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The GRACE twin satellite gravity mission from 2002 to 2017 has considerably improved investigations on global and regional hydrological changes. However, there are different GRACE solutions and products available which may yield different results for certain regions despite applying the same postprocessing and time span. This is especially the case for the Tibetan Plateau (TP) with its special hydrological conditions represented by localized but strong signals that can overlap or merge with signals inside the plateau, which can falsify the determination of terrestrial water storage (TWS) changes in the TP area. To investigate the effect of GRACE solution selection on inverted TWS changes, we analyze quantitatively the secular and monthly changes for 14 glacier areas and 10 water basins in and around the TP area that have been calculated from 16 different available GRACE solutions. Our analysis provides expectable results. While trend results from different spherical harmonic (SH) GRACE solutions match well, there are significant differences to and between mascon GRACE solutions. This is related to the different processing concepts of mascon solutions and their forced handling in our comparisons. SH solution time series match each other when mass changes are strong with a large amplitude and regular periodicity. However, for regions where small TWS changes are associated with small amplitudes, trends, and/or unstable signal periods, SH solutions can also yield different results. Such behavior is known from a time series analysis. Interestingly though, we find that the COST-G and ITSG SH GRACE solutions are closest to the average of all solutions. Therefore, these solutions appear to be preferable for TWS investigations in regions with highly variable hydrological conditions, such as in the Tibetan Plateau and its surroundings. This also indicates that combined solutions such as COST-G provide a promising pathway for an improved TWS analysis, which should be further elaborated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Tibetan Plateau (TP) has the largest number of high-altitude glaciers on Earth. As a source of major rivers in Asia, this region provides fresh water to more than one billion people. Any terrestrial water storage (TWS) changes there have major societal effects in large parts of the continent. Due to the recent acceleration in global warming, part of the water environment in TP has become drastically unbalanced, with an increased risk of water disasters. We quantified secular and monthly glacier-mass-balance and TWS changes in water basins from April 2002 to December 2021 through the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment and its Follow-on satellite mission (GRACE/GRACE-FO). Adequate data postprocessing with destriping filters and gap filling and two regularization methods implemented in the spectral and space domain were applied. The largest glacier-mass losses were found in the Nyainqentanglha Mountains and Eastern Himalayas, with rates of −4.92 ± 1.38 Gt a−1 and −4.34 ± 1.48 Gt a−1, respectively. The Tien Shan region showed strong losses in its eastern and central parts. Furthermore, we found small glacier-mass increases in the Karakoram and West Kunlun. Most of the glacier mass change can be explained by snowfall changes and, in some areas, by summer rainfall created by the Indian monsoon. Major water basins in the north and south of the TP exhibited partly significant negative TWS changes. In turn, the endorheic region and the Qaidam basin in the TP, as well as the near Three Rivers source region, showed distinctly positive TWS signals related to net precipitation increase. However, the Salween River source region and the Yarlung Zangbo River basin showed decreasing trends. We suggest that our new and improved TWS-change results can be used for the maintenance of water resources and the prevention of water disasters not only in the TP, but also in surrounding Asian countries. They may also help in global change studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There was sufficient evidence to indicate a nearly balanced glacier mass change (termed glacier anomaly) for Karakoram Mts. since the 1970s, in contrast to worldwide glacier mass losses caused by climate warming. Recently, this anomalous phenomenon was detected over the neighboring western Kunlun and Pamir Mts. However, the southeastern limit of this glacier anomaly remains uncertain, owing to the paucity of glacier mass balance observations across the interior and northern Tibetan Plateau (INTP). In this study, we presented a decadal glacier mass balance estimation in the INTP by differencing the SRTM DEM with the topographic data produced from TanDEM-X bistatic InSAR images. From 2000 to 2012, decade-average glacier mass balances of between −0.339 ± 0.040 and 0.237 ± 0.078 m w.e. yr−1 were detected over 22 glacierized areas. Significantly, we found a gradient and switch of glacier mass loss over the southeastern portion to glacier mass gain over the northwestern portion. This varying spatial pattern illustrates that glacier anomaly has existed over the northwestern or even central zone of the INTP since the early 21st century. This study provides important evidence for the model simulation of both glacier evolution and atmospheric circulations in investigating the prevailing mechanism of the regional anomalous phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding groundwater storage (GWS) changes is vital to the utilization and control of water resources in the Tibetan Plateau. However, well level observations are rare in this big area, and reliable hydrology models including GWS are not available. We use hydro-geodesy to quantitate GWS changes in the Tibetan Plateau and surroundings from 2003 to 2009 using a combined analysis of satellite gravity and satellite altimetry data, hydrology models as well as a model of glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA). Release-5 GRACE gravity data are jointly used in a mascon fitting method to estimate the terrestrial water storage (TWS) changes during the period, from which the hydrology contributions and the GIA effects are effectively deducted to give the estimates of GWS changes for 12 selected regions of interest. The hydrology contributions are carefully calculated from glaciers and lakes by ICESat-1 satellite altimetry data, permafrost degradation by an Active-Layer Depth (ALD) model, soil moisture and snow water equivalent by multiple hydrology models, and the GIA effects are calculated with the new ICE-6G_C (VM5a) model. Taking into account the measurement errors and the variability of the models, the uncertainties are rigorously estimated for the TWS changes, the hydrology contributions (including GWS changes) and the GIA effect. For the first time, we show explicitly separated GWS changes in the Tibetan Plateau and adjacent areas except for those to the south of the Himalayas. We find increasing trend rates for eight basins: + 2.46 ± 2.24 Gt/yr for the Jinsha River basin, + 1.77 ± 2.09 Gt/yr for the Nujiang-Lancangjiang Rivers Source Region, + 1.86 ± 1.69 Gt/yr for the Yangtze River Source Region, + 1.14 ± 1.39 Gt/yr for the Yellow River Source Region, + 1.52 ± 0.95 Gt/yr for the Qaidam basin, + 1.66 ± 1.52 Gt/yr for the central Qiangtang Nature Reserve, + 5.37 ± 2.17 Gt/yr for the Upper Indus basin and + 2.77 ± 0.99 Gt/yr for the Aksu River basin. All these increasing trends are most likely caused by increased runoff recharges from melt water and/or precipitation in the surroundings. We also find that the administrative actions such as the Chinese Ecological Protection and Construction Project help to store more groundwater in the Three Rivers Source Region, and suggest that seepages from the Endorheic basin to the west of it are a possible source for GWS increase in this region. In addition, our estimates for GWS changes basically confirm previous results along Afghanistan, Pakistan, north India and Bangladesh, and clearly reflect the excessive use of groundwater. Our results will benefit the water resource management in the study area, and are of particular significance for the ecological restoration in the Tibetan Plateau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents results from multi-proxies paleoenvironmental study based on Selin Co lake sediment reconstruction at central Tibetan Plateau to find the lake-level during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The results show lowe lake levels during LGM and relation of lake-levels on fluctuations in Indian monsoons.

On 11th July 2018, a destructive rock-ice avalanche and subsequent glacier debris flow occurred in the Tianmo Gully in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau (SETP). However, the source area and triggering factors of this cascading geohazard event remained unclear. In this study, we combined satellite remote sensing, meteorological observations, numerical modeling, and post-event field investigation to comprehensively analyze its evolution processes and potential triggers. The remote sensing observations of terrain and landform changes suggest that the initial avalanche occurred on the southeastern flank of the glacier, releasing approximately 2.77 × 106 m3 of lithic and ice material. From our analysis, we suggest that the complex evolution process of this cascading geohazard event could be manifested as earthquake and hydrological triggers → an initial rock-ice avalanche → glacial debris flow → triggered landslides → landslide dam → dammed lake. Our results suggest that the 2017 Ms. 6.9 Nyingchi earthquake, the unusually high meltwater from snow and ice during the abnormally warm and dry summer in 2018, and the short-duration intense rainfall (22 mm on 10 July) recorded one day before the event are the three main factors for the catastrophic event. These factors caused the rock-ice avalanche in the source zone and subsequently cascaded glacial debris flow and shallow landslides. This study highlights the urgent need for regular monitoring of high-risk glaciers, including anomalous changes in temperature and precipitation, and accelerated movements of glaciers due to earthquakes, especially in the SETP, where climate warming will be expected to intensify occurrences of such cascading geohazard events in the future. • The cascading geohazard in Tianmo Gully affects Sichuan-Tibet Highway safety. • Geohazard source area and evolution process are identified by remote sensing. • Earthquake and meltwater are main preparatory factors for the rock-ice avalanche. • A limited-volume but high-energy avalanche caused cascading catastrophic damages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solifluction terraces are a topographic and sedimentary signature for understanding the mechanism of solifluction occurrence and the past climate (e.g., paleoclimate), and have also impacts on hillslope stability. Traditional field surveys and aerial remote sensing have been primarily employed to map solifluction terraces, but they have challenges in large-scale mapping, which results in little knowledge of spatial distribution of solifluction terraces in many areas of the world. In this study, we made a first attempt at large-scale mapping of solifluction terraces based on high-resolution satellite remote sensing images and deep learning in the Luhuo and Xinduqiao areas, located in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau. Enriched training samples were firstly generated through manually delineated 1057 solifluction terrace and non-solifluction terrace polygons in Luhuo and data augmentation. The DeepLabv3+ model (Chen et al., 2018) was then trained by these diverse and abundant samples, and employed to Gaofen-2 satellite images for extraction of solifluction terraces in both the Luhuo and Xinduqiao areas. The performance estimation showed that the F 1 -score, precision, and recall reached 91.15 %, 84.56 %, and 98.85 % in the Luhuo area, and 84.30 %, 84.90 %, and 83.71 % in the Xinduqiao area, respectively. The extracted results of solifluction terraces were also validated by field investigations in the Xinduqiao area. Moreover, we found that the solifluction terraces were mainly distributed around the slope angle of 21° and concentrated in the altitude range of 3000–3900 m, but the slope orientations were heterogeneous in both areas. Our results demonstrated that the combination of high-resolution satellite images and deep learning had a significant potential for mapping solifluction terraces at regional and global scales. • Satellite images and deep learning are proposed to map solifluction terraces (STs). • Deep learning-based method is validated with an F 1 -score >80 %. • A large-scale distribution of STs in Tibetan Plateau is obtained for the first time. • STs are mainly around the slope angle of 21° and the altitude range of 3000–3900 m. • The proposed method has a potential to be used in global ST mapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]