The influence of debris cover and glacial lakes on the recession of glaciers in Sikkim Himalaya, India

We investigated area changes in glaciers covering an area of similar to 200 km(2) in the Tista basin, Sikkim, Eastern Indian Himalaya, between similar to 1990 and 2010 using Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Indian Remote-sensing Satellite (IRS) images and related the changes to debris cover, supraglacial lakes and moraine-dam lakes. The glaciers lost an area of 3.3 +/- 0.8% between 1989/90 and 2010. More detailed analysis revealed an area loss of 2.00 +/- 0.82, 2.56 +/- 0.61 and 2.28 +/- 2.01 km(2) for the periods 1989-97, 1997-2004/05 and 2004-2009/10, respectively. This indicates an accelerated retreat of glaciers after 1997. On further analysis, we observed (1) the formation and expansion of supraglacial lakes on many debris-covered glaciers and (2) the merging of these lakes over time, leading to the development of large moraine-dam lakes. We also observed that debris-covered glaciers with lakes lose a greater area than debris-covered glaciers without lakes and debris-free glaciers. The climatic data for 24 years (1987-2011), measured at the Gangtok meteorological station (1812 m a.s.l.), showed that the region experienced a 1.0 degrees C rise in the summer minimum temperature and a 2.0 degrees C rise in the winter minimum temperature, indicating hotter summers and warmer winters. There was no significant trend in the total annual precipitation. We find that glacier retreat is caused mainly by a temperature increase and that debris-covered glaciers can retreat at a faster rate than debris-free glaciers, if associated with lakes.

[1]  T. Bolch,et al.  The State and Fate of Himalayan Glaciers , 2012, Science.

[2]  R. Barry,et al.  Optical Remote Sensing of Glacier Characteristics: A Review with Focus on the Himalaya , 2008, Sensors.

[3]  A. Kulkarni,et al.  Relative effect of slope and equilibrium line altitude on the retreat of Himalayan glaciers , 2012 .

[4]  P. N. Shukla,et al.  Ice accumulation rate in Changme-Khangpu glacier, Sikkim , 1983, Journal of Earth System Science.

[5]  Katrin Röhl,et al.  Characteristics and evolution of supraglacial ponds on debris-covered Tasman Glacier, New Zealand , 2008, Journal of Glaciology.

[6]  K. Sajwan,et al.  Temporal changes in rate of recession : Evidences from Satopanth and Bhagirath Kharak glaciers, Uttarakhand, using Total Station Survey , 2008 .

[7]  N. Takeuchi,et al.  Onset of calving at supraglacial lakes on debris-covered glaciers of the Nepal Himalaya , 2009, Journal of Glaciology.

[8]  Tobias Bolch,et al.  Glacier changes in the Garhwal Himalaya, India, from 1968 to 2006 based on remote sensing , 2011, Journal of Glaciology.

[9]  Yves Arnaud,et al.  Decadal changes in glacier parameters in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru, derived from remote sensing , 2008, Journal of Glaciology.

[10]  Anil V. Kulkarni,et al.  Algorithm to monitor snow cover using AWiFS data of RESOURCESAT‐1 for the Himalayan region , 2006 .

[11]  Douglas W. Burbank,et al.  Toward a complete Himalayan hydrological budget: Spatiotemporal distribution of snowmelt and rainfall and their impact on river discharge , 2010 .

[12]  Tobias Bolch,et al.  Heterogeneity in glacier response in the upper Shyok valley, northeast Karakoram , 2013 .

[13]  B. Bookhagen,et al.  Spatially variable response of Himalayan glaciers to climate change affected by debris cover , 2011 .

[14]  V. Raina,et al.  Himalayan glaciers: a state-of-art review of glacial studies, glacial retreat and climate change. , 2009 .

[15]  Koji Fujita,et al.  Effect of precipitation seasonality on climatic sensitivity of glacier mass balance , 2008 .

[16]  Wanqin Guo,et al.  Assessment and Simulation of Glacier Lake Outburst Floods for Longbasaba and Pida Lakes, China , 2008 .

[17]  Ice.  Perennial ice and snow masses : a guide for compilation and assemblage of data for a world inventory , 1970 .

[18]  M. L. Arrawatia,et al.  Climate Change in Sikkim: Patterns, Impacts and Initiatives , 2012 .

[19]  D. Benn,et al.  Structural control of englacial drainage systems in Himalayan debris-covered glaciers , 2007 .

[20]  Andrew G. Fountain,et al.  Glacier change (1958-1998) in the North Cascades National Park Complex, Washington, USA , 2006 .

[21]  Tobias Bolch,et al.  Response of debris-covered glaciers in the Mount Everest region to recent warming, and implications for outburst flood hazards , 2012 .

[22]  W. Tangborn,et al.  Mass balance and runoff of the partially debris-covered Langtang Glacier, Nepal , 2000 .

[23]  Andreas Kääb,et al.  Rapid disintegration of Alpine glaciers observed with satellite data , 2004 .

[24]  Koji Fujita,et al.  Role of supraglacial ponds in the ablation process of a debris-covered glacier in the Nepal Himalayas , 2000 .

[25]  Koji Fujita,et al.  Formation conditions of supraglacial lakes on debris-covered glaciers in the Himalaya , 2010, Journal of Glaciology.

[26]  A. Kulkarni.  Glacier inventory in Himachal Pradesh using satellite images , 1991 .

[27]  F. M. Wateren.  Glacial geology?ice sheets and landforms , 2000 .

[28]  T. Bolch,et al.  Planimetric and volumetric glacier changes in the Khumbu Himal, Nepal, since 1962 using Corona, Landsat TM and ASTER data , 2008 .

[29]  Anil V. Kulkarni,et al.  Estimation of recent glacial variations in baspa basin using remote sensing technique , 2003 .

[30]  J. Komori.  Recent expansions of glacial lakes in the Bhutan Himalayas , 2008 .

[31]  M. Bierkens,et al.  Climate Change Will Affect the Asian Water Towers , 2010, Science.

[32]  Jack E. Dibb,et al.  Precipitation fluctuations in the Nepal Himalaya and its vicinity and relationship with some large scale climatological parameters. , 2000 .

[33]  A. P. Krishna.  Snow and glacier cover assessment in the high mountains of Sikkim Himalaya , 2005 .

[34]  Tobias Bolch,et al.  Glacier mapping: a review with special reference to the Indian Himalayas , 2009 .

[35]  Tobias Bolch,et al.  Glacier fluctuations between 1975 and 2008 in the Greater Himalaya Range of Zanskar, southern Ladakh , 2011 .

[36]  V. Nijampurkar.  Basal flow rate of Changme-Khangpu glacier, Sikkim Himalaya based on32Si and210Pb chronology , 1985 .

[37]  T. Bolch,et al.  Landsat-based inventory of glaciers in western Canada, 1985-2005 , 2010 .

[38]  Samjwal Ratna Bajracharya,et al.  Glaciers, glacial lakes and glacial lake outburst floods in the Mount Everest region, Nepal , 2009, Annals of Glaciology.

[39]  Y. Arnaud,et al.  Contrasting patterns of early twenty-first-century glacier mass change in the Himalayas , 2012, Nature.

[40]  Solveig H. Winsvold,et al.  On the accuracy of glacier outlines derived from remote-sensing data , 2013, Annals of Glaciology.

[41]  T. Bolch,et al.  Multi-decadal mass loss of glaciers in the Everest area (Nepal Himalaya) derived from stereo imagery , 2011 .

[42]  K. Fujita,et al.  Recent changes in Imja Glacial Lake and its damming moraine in the Nepal Himalaya revealed by in situ surveys and multi-temporal ASTER imagery , 2009 .

[43]  I. M. Bahuguna,et al.  Understanding changes in the Himalayan cryosphere using remote sensing techniques , 2011 .

[44]  Damodar Lamsal,et al.  Evaluating the growth characteristics of a glacial lake and its degree of danger of outburst flooding: Imja Glacier, Khumbu Himal, Nepal , 2009 .

[45]  K. Fujita,et al.  Elevation changes of glaciers revealed by multitemporal digital elevation models calibrated by GPS survey in the Khumbu region, Nepal Himalaya, 1992-2008 , 2012, Journal of Glaciology.

[46]  N. Bhandari,et al.  Radiometric Chronology of Changme-Khangpu Glacier Sikkim , 1985, Journal of Glaciology.

[47]  M. Sharp,et al.  Recent changes in glacier area and volume within the southern Canadian Cordillera , 2007, Annals of Glaciology.

[48]  Georg Kaser,et al.  Contribution potential of glaciers to water availability in different climate regimes , 2010, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[49]  Yves Arnaud,et al.  Contrasted evolution of glacial lakes along the Hindu Kush Himalaya mountain range between 1990 and 2009 , 2011 .

[50]  Vinod Kumar,et al.  Remote sensing-based inventory of glacial lakes in Sikkim Himalaya: semi-automated approach using satellite data , 2013 .