Tracing glacier changes since the 1960s on the south slope of Mt. Everest (central Southern Himalaya) using optical satellite imagery
This contribution examines glacier changes on the south side of Mt. Everest from 1962 to 2011 considering five intermediate periods using optical satellite imagery. The investigated glaciers cover ~ 400 km2 and present among the largest debris coverage (32%) and the highest elevations (5720 m) of th...
Published in: | The Cryosphere |
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Language: | English |
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Copernicus Publications
2014
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1297-2014 http://www.the-cryosphere.net/8/1297/2014/tc-8-1297-2014.pdf https://doaj.org/article/750dfbf3f42f47a6a4496490d2d75b8a |
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fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:oai:doaj.org/article:750dfbf3f42f47a6a4496490d2d75b8a 2023-05-15T18:32:20+02:00 Tracing glacier changes since the 1960s on the south slope of Mt. Everest (central Southern Himalaya) using optical satellite imagery S. Thakuri F. Salerno C. Smiraglia T. Bolch C. D'Agata G. Viviano G. Tartari 2014-07-01 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1297-2014 http://www.the-cryosphere.net/8/1297/2014/tc-8-1297-2014.pdf https://doaj.org/article/750dfbf3f42f47a6a4496490d2d75b8a en eng Copernicus Publications 1994-0416 1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-8-1297-2014 http://www.the-cryosphere.net/8/1297/2014/tc-8-1297-2014.pdf https://doaj.org/article/750dfbf3f42f47a6a4496490d2d75b8a undefined The Cryosphere, Vol 8, Iss 4, Pp 1297-1315 (2014) geo envir Journal Article https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_6501/ 2014 fttriple https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1297-2014 2023-01-22T17:52:29Z This contribution examines glacier changes on the south side of Mt. Everest from 1962 to 2011 considering five intermediate periods using optical satellite imagery. The investigated glaciers cover ~ 400 km2 and present among the largest debris coverage (32%) and the highest elevations (5720 m) of the world. We found an overall surface area loss of 13.0 ± 3.1% (median 0.42 ± 0.06 % a−1), an upward shift of 182 ± 22 m (3.7 ± 0.5 m a−1) in snow-line altitude (SLA), a terminus retreat of 403 ± 9 m (median 6.1 ± 0.2 m a−1), and an increase of 17.6 ± 3.1% (median 0.20 ± 0.06% a−1) in debris coverage between 1962 and 2011. The recession process of glaciers has been relentlessly continuous over the past 50 years. Moreover, we observed that (i) glaciers that have increased the debris coverage have experienced a reduced termini retreat (r = 0.87, p < 0.001). Furthermore, more negative mass balances (i.e., upward shift of SLA) induce increases of debris coverage (r = 0.79, p < 0.001); (ii) since early 1990s, we observed a slight but statistically insignificant acceleration of the surface area loss (0.35 ± 0.13% a−1 in 1962–1992 vs 0.43 ± 0.25% a−1 in 1992–2011), but an significant upward shift of SLA which increased almost three times (2.2 ± 0.8 m a−1 in 1962–1992 vs 6.1 ± 1.4 m a−1 in 1992–2011). However, the accelerated shrinkage in recent decades (both in terms of surface area loss and SLA shift) has only significantly affected glaciers with the largest sizes (> 10 km2), presenting accumulation zones at higher elevations (r = 0.61, p < 0.001) and along the preferable south–north direction of the monsoons. Moreover, the largest glaciers present median upward shifts of the SLA (220 m) that are nearly double than that of the smallest (119 m); this finding leads to a hypothesis that Mt. Everest glaciers are shrinking, not only due to warming temperatures, but also as a result of weakening Asian monsoons registered over the last few decades. We conclude that the shrinkage of the glaciers in south of Mt. Everest ... Article in Journal/Newspaper The Cryosphere Unknown The Cryosphere 8 4 1297 1315 |
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English |
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geo envir S. Thakuri F. Salerno C. Smiraglia T. Bolch C. D'Agata G. Viviano G. Tartari Tracing glacier changes since the 1960s on the south slope of Mt. Everest (central Southern Himalaya) using optical satellite imagery |
topic_facet |
geo envir |
description |
This contribution examines glacier changes on the south side of Mt. Everest from 1962 to 2011 considering five intermediate periods using optical satellite imagery. The investigated glaciers cover ~ 400 km2 and present among the largest debris coverage (32%) and the highest elevations (5720 m) of the world. We found an overall surface area loss of 13.0 ± 3.1% (median 0.42 ± 0.06 % a−1), an upward shift of 182 ± 22 m (3.7 ± 0.5 m a−1) in snow-line altitude (SLA), a terminus retreat of 403 ± 9 m (median 6.1 ± 0.2 m a−1), and an increase of 17.6 ± 3.1% (median 0.20 ± 0.06% a−1) in debris coverage between 1962 and 2011. The recession process of glaciers has been relentlessly continuous over the past 50 years. Moreover, we observed that (i) glaciers that have increased the debris coverage have experienced a reduced termini retreat (r = 0.87, p < 0.001). Furthermore, more negative mass balances (i.e., upward shift of SLA) induce increases of debris coverage (r = 0.79, p < 0.001); (ii) since early 1990s, we observed a slight but statistically insignificant acceleration of the surface area loss (0.35 ± 0.13% a−1 in 1962–1992 vs 0.43 ± 0.25% a−1 in 1992–2011), but an significant upward shift of SLA which increased almost three times (2.2 ± 0.8 m a−1 in 1962–1992 vs 6.1 ± 1.4 m a−1 in 1992–2011). However, the accelerated shrinkage in recent decades (both in terms of surface area loss and SLA shift) has only significantly affected glaciers with the largest sizes (> 10 km2), presenting accumulation zones at higher elevations (r = 0.61, p < 0.001) and along the preferable south–north direction of the monsoons. Moreover, the largest glaciers present median upward shifts of the SLA (220 m) that are nearly double than that of the smallest (119 m); this finding leads to a hypothesis that Mt. Everest glaciers are shrinking, not only due to warming temperatures, but also as a result of weakening Asian monsoons registered over the last few decades. We conclude that the shrinkage of the glaciers in south of Mt. Everest ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
S. Thakuri F. Salerno C. Smiraglia T. Bolch C. D'Agata G. Viviano G. Tartari |
author_facet |
S. Thakuri F. Salerno C. Smiraglia T. Bolch C. D'Agata G. Viviano G. Tartari |
author_sort |
S. Thakuri |
title |
Tracing glacier changes since the 1960s on the south slope of Mt. Everest (central Southern Himalaya) using optical satellite imagery |
title_short |
Tracing glacier changes since the 1960s on the south slope of Mt. Everest (central Southern Himalaya) using optical satellite imagery |
title_full |
Tracing glacier changes since the 1960s on the south slope of Mt. Everest (central Southern Himalaya) using optical satellite imagery |
title_fullStr |
Tracing glacier changes since the 1960s on the south slope of Mt. Everest (central Southern Himalaya) using optical satellite imagery |
title_full_unstemmed |
Tracing glacier changes since the 1960s on the south slope of Mt. Everest (central Southern Himalaya) using optical satellite imagery |
title_sort |
tracing glacier changes since the 1960s on the south slope of mt. everest (central southern himalaya) using optical satellite imagery |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1297-2014 http://www.the-cryosphere.net/8/1297/2014/tc-8-1297-2014.pdf https://doaj.org/article/750dfbf3f42f47a6a4496490d2d75b8a |
genre |
The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
The Cryosphere |
op_source |
The Cryosphere, Vol 8, Iss 4, Pp 1297-1315 (2014) |
op_relation |
1994-0416 1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-8-1297-2014 http://www.the-cryosphere.net/8/1297/2014/tc-8-1297-2014.pdf https://doaj.org/article/750dfbf3f42f47a6a4496490d2d75b8a |
op_rights |
undefined |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1297-2014 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
8 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
1297 |
op_container_end_page |
1315 |
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1766216449967259648 |