Distribution and interannual variability of supraglacial lakes on debris-covered glaciers in the Khan Tengri-Tumor Mountains, Central Asia

Abstract

Supraglacial lakes are widely formed on debris-covered glaciers in the Khan Tengri-Tumor Mountains (KTTM), Tianshan, Central Asia. Study of their distribution characters based on regional-wide remote sensing investigations is still lacking, but it can promote our understanding about the influence of supraglacial lakes on the surface melting, hydrology and dynamics of debris-covered glaciers in this region. This study presents results of the supraglacial lake inventory in the KTTM region, based on multi-year Landsat images. We focus on the glacio-geomorphological characters of the supraglacial lakes and their late summer conditions, since all suitable Landsat images were acquired between August and September during 1990-2011. With a minimum threshold extent of 3600 m2 for conservative mapping results, we totally mapped 775 supraglacial lakes and 38 marginal glacial lakes on eight huge debris-covered glaciers. Supraglacial lakes are concentrated on the Tumor Glacier and the South Inylchek Glacier, two biggest glaciers in this region. Although most supraglacial lakes are short-lived, a number of lakes can be repeatedly identified between different Landsat images. Detailed investigation of these 'perennial' lakes on the Tumor Glacier indicates that their filling frequency and area contributions have increased since 2005. Analysis of the area-elevation distributions for all mapped supraglacial lakes shows that they predominantly occur close to the altitude of 3250 m a.s.l., as high as the lowest reach of clean ice where surface debris begins to appear, and can further develop upglacier to a limit of about 3950 m a.s.l.. Total and mean area of supraglacial lakes in the KTTM region during the late summer seasons show great variability between years. Correlation analysis between the annual lake area and the observed nearby meteorological conditions suggests that warmer springs seem related to the draining of some supraglacial lakes during the following seasons, due to the evolution of glacial drainage from unconnected to connected systems by enhanced ablation during the springs.