Meteorological conditions, seasonal and annual mass balances of Chhota Shigri Glacier, western Himalaya, India

• Main Authors: Azam, M. F., Ramanathan, A., Wagnon, Patrick, Vincent, C., Linda, A., Berthier, E., Sharma, P., Mandal, A., Angchuk, T., Singh, V. B., Pottakkal, J. G.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: accumulation; glacier mass balance; glacier meteorology; mountain; glaciers; Ela; Pleiades; Annals of Glaciology
• Online Access: http://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010068223

We present the updated glaciological mass balance (MB) of Chhota Shigri Glacier, the longest continuous annual MB record in the Hindu-Kush Karakoram Himalaya (HKH) region. Additionally, 4 years of seasonal MBs are presented and analyzed using the data acquired at an automatic weather station (AWS-M) installed in 2009 on a lateral moraine (4863ma.s.l.). The glaciological MB series since 2002 is first recalculated using an updated glacier hypsometry and then validated against geodetic MB derived from satellite stereo-imagery between 2005 (SPOT5) and 2014 (Pleiades). Chhota Shigri Glacier lost mass between 2002 and 2014 with a cumulative glaciological MB of -6.72 m w. e. corresponding to a mean annual glacier-wide MB (B-a) of -0.56m w. e. a(-1). Equilibriumline altitude (ELA(0)) for the steady-state condition is calculated as similar to 4950 m a.s.l., corresponding to an accumulation-area ratio (AAR(0)) of similar to 61%. Analysis of seasonal MBs between 2009 and 2013 with air temperature from AWS-M and precipitation from the nearest meteorological station at Bhuntar (1050 m a.s.l.) suggests that the summer monsoon is the key season driving the interannual variability of Ba for this glacier. The intensity of summer snowfall events controls the B-a evolution via controlling summer glacier-wide MB (B-s).