with permafrost presence. A large part of the study area is barren land (~69%) due to its extremely resistive climate condition with ~62% of the total area having a mean annual air temperature of (MAAT) <1 °C. There is a high inter-annual variability indicated by varying standard deviation (1–3 °C) associated with MAAT with low standard deviation in southern part of the study area indicating low variations in areas with high temperatures and vice-versa. The majority of the study area is northerly (~36%) and southerly (~38%) oriented, receiving PISR between 1 and 2.5 MW/m 2 . The analysis of permafrost distribution using biennial mean air temperature (BMAT) for 2002-04 to 2018-20 suggests that the ~25% of the total study area has continuous permafrost, ~35% has discontinuous permafrost, ~1.5% has sporadic permafrost, and ~39% has no permafrost presence. The temporal analysis of permafrost distribution indicates a significant decrease in the permafrost cover in general and discontinuous permafrost in particular, from 2002-04 to 2018-20, with a loss of around 3% for the total area (~8340.48 km 2 ). The present study will ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Md Ataullah Raza Khan Shaktiman Singh Pratima Pandey Anshuman Bhardwaj Sheikh Nawaz Ali Vasudha Chaturvedi Prashant Kumar Champati Ray |
author_facet |
Md Ataullah Raza Khan Shaktiman Singh Pratima Pandey Anshuman Bhardwaj Sheikh Nawaz Ali Vasudha Chaturvedi Prashant Kumar Champati Ray |
author_sort |
Md Ataullah Raza Khan |
title |
Modelling Permafrost Distribution in Western Himalaya Using Remote Sensing and Field Observations |
title_short |
Modelling Permafrost Distribution in Western Himalaya Using Remote Sensing and Field Observations |
title_full |
Modelling Permafrost Distribution in Western Himalaya Using Remote Sensing and Field Observations |
title_fullStr |
Modelling Permafrost Distribution in Western Himalaya Using Remote Sensing and Field Observations |
title_full_unstemmed |
Modelling Permafrost Distribution in Western Himalaya Using Remote Sensing and Field Observations |
title_sort |
modelling permafrost distribution in western himalaya using remote sensing and field observations |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13214403 https://doaj.org/article/41c8515f1f564188a4732c8f62e8de9c |
genre |
permafrost |
genre_facet |
permafrost |
op_source |
Remote Sensing, Vol 13, Iss 4403, p 4403 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/21/4403 https://doaj.org/toc/2072-4292 doi:10.3390/rs13214403 2072-4292 https://doaj.org/article/41c8515f1f564188a4732c8f62e8de9c |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13214403 |
container_title |
Remote Sensing |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
21 |
container_start_page |
4403 |
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1766163206326190080 |