1. Water loss in Indian Himalayas over the past 14 years.
- Author
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Bandyopadhyay, Debmita and Singh, Gulab
- Subjects
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ALPINE glaciers , *GLACIAL landforms , *DIGITAL elevation models , *WATER , *DYNAMICAL systems , *GLACIERS - Abstract
Glacier mass balance is a crucial parameter to understand the health of a glacier. The IndianHimalayas being one of the largest mountain glacier systems of the world, draws attention notonly in terms of future water potential, but also the effect it shall have on people livingdownstream upon accelerated melting. With the continuous deglaciation and retreat in mostparts of this glaciated terrain, our study focusses on the changes in mass balance over theIndian Himalayas from 2000-2014. We use geodetic method, utilizing the latestglobal digital elevation model (DEM) of TanDEM-X mission and SRTM datasetto analyze these changes. Ground observations being sparse, has been used onlyfor validation purpose. The coefficient of correlation between in-situ data and ourestimates is 0.93. It is observed that the mass balance largely varies, as we proceedfrom the extreme end of the Karakoram Himalayas (in the west) towards the eastin Arunachal Pradesh. This has been attributed to the variability in the regionalclimatic conditions and changing geomorphology of the glaciers. The total massbalance change in the Indian Himalayas has been estimated to be - 4.7 ± 1.2 Gt yr−1. This study not only highlights the water lost in the Indian Himalayas which potentiallyincreases our dependence on the seasonal precipitated water, but also portrays the potential ofthe newly released TanDEM-X DEM to monitor such dynamic systems like the mountainglaciers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2019