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Mass-balance reconstruction for Glacier No. 354, Tien Shan, from 2003 to 2014

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2016

Marlene Kronenberg ,
Martina Barandun ,
Martin Hoelzle ,
Matthias Huss ,
Daniel Farinotti ,
Erlan Azisov ,
Ryskul Usubaliev ,
Abror Gafurov ,
Dmitry Petrakov  and
Andreas Kääb
Marlene Kronenberg*
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
Martina Barandun
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
Martin Hoelzle
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
Matthias Huss
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW), ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
Daniel Farinotti
Affiliation:
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Birmensdorf, Switzerland German Research Center for Geoscience (GFZ), Potsdam, Germany
Erlan Azisov
Affiliation:
Central Asian Institute of Applied Geosciences (CAIAG), Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Ryskul Usubaliev
Affiliation:
Central Asian Institute of Applied Geosciences (CAIAG), Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Abror Gafurov
Affiliation:
German Research Center for Geoscience (GFZ), Potsdam, Germany
Dmitry Petrakov
Affiliation:
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
Andreas Kääb
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
*
Correspondence: Marlene Kronenberg <marlene.kronenberg@unifr.ch>
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Abstract

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This study presents a reconstruction of the seasonal mass balance of Glacier No. 354, located in the Akshiirak range, Kyrgyzstan, from 2003 to 2014. We use a distributed accumulation and temperature-index melt model driven by daily air temperature and precipitation from a nearby meteorological station. The model is calibrated with in situ measurements of the annual mass balance collected from 2011 to 2014. The snow-cover depletion pattern observed using satellite imagery provides additional information on the dynamics of mass change throughout the melting season. Two digital elevation models derived from high-resolution satellite stereo images acquired in 2003 and 2012 are used to calculate glacier volume change for the corresponding period. The geodetic mass change thus derived is used to validate the modelled cumulative glacier-wide balance. For the period 2003–12 we find a cumulative mass balance of –0.40±10mw.e.a-1. This result agrees well with the geodetic balance of –0.48±0.07mw.e.a-1over the same period.

Keywords

glacier mass balanceglacier volumeremote sensing

Information

Type
Paper
Information
Annals of Glaciology , Volume 57 , Issue 71 , March 2016 , pp. 92 - 102
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2016

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