Debris Thickness of Glaciers in the Everest Area (Nepal Himalaya) Derived from Satellite Imagery Using a Nonlinear Energy Balance Model
Debris thickness is an important characteristic of debris-covered glaciers in the Everest region of the Himalayas. The debris thickness controls the melt rates of the glaciers, which has large implications for hydrologic models, the glaciers' response to climate change, and the development of g...
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ftunivtexas:oai:repositories.lib.utexas.edu:2152/41129 2023-05-15T18:32:34+02:00 Debris Thickness of Glaciers in the Everest Area (Nepal Himalaya) Derived from Satellite Imagery Using a Nonlinear Energy Balance Model Rounce, D. R. McKinney, D. C. Rounce, D. R. McKinney, D. C. 2014-07 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2152/41129 https://doi.org/10.15781/T2J678Z0M https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1317-2014 English eng Cryosphere doi:10.15781/T2J678Z0M Rounce, D. R., and D. C. McKinney. "Debris thickness of glaciers in the Everest area (Nepal Himalaya) derived from satellite imagery using a nonlinear energy balance model." The Cryosphere 8, no. 4 (Jul., 2014): 1317-1329. 1994-0416 http://hdl.handle.net/2152/41129 doi:10.5194/tc-8-1317-2014 Administrative deposit of works to Texas ScholarWorks: This works author(s) is or was a University faculty member, student or staff member; this article is already available through open access or the publisher allows a PDF version of the article to be freely posted online. The library makes the deposit as a matter of fair use (for scholarly, educational, and research purposes), and to preserve the work and further secure public access to the works of the University. Open covered glaciers surface-temperature meteorological data khumbu glacier ice melt layer ablation band hazards beneath geography physical geosciences multidisciplinary Article 2014 ftunivtexas https://doi.org/10.15781/T2J678Z0M https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1317-2014 2020-12-23T22:05:10Z Debris thickness is an important characteristic of debris-covered glaciers in the Everest region of the Himalayas. The debris thickness controls the melt rates of the glaciers, which has large implications for hydrologic models, the glaciers' response to climate change, and the development of glacial lakes. Despite its importance, there is little knowledge of how the debris thickness varies over these glaciers. This paper uses an energy balance model in conjunction with Landsat7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) satellite imagery to derive thermal resistances, which are the debris thickness divided by the thermal conductivity. Model results are reported in terms of debris thickness using an effective thermal conductivity derived from field data. The developed model accounts for the nonlinear temperature gradient in the debris cover to derive reasonable debris thicknesses. Fieldwork performed on Imja-Lhotse Shar Glacier in September 2013 was used to compare to the modeled debris thicknesses. Results indicate that accounting for the nonlinear temperature gradient is crucial. Furthermore, correcting the incoming shortwave radiation term for the effects of topography and resampling to the resolution of the thermal band's pixel is imperative to deriving reasonable debris thicknesses. Since the topographic correction is important, the model will improve with the quality of the digital elevation model (DEM). The main limitation of this work is the poor resolution (60m) of the satellite's thermal band. The derived debris thicknesses are reasonable at this resolution, but trends related to slope and aspect are unable to be modeled on a finer scale. Nonetheless, the study finds this model derives reasonable debris thicknesses on this scale and was applied to other debris-covered glaciers in the Everest region. USAID Climate Change Resilient Development (CCRD) project Center for Research in Water Resources Article in Journal/Newspaper The Cryosphere The University of Texas at Austin: Texas ScholarWorks |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
The University of Texas at Austin: Texas ScholarWorks |
op_collection_id |
ftunivtexas |
language |
English |
topic |
covered glaciers surface-temperature meteorological data khumbu glacier ice melt layer ablation band hazards beneath geography physical geosciences multidisciplinary |
spellingShingle |
covered glaciers surface-temperature meteorological data khumbu glacier ice melt layer ablation band hazards beneath geography physical geosciences multidisciplinary Rounce, D. R. McKinney, D. C. Debris Thickness of Glaciers in the Everest Area (Nepal Himalaya) Derived from Satellite Imagery Using a Nonlinear Energy Balance Model |
topic_facet |
covered glaciers surface-temperature meteorological data khumbu glacier ice melt layer ablation band hazards beneath geography physical geosciences multidisciplinary |
description |
Debris thickness is an important characteristic of debris-covered glaciers in the Everest region of the Himalayas. The debris thickness controls the melt rates of the glaciers, which has large implications for hydrologic models, the glaciers' response to climate change, and the development of glacial lakes. Despite its importance, there is little knowledge of how the debris thickness varies over these glaciers. This paper uses an energy balance model in conjunction with Landsat7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) satellite imagery to derive thermal resistances, which are the debris thickness divided by the thermal conductivity. Model results are reported in terms of debris thickness using an effective thermal conductivity derived from field data. The developed model accounts for the nonlinear temperature gradient in the debris cover to derive reasonable debris thicknesses. Fieldwork performed on Imja-Lhotse Shar Glacier in September 2013 was used to compare to the modeled debris thicknesses. Results indicate that accounting for the nonlinear temperature gradient is crucial. Furthermore, correcting the incoming shortwave radiation term for the effects of topography and resampling to the resolution of the thermal band's pixel is imperative to deriving reasonable debris thicknesses. Since the topographic correction is important, the model will improve with the quality of the digital elevation model (DEM). The main limitation of this work is the poor resolution (60m) of the satellite's thermal band. The derived debris thicknesses are reasonable at this resolution, but trends related to slope and aspect are unable to be modeled on a finer scale. Nonetheless, the study finds this model derives reasonable debris thicknesses on this scale and was applied to other debris-covered glaciers in the Everest region. USAID Climate Change Resilient Development (CCRD) project Center for Research in Water Resources |
author2 |
Rounce, D. R. McKinney, D. C. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Rounce, D. R. McKinney, D. C. |
author_facet |
Rounce, D. R. McKinney, D. C. |
author_sort |
Rounce, D. R. |
title |
Debris Thickness of Glaciers in the Everest Area (Nepal Himalaya) Derived from Satellite Imagery Using a Nonlinear Energy Balance Model |
title_short |
Debris Thickness of Glaciers in the Everest Area (Nepal Himalaya) Derived from Satellite Imagery Using a Nonlinear Energy Balance Model |
title_full |
Debris Thickness of Glaciers in the Everest Area (Nepal Himalaya) Derived from Satellite Imagery Using a Nonlinear Energy Balance Model |
title_fullStr |
Debris Thickness of Glaciers in the Everest Area (Nepal Himalaya) Derived from Satellite Imagery Using a Nonlinear Energy Balance Model |
title_full_unstemmed |
Debris Thickness of Glaciers in the Everest Area (Nepal Himalaya) Derived from Satellite Imagery Using a Nonlinear Energy Balance Model |
title_sort |
debris thickness of glaciers in the everest area (nepal himalaya) derived from satellite imagery using a nonlinear energy balance model |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2152/41129 https://doi.org/10.15781/T2J678Z0M https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1317-2014 |
genre |
The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
The Cryosphere |
op_relation |
Cryosphere doi:10.15781/T2J678Z0M Rounce, D. R., and D. C. McKinney. "Debris thickness of glaciers in the Everest area (Nepal Himalaya) derived from satellite imagery using a nonlinear energy balance model." The Cryosphere 8, no. 4 (Jul., 2014): 1317-1329. 1994-0416 http://hdl.handle.net/2152/41129 doi:10.5194/tc-8-1317-2014 |
op_rights |
Administrative deposit of works to Texas ScholarWorks: This works author(s) is or was a University faculty member, student or staff member; this article is already available through open access or the publisher allows a PDF version of the article to be freely posted online. The library makes the deposit as a matter of fair use (for scholarly, educational, and research purposes), and to preserve the work and further secure public access to the works of the University. Open |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.15781/T2J678Z0M https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1317-2014 |
_version_ |
1766216772075126784 |