Abstract
Despite several regional glacier and glacier lake inventories, the relationship between receding glacier, glacial lake evolution (glacial-lake interactions) and their sensitivity to different forcing factors have not been properly understood yet. To better understand these processes, we used satellite images collected in 1994, 2015 and 2017 to monitor the spatially-explicit evolution of glacial lakes and glacier changes. The results show a total of 1 353 glacial lakes covering an area of 7.96 km2 in the year 2015. Out of these, a total of 137 glacial lakes having an area of >0.01 km2 and located within 2 km periphery of mother glacier have been selected for the monitoring of spatial development between 1994 and 2017. We found an increase in the total lake area from ∼4.9 to ∼7.73 km2 between 1994 and 2017, corresponding to an overall expansion of ∼57%. The total area covered by the glaciers associated with these lakes reduced from ∼365 km2 in 1994 to ∼358 km2 in 2017, accounting for a glacier loss of ∼7 km2 and corresponding to ∼1.92% reduction. Our study results are in agreement with global glacier behavior, revealing a rapid glacier recession and accelerated glacial lake expansion under an unprecedented climate change scenario. In addition, the results suggest a significant reduction in the glacier area and a close relationship between the glacier melting and lake changes.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are thankful to Dr. Prakash Chauhan, Director, IIRS, Dehradun and Dr. (Mrs.) Vandana Prasad, Director, BSIP, Lucknow for providing laboratory facilities. The IRS images were procured from the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) Hyderabad under the project “Assessment of Potential Vulnerability of Western Himalayan Glaciers to Climate Change”, funded by the Indian Space Research Organisation, Department of Space, India. The Landsat images were acquired from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) (http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/). The topographical characteristics were obtained from 30 m Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) DEM. The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-020-1056-9.
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Pandey, P., Ali, S.N. & Champati Ray, P.K. Glacier-Glacial Lake Interactions and Glacial Lake Development in the Central Himalaya, India (1994–2017). J. Earth Sci. 32, 1563–1574 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-020-1056-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-020-1056-9