Heterogeneity in Glacier response from 1973 to 2011 in the Shyok valley, Karakoram, India

Abstract

Abstract. A glacier inventory for the Shyok and Chang Chenmo basins was generated for the year 2002 using semi-automated methods based on Landsat ETM+ and SRTM3 DEM data. Glacier change analysis was carried out for 134 glaciers based on Hexagon KH-9 (years 1973, 1974) and Landsat TM/ETM+ (1989, 2002 and 2011) images. The 2002 inventory contains 2123 glaciers with an area of 2977.9±92.2 km2 in the entire study area including Shyok (1605 glaciers; area 2499±77.4 km2) and Chang Chenmo basins (518 glaciers; area 478.7±14.8 km2). Out of 2123 glaciers, only eight glaciers have higher elevation ranges than 2000 m. On average, the glacier area in Chang Chenmo basin exhibited no changes during the study period. However, individual absolute glacier area changes varied from −0.7±0.03 km2 to +0.2±0.01 km2 between 1973 and 2011. 10 glaciers exhibited an area increase of 1.7±0.07 km2 in total while 36 glaciers lost about total 1.8±0.07 km2. The glacier area decreased by 11±0.47 km2 from 1973 to 1989 in the Shyok basin whereas an increase in area of 8.2±0.33 km2 was observed during 1989–2002. The area has further increased by 5.6±0.21 km2 from 2002 to 2011 in the respective basin. This individual glacier response heterogeneity can be attributed to surging and possibly due to decreased temperature in last decades. However, further detailed studies are needed to understand glacier surge mechanism and the possible mass gain.