An inventory of glacial lakes in the Third Pole region and their changes in response to global warming
No glacial lake census exists for the Third Pole region, which includes the Pamir-Hindu Kush-Karakoram-Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau. Therefore, comprehensive information is lacking about the distribution of and changes in glacial lakes caused by current global warming conditions. In this study, the first glacial lake inventories for the Third Pole were conducted for ~1990, […]
Glacial lake detection from GaoFen-2 multispectral imagery using an integrated nonlocal active contour approach: A case study of the Altai Mountains, northern Xinjiang Province
Due to recent global climate change, glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) have become a serious problem in many high mountain areas. Accurately and rapidly mapping glacial lakes is the basis of other glacial lake studies that are associated with water resources management, flood hazard assessment, and climate change. Most glacial lake detection studies have mainly […]
Sustained growth of high mountain lakes in the headwaters of the Syr Darya River, Central Asia
The continuous rise in summer temperature and consequent glacier wastage have led to a significant loss of frozen water resources in the mountain headwaters of the major river systems in Central Asia. High mountain lakes in the headwaters of the Syr Darya River serve as sensitive indicators of climate change in the region. In this […]
Increasing risk of glacial lake outburst floods from future Third Pole deglaciation
Warming on Earth’s Third Pole is leading to rapid loss of ice and the formation and expansion of glacial lakes, posing a severe threat to downstream communities. Here we provide a holistic assessment of past evolution, present state and modelled future change of glacial lakes and related glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) risk across the […]
Modelling outburst floods from moraine-dammed glacial lakes
In response to climatic change, the size and number of moraine-dammed supraglacial and proglacial lake systems have increased dramatically in recent decades. Given an appropriate trigger, the natural moraine dams that impound these proglacial lakes are breached, producing catastrophic Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs). These floods are highly complex phenomena, with flood characteristics controlled, in […]
Coupling glacial lake impact, dam breach, and flood processes: A modeling perspective
Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) are highly mobile mixtures of water and sediment that occur suddenly and are capable of traveling tens to hundreds of kilometers with peak discharges and volumes several orders of magnitude larger than those of normal floods. They travel along existing river channels, in some instances into populated downstream regions, and […]
Assessing the influence of the Merzbacher Lake outburst floods on discharge using the hydrological model SWIM in the Aksu headwaters, Kyrgyzstan/NW China
Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF) often have a significant impact on downstream users. Including their effects in hydrological models, identifying past occurrences and assessing their potential impacts are challenges for hydrologists working in mountainous catchments. The regularly outbursting Merzbacher Lake is located in the headwaters of the Aksu River, the most important source of water […]
THE GLACIERS ARE MELTING AND THE RIVERS ARE FLOWING
Last year confirmed a trend of many decades: the glacier mass balance for 2019-20 was negative. The balance is the ratio of the incoming and outgoing mass of snow and ice on the glacier for the year. So, for example, the Tuiksu glacier “lost weight” for the year by 280 mm. This glacier is a […]
An insight into the surface velocity of Inylchek Glacier and its effect on Lake Merzbacher during 2006–2016 with Landsat time-series imagery
Mountain glacier is one of the extremely sensitive indicators for climate change, and its surface motion distribution and corresponding variation are valuable information for understanding ice mass exchange and glacier dynamics. This paper presents the long-term ice velocity distributions of Inylchek Glacier in the Tianshan region by pixel-tracking algorithm with time-series Landsat imagery acquired during […]
Reconstruction of glacial lake outburst floods in northern Tien Shan: Implications for hazard assessment
Glacier lake outburst floods (GLOFs) and related debris flows are among the most significant natural threats in the Tien Shan Mountains of Kyrgyzstan and have even caused the loss of life and damage to infrastructure in its capital Bishkek. An improved understanding of the occurrence of this process is essential so as to be able […]
TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X data for natural hazards research in mountainous regions of Uzbekistan
Accurate and up-to-date digital elevation models (DEMs) are important tools for studying mountain hazards. We considered natural hazards related to glacier retreat, debris flows, and snow avalanches in two study areas of the Western Tien-Shan mountains, Uzbekistan. High-resolution DEMs were generated using single TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X datasets. The high quality and actuality of the DEMs were proved […]
Identification of the glaciers and mountain naturally dammed lakes in the Pskem, the Kashkadarya and the Surhandarya River basins, Uzbekistan, using ALOS satellite data
The glacierized area of Uzbekistan is represented in three river basins – the Pskem, the Kashkadarya and the Surhandarya. This study considers the present state of the glaciers and high-mountain lakes distribution in this area based on the analysis and validation of advanced land observing satellite (ALOS)/advanced visible and near infrared radiometer type 2 (AVNIR-2) […]