Temperature reconstruction from glacier length fluctuations in the Himalaya

A temperature reconstruction in the glacierized Himalaya over the past centuries using glacial length fluctuation records is challenging due to the abundance of debris-covered glaciers and a scarcity of glacial length fluctuation data. Using idealized flowline model simulations, we show that supragl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of Glaciology
Main Authors: Argha Banerjee, Mohd Farooq Azam
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3189/2016AoG71A047
https://doaj.org/article/ffea62caf4dc42c084893c7726bb1fbc
Description
Summary:A temperature reconstruction in the glacierized Himalaya over the past centuries using glacial length fluctuation records is challenging due to the abundance of debris-covered glaciers and a scarcity of glacial length fluctuation data. Using idealized flowline model simulations, we show that supraglacial debris cover significantly alters the length fluctuations only when the debris cover is very thick. An expanded database of length fluctuation records for 43 glaciers in the Himalaya and Karakoram is compiled and a standard linear inversion procedure is applied to a subset of 34 glaciers in this database. The reconstructed temperature anomaly during 1860-2010 indicates a continued warming of the region with a total temperature change of ~1.6 K. A close resemblance of the regional temperature anomaly to global trends is seen.