Abstract. This study presents spatial patterns in glacier area and elevation changes in the monsoon-influenced part of the Himalaya (eastern Nepal and Sikkim) at multiple spatial scales. We combined Corona KH4 and topographic data with more recent remote-sensing data from Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission Radiometer (ASTER), QuickBird (QB) and WorldView-2 (WV2) sensors. We present: (1) spatial patterns of glacier parameters based on a new "reference" geospatial Landsat/ASTER glacier inventory from ~ 2000; (2) changes in glacier area (1962–2006) and their dependence on topographic variables (elevation, slope, aspect, percent debris cover) as well as climate variables (solar radiation and precipitation), extracted on a glacier-by-glacier basis and (3) changes in glacier elevations for debris-covered tongues and their relationship to surface temperature extracted from ASTER data. Glacier mapping from 2000 Landsat/ASTER yielded 1463 km2 ± 88 km2 total glacierized area in Nepal (Tamor basin) and Sikkim (Zemu basin), parts of Bhutan and China, of which we estimated 569 km2 ± 34 km2 to be located in Sikkim. Supraglacial debris covered 11% of the total glacierized area, and supraglacial lakes covered about 5.8% of the debris-covered area. Based on analysis of high-resolution imagery, we estimated an area loss of −0.24% ± 0.08% yr−1 from the 1960's to the 2010's, with a higher rate of retreat in the last decade (−0.43% yr−1 ± 0.9 % from 2000 to 2006) compared to the previous decades (−0.20% yr−1 ± 0.16% from 1962 to 2000). Retreat rates of clean glaciers were −0.7% yr−1, almost double than those of debris-covered glaciers (−0.3% yr−1). Debris-covered tongues experienced an average lowering of −30.8 m ± 39 m from 1960's to 2000's (−0.8 m ± 0.9 m yr−1), with enhanced thinning rates in the upper part of the debris covered area, and overall thickening at the glacier termini.
CITATION STYLE
Racoviteanu, A., Arnaud, Y., Williams, M., & Manley, W. F. (2014). Spatial patterns in glacier area and elevation changes from 1962 to 2006 in the monsoon-influenced eastern Himalaya. The Cryosphere Discussions, 8(4), 3949–3998.
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