Precipitation-driven glacier changes in the Pamir and Hindu Kush mountains

Abstract

Glaciers in the Pamir-Hindu Kush-Karakoram appear to be less influenced by global warming and have instead experienced slight gains in mass, unlike most other glaciers around the world. Here we apply laser altimetry and satellite-derived precipitation products to characterize the relationship between the glaciers and precipitation. We found a strong correlation (r ≥ 0.92, p < 0.005) between the year-to-year changes in glacier thickness and precipitation in the Pamir and Hindu Kush from 2003 to 2008, indicating the primary role of precipitation in the glacier changes. The amount of precipitation in the glacial region is underestimated by approximately 7 ± 2 times in the gridded precipitation product. This underestimation is attributed to the low resolution and lack of orographic precipitation in the gridded products. The long-term precipitation data show strong interannual variations, which probably cause similar variations in glaciers and biases in previous glacier mass change estimates.