Glacier surges in the north-west West Kunlun Shan inferred from 1972 to 2017 Landsat imagery
The West Kunlun Shan lie close to, or are perhaps part of, two significant glaciological phenomena – the High Mountain Asia surge ‘supercluster’ and the Karakoram Anomaly. However, glaciological studies, and particularly surge studies, in the range are limited. Here, we extend the database of known...
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Cambridge University Press
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:8cc57aa7faaf401abe31add8346e3d57 2023-05-15T16:57:33+02:00 Glacier surges in the north-west West Kunlun Shan inferred from 1972 to 2017 Landsat imagery THOMAS R. CHUDLEY IAN C. WILLIS 2019-02-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2018.94 https://doaj.org/article/8cc57aa7faaf401abe31add8346e3d57 EN eng Cambridge University Press https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143018000941/type/journal_article https://doaj.org/toc/0022-1430 https://doaj.org/toc/1727-5652 doi:10.1017/jog.2018.94 0022-1430 1727-5652 https://doaj.org/article/8cc57aa7faaf401abe31add8346e3d57 Journal of Glaciology, Vol 65, Pp 1-12 (2019) glacier surges ice velocity remote sensing Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 article 2019 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2018.94 2023-03-12T01:30:59Z The West Kunlun Shan lie close to, or are perhaps part of, two significant glaciological phenomena – the High Mountain Asia surge ‘supercluster’ and the Karakoram Anomaly. However, glaciological studies, and particularly surge studies, in the range are limited. Here, we extend the database of known surges in the region using Landsat imagery and cross-correlation feature tracking. We examine 88 glaciers larger than 1 km2 in the Hotan Prefecture of Xinjiang, China, and find evidence of nine surges occurring between 1972 and 2017. Glaciers display low active phase velocities (~0.2–1.5 km a−1) that show seasonal acceleration in the summer, active phase periods as short as 2 years, and build-up and deceleration phases of months--years. Although these observations display characteristics indicative of both the classic hydrological and thermal switch mechanisms, the surging observed displays a close resemblance to that in the adjacent Karakoram ranges. Furthermore, the majority of the surges occur clustered at the end of a decadal-scale warming period, corroborating previously proposed causal links between climate and surging in the Karakoram. We suggest that the two regions should be considered part of one larger system when considering surge dynamics in High Mountain Asia. Article in Journal/Newspaper Journal of Glaciology Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Journal of Glaciology 65 249 1 12 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
glacier surges ice velocity remote sensing Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
spellingShingle |
glacier surges ice velocity remote sensing Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 THOMAS R. CHUDLEY IAN C. WILLIS Glacier surges in the north-west West Kunlun Shan inferred from 1972 to 2017 Landsat imagery |
topic_facet |
glacier surges ice velocity remote sensing Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
description |
The West Kunlun Shan lie close to, or are perhaps part of, two significant glaciological phenomena – the High Mountain Asia surge ‘supercluster’ and the Karakoram Anomaly. However, glaciological studies, and particularly surge studies, in the range are limited. Here, we extend the database of known surges in the region using Landsat imagery and cross-correlation feature tracking. We examine 88 glaciers larger than 1 km2 in the Hotan Prefecture of Xinjiang, China, and find evidence of nine surges occurring between 1972 and 2017. Glaciers display low active phase velocities (~0.2–1.5 km a−1) that show seasonal acceleration in the summer, active phase periods as short as 2 years, and build-up and deceleration phases of months--years. Although these observations display characteristics indicative of both the classic hydrological and thermal switch mechanisms, the surging observed displays a close resemblance to that in the adjacent Karakoram ranges. Furthermore, the majority of the surges occur clustered at the end of a decadal-scale warming period, corroborating previously proposed causal links between climate and surging in the Karakoram. We suggest that the two regions should be considered part of one larger system when considering surge dynamics in High Mountain Asia. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
THOMAS R. CHUDLEY IAN C. WILLIS |
author_facet |
THOMAS R. CHUDLEY IAN C. WILLIS |
author_sort |
THOMAS R. CHUDLEY |
title |
Glacier surges in the north-west West Kunlun Shan inferred from 1972 to 2017 Landsat imagery |
title_short |
Glacier surges in the north-west West Kunlun Shan inferred from 1972 to 2017 Landsat imagery |
title_full |
Glacier surges in the north-west West Kunlun Shan inferred from 1972 to 2017 Landsat imagery |
title_fullStr |
Glacier surges in the north-west West Kunlun Shan inferred from 1972 to 2017 Landsat imagery |
title_full_unstemmed |
Glacier surges in the north-west West Kunlun Shan inferred from 1972 to 2017 Landsat imagery |
title_sort |
glacier surges in the north-west west kunlun shan inferred from 1972 to 2017 landsat imagery |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2018.94 https://doaj.org/article/8cc57aa7faaf401abe31add8346e3d57 |
genre |
Journal of Glaciology |
genre_facet |
Journal of Glaciology |
op_source |
Journal of Glaciology, Vol 65, Pp 1-12 (2019) |
op_relation |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143018000941/type/journal_article https://doaj.org/toc/0022-1430 https://doaj.org/toc/1727-5652 doi:10.1017/jog.2018.94 0022-1430 1727-5652 https://doaj.org/article/8cc57aa7faaf401abe31add8346e3d57 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2018.94 |
container_title |
Journal of Glaciology |
container_volume |
65 |
container_issue |
249 |
container_start_page |
1 |
op_container_end_page |
12 |
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1766049121144143872 |