Glacier branch lines and glacier ice thickness estimation for debris-covered glaciers in the Central Tien Shan
Information about the ice volume stored in glaciers is of high importance for sustainable water management in many arid regions of Central Asia. Several methods to estimate the ice volume exist. However, none of them take the specific characteristics of flat terminus debris-covered glaciers into acc...
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Cambridge University Press
2018
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:f8e90ea332a141578ff91c6994fa4c3c 2023-05-15T16:57:36+02:00 Glacier branch lines and glacier ice thickness estimation for debris-covered glaciers in the Central Tien Shan TINO PIECZONKA TOBIAS BOLCH MELANIE KRÖHNERT JULIANE PETERS SHIYIN LIU 2018-10-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2018.75 https://doaj.org/article/f8e90ea332a141578ff91c6994fa4c3c EN eng Cambridge University Press https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143018000758/type/journal_article https://doaj.org/toc/0022-1430 https://doaj.org/toc/1727-5652 doi:10.1017/jog.2018.75 0022-1430 1727-5652 https://doaj.org/article/f8e90ea332a141578ff91c6994fa4c3c Journal of Glaciology, Vol 64, Pp 835-849 (2018) cryospheric change glaciers remote sensing spatial analysis uncertainty quantification Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 article 2018 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2018.75 2023-03-12T01:30:59Z Information about the ice volume stored in glaciers is of high importance for sustainable water management in many arid regions of Central Asia. Several methods to estimate the ice volume exist. However, none of them take the specific characteristics of flat terminus debris-covered glaciers into account. We present a method for deriving spatially-distributed ice thickness for debris-covered dendritic glaciers, which are common not only in Central Tien Shan but also in several other mountain ranges in High Asia. The method relies on automatically generated branch lines, observed surface velocities and surface topographic parameters as basic input. Branch lines were generated using Thiessen polygons and Dijkstra's path algorithm. Ice thicknesses for four debris-covered glaciers – South Inylchek, Kaindy, Tomur and Koxkar glaciers – have been estimated along the branch line network solving the equation of laminar flow. For Koxkar and South Inylchek glaciers, respectively, maximum thicknesses of ~250 and 380 m were estimated. These results differ by ~50 m compared with GPR measurements with an uncertainty for the debris-covered parts of ~40%. Based on geodetic mass balances, we estimate that the investigated glaciers lost between 6 and 28% of their volume from 1975 to the early 2000s. Article in Journal/Newspaper Journal of Glaciology Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Journal of Glaciology 64 247 835 849 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
cryospheric change glaciers remote sensing spatial analysis uncertainty quantification Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
spellingShingle |
cryospheric change glaciers remote sensing spatial analysis uncertainty quantification Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 TINO PIECZONKA TOBIAS BOLCH MELANIE KRÖHNERT JULIANE PETERS SHIYIN LIU Glacier branch lines and glacier ice thickness estimation for debris-covered glaciers in the Central Tien Shan |
topic_facet |
cryospheric change glaciers remote sensing spatial analysis uncertainty quantification Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
description |
Information about the ice volume stored in glaciers is of high importance for sustainable water management in many arid regions of Central Asia. Several methods to estimate the ice volume exist. However, none of them take the specific characteristics of flat terminus debris-covered glaciers into account. We present a method for deriving spatially-distributed ice thickness for debris-covered dendritic glaciers, which are common not only in Central Tien Shan but also in several other mountain ranges in High Asia. The method relies on automatically generated branch lines, observed surface velocities and surface topographic parameters as basic input. Branch lines were generated using Thiessen polygons and Dijkstra's path algorithm. Ice thicknesses for four debris-covered glaciers – South Inylchek, Kaindy, Tomur and Koxkar glaciers – have been estimated along the branch line network solving the equation of laminar flow. For Koxkar and South Inylchek glaciers, respectively, maximum thicknesses of ~250 and 380 m were estimated. These results differ by ~50 m compared with GPR measurements with an uncertainty for the debris-covered parts of ~40%. Based on geodetic mass balances, we estimate that the investigated glaciers lost between 6 and 28% of their volume from 1975 to the early 2000s. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
TINO PIECZONKA TOBIAS BOLCH MELANIE KRÖHNERT JULIANE PETERS SHIYIN LIU |
author_facet |
TINO PIECZONKA TOBIAS BOLCH MELANIE KRÖHNERT JULIANE PETERS SHIYIN LIU |
author_sort |
TINO PIECZONKA |
title |
Glacier branch lines and glacier ice thickness estimation for debris-covered glaciers in the Central Tien Shan |
title_short |
Glacier branch lines and glacier ice thickness estimation for debris-covered glaciers in the Central Tien Shan |
title_full |
Glacier branch lines and glacier ice thickness estimation for debris-covered glaciers in the Central Tien Shan |
title_fullStr |
Glacier branch lines and glacier ice thickness estimation for debris-covered glaciers in the Central Tien Shan |
title_full_unstemmed |
Glacier branch lines and glacier ice thickness estimation for debris-covered glaciers in the Central Tien Shan |
title_sort |
glacier branch lines and glacier ice thickness estimation for debris-covered glaciers in the central tien shan |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2018.75 https://doaj.org/article/f8e90ea332a141578ff91c6994fa4c3c |
genre |
Journal of Glaciology |
genre_facet |
Journal of Glaciology |
op_source |
Journal of Glaciology, Vol 64, Pp 835-849 (2018) |
op_relation |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143018000758/type/journal_article https://doaj.org/toc/0022-1430 https://doaj.org/toc/1727-5652 doi:10.1017/jog.2018.75 0022-1430 1727-5652 https://doaj.org/article/f8e90ea332a141578ff91c6994fa4c3c |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2018.75 |
container_title |
Journal of Glaciology |
container_volume |
64 |
container_issue |
247 |
container_start_page |
835 |
op_container_end_page |
849 |
_version_ |
1766049167830941696 |