Glacier area shrinkage in eastern Nepal Himalaya since 1992 using high-resolution inventories from aerial photographs and ALOS satellite images
To better understand the recent wide-scale changes in glacier coverage, we created and compared two glacier inventories covering eastern Nepal, based on aerial photographs (1992) and high-resolution Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) imagery (2006–10). The ALOS-derived inventory contained 1034...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2016-06-01
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| Series: | Journal of Glaciology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143016000617/type/journal_article |
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| author | SUNAL OJHA KOJI FUJITA KATSUHIKO ASAHI AKIKO SAKAI DAMODAR LAMSAL TAKAYUKI NUIMURA HIROTO NAGAI |
| author_facet | SUNAL OJHA KOJI FUJITA KATSUHIKO ASAHI AKIKO SAKAI DAMODAR LAMSAL TAKAYUKI NUIMURA HIROTO NAGAI |
| author_sort | SUNAL OJHA |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | To better understand the recent wide-scale changes in glacier coverage, we created and compared two glacier inventories covering eastern Nepal, based on aerial photographs (1992) and high-resolution Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) imagery (2006–10). The ALOS-derived inventory contained 1034 debris-free and 256 debris-covered glaciers with total and average areas of 440.2 ± 33.3 and 0.42 km2 and 1074.4 ± 206.4 and 4.19 km2, respectively. We found that the debris-free glaciers have lost 11.2% (0.7 ± 0.1% a−1) of their area since 1992, whereas the number of glaciers increased by 5% because of fragmentation. The area change was significantly correlated by simple linear regression with minimum elevation (r = 0.30), maximum elevation (r = −0.18), altitudinal range (r = −0.50), glacier area (r = −0.62) and mean slope (r = 0.16), confirming that larger glaciers tended to lose a larger area (but a smaller percentage) than smaller glaciers. The intra-regional analysis of the glacier changes clearly showed higher shrinkage rates in the western massifs compared with the eastern massifs. In addition, 61 small glaciers covering an area of 2.4 km2 have completely disappeared since 1992. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:42:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c005717a7b3f441ab0481b91bbc3b945 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0022-1430 1727-5652 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:42:08Z |
| publishDate | 2016-06-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Glaciology |
| spelling | doaj.art-c005717a7b3f441ab0481b91bbc3b9452023-03-09T12:40:14ZengCambridge University PressJournal of Glaciology0022-14301727-56522016-06-016251252410.1017/jog.2016.61Glacier area shrinkage in eastern Nepal Himalaya since 1992 using high-resolution inventories from aerial photographs and ALOS satellite imagesSUNAL OJHA0KOJI FUJITA1KATSUHIKO ASAHI2AKIKO SAKAI3DAMODAR LAMSAL4TAKAYUKI NUIMURA5HIROTO NAGAI6Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 454-8601, JapanGraduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 454-8601, JapanInstitute of Mountain Science, Shinshu University, Nagano 399-4598, JapanGraduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 454-8601, JapanGraduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 454-8601, JapanDepartment of Risk and Crisis Management System, Chiba Institute of Science, Chiba, Choshi, JapanJapan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Tsukuba, JapanTo better understand the recent wide-scale changes in glacier coverage, we created and compared two glacier inventories covering eastern Nepal, based on aerial photographs (1992) and high-resolution Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) imagery (2006–10). The ALOS-derived inventory contained 1034 debris-free and 256 debris-covered glaciers with total and average areas of 440.2 ± 33.3 and 0.42 km2 and 1074.4 ± 206.4 and 4.19 km2, respectively. We found that the debris-free glaciers have lost 11.2% (0.7 ± 0.1% a−1) of their area since 1992, whereas the number of glaciers increased by 5% because of fragmentation. The area change was significantly correlated by simple linear regression with minimum elevation (r = 0.30), maximum elevation (r = −0.18), altitudinal range (r = −0.50), glacier area (r = −0.62) and mean slope (r = 0.16), confirming that larger glaciers tended to lose a larger area (but a smaller percentage) than smaller glaciers. The intra-regional analysis of the glacier changes clearly showed higher shrinkage rates in the western massifs compared with the eastern massifs. In addition, 61 small glaciers covering an area of 2.4 km2 have completely disappeared since 1992.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143016000617/type/journal_articleclimate changedebris-covered glaciersglacier delineationglacier monitoringremote sensing |
| spellingShingle | SUNAL OJHA KOJI FUJITA KATSUHIKO ASAHI AKIKO SAKAI DAMODAR LAMSAL TAKAYUKI NUIMURA HIROTO NAGAI Glacier area shrinkage in eastern Nepal Himalaya since 1992 using high-resolution inventories from aerial photographs and ALOS satellite images Journal of Glaciology climate change debris-covered glaciers glacier delineation glacier monitoring remote sensing |
| title | Glacier area shrinkage in eastern Nepal Himalaya since 1992 using high-resolution inventories from aerial photographs and ALOS satellite images |
| title_full | Glacier area shrinkage in eastern Nepal Himalaya since 1992 using high-resolution inventories from aerial photographs and ALOS satellite images |
| title_fullStr | Glacier area shrinkage in eastern Nepal Himalaya since 1992 using high-resolution inventories from aerial photographs and ALOS satellite images |
| title_full_unstemmed | Glacier area shrinkage in eastern Nepal Himalaya since 1992 using high-resolution inventories from aerial photographs and ALOS satellite images |
| title_short | Glacier area shrinkage in eastern Nepal Himalaya since 1992 using high-resolution inventories from aerial photographs and ALOS satellite images |
| title_sort | glacier area shrinkage in eastern nepal himalaya since 1992 using high resolution inventories from aerial photographs and alos satellite images |
| topic | climate change debris-covered glaciers glacier delineation glacier monitoring remote sensing |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143016000617/type/journal_article |
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