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Global warming has accelerated during the past decades, causing a dramatic shrinking of glaciers across the globe. So far, the attempts to counterbalance glacial melt have proven to be inadequate and are mostly limited to a few glacial landscapes only. In the present study, a scientific glacier protection experiment was conducted at the Dagu Glacier site. Specifically, the study site was the Dagu Glacier No. 17, situated 4830 m a.s.l. The study involved a deliberate verification of the feasibility and effectiveness of using geotextile covers on small glaciers located at high altitudes between August 2020 and October 2021. The observations revealed that the mass loss in the area covered with geotextiles was, on average, 15% lower (per year) compared to that in the uncovered areas combining field campaigns, terrestrial laser scanning, and unmanned aerial vehicle. The reason for this could be that the albedo of the geotextile is higher than that of the glacier surface. In addition, the aging of geotextiles causes a decline in their albedo, leading to a gradual decline in the effectiveness of the resulting glacier protection. It was indicated that geotextiles could be effective in facilitating the mitigation of glacier ablation, although the cost-related limitations render it difficult to upscale the use of artificial cover. Nonetheless, using active artificial cover could be effective in the case of small glaciers, glacier landscapes, and glacier terminus regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial glacier melt reduction is gaining increasing attention because of rapid glacier retreats and the projected acceleration of future mass losses. However, quantifying the effect of artificial melt reduction on glaciers in China has not been currently reported. Therefore, the case of Urumqi Glacier No.1 (eastern Tien Shan, China) is used to conduct a scientific evaluation of glacier cover efficiency for melt reduction between 24 June and 28 August 2021. By combining two high-resolution digital elevation models derived from terrestrial laser scanning and unmanned aerial vehicles, albedo, and meteorological data, glacier ablation mitigation under three different cover materials was assessed. The results revealed that up to 32% of mass loss was preserved in the protected areas compared with that of the unprotected areas. In contrast to the unprotected glacier surface, the nanofiber material reduced the glacier melt by up to 56%, which was significantly higher than that achieved by geotextiles (29%). This outcome could be attributed to the albedo of the materials and local climate factors. The nanofiber material showed higher albedo than the two geotextiles, dirty snow, clean ice, and dirty ice. Although clean snow had a higher albedo than the other materials, its impact on slowing glacier melt was minor due to the lower snowfall and relatively high air temperature after snowfall in the study area. This indicates that the efficiencies of nanofiber material and geotextiles can be beneficial in high-mountain areas. In general, the results of our study demonstrate that the high potential of glacier cover can help mitigate issues related to regions of higher glacier melt or lacking water resources, as well as tourist attractions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]