Open Access
An inventory of glacial lakes in the Third Pole region and their changes in response to global warming
Yongjiu Dai,Guoqing Zhang,T. Yao,Hongjie Xie +3 more
- Vol. 2015
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TLDR
In this paper, the first glacial lake in- ventories for the Third Pole were conducted for ~1990, 2000, and 2010 using Landsat TM/ETM+ data.Abstract:
article i nfo No glacial lake census exists for the Third Pole region, which includes the Pamir-Hindu Kush-Karakoram- Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau. Therefore, comprehensive information is lacking about the distribution of and changes in glacial lakes caused by current global warming conditions. In this study, the first glacial lake in- ventories for the Third Pole were conducted for ~1990, 2000, and 2010 using Landsat TM/ETM+ data. Glacial lake spatial distributions, corresponding areas and temporal changes were examined. The significant results are as follows. (1) There were 4602, 4981, and 5701 glacial lakes (N0.003 km 2 ) covering areas of 553.9 ± 90, 581.2 ± 97, and 682.4 ± 110 km 2 in ~1990, 2000, and 2010, respectively; these lakes are primarily located in the Brahmaputra (39%),Indus (28%), and AmuDarya (10%) basins. (2) Small lakes (b0.2 km 2 ) are more sensitive to climate changes. (3) Lakes closer to glaciers and at higher altitudes, particularly thoseconnected to glacier ter- mini, have undergone larger area changes. (4) Glacier-fed lakes are dominant in both quantity and area (N70%) and exhibit faster expansion trends overall compared to non-glacier-fed lakes. We conclude that glacier meltwa- ter may play a dominant role in the areal expansion of most glacial lakes in the Third Pole. In addition, the pat- terns of the glacier-fed lakes correspond well with warming temperature trends and negative glacier mass balance patterns. This paper presents an important database of glacial lakes and provides a basis for long-term monitoring and evaluation of outburst flood disasters primarily caused by glacial lakes in the Third Pole.read more
Citations
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The cause of rapid lake expansion in the Tibetan Plateau: climate wetting or warming?
Yanbin Lei,Kun Yang +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, Wang et al. showed that most closed lakes in the interior of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) expanded and deepened dramatically, in contrast with lake shrinkage in the southern TP.
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Chronology of a lacustrine core from Lake Linggo Co using a combination of OSL, 14C and 210Pb dating: implications for the dating of lacustrine sediments from the Tibetan Plateau
Gang Hu,Gang Hu,Chaolu Yi,Jia-Fu Zhang,Guirong Cao,Baolin Pan,Jinhua Liu,Tao Jiang,Shuangwen Yi,Dehong Li,Jianwei Huang +10 more
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High-Frequency Glacial Lake Mapping Using Time Series of Sentinel-1A/1B SAR Imagery: An Assessment for the Southeastern Tibetan Plateau.
TL;DR: This study presents a new systematic method to extract the glacial lake outlines that have a fast variability in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau with a time interval of six days, based on a level-set segmentation combined with a median pixel composition of synthetic aperture radar backscattering coefficients stacked as a regularization term to robustly estimate the lake extent across the observed time range.
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Simulation and Assessment of Future Glacial Lake Outburst Floods in the Poiqu River Basin, Central Himalayas
TL;DR: In this article, the authors presented a paradigm for conducting hazard assessment and risk management in the Poiqu River basin, Central Himalayas, and showed that 57.5 km of roads, 754 buildings, 3.3 km2 of farmland, and 25 bridges are at risk of damage.
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State of Himalayan cryosphere and implications for water security
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compile the work carried out by the scientific community to develop a state-of-the-art understanding of the Himalayan Cryosphere and discuss potential implications on water security.
References
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TL;DR: The contemporary evolution of glaciers in the Himalayan region is reviewed, including those of the less well sampled region of the Karakoram to the Northwest, in order to provide a current, comprehensive picture of how they are changing.
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A Reconciled Estimate of Glacier Contributions to Sea Level Rise: 2003 to 2009
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Journal ArticleDOI
China: The third pole
TL;DR: In this article, the authors report that climate change is coming fast and furious to the Tibetan plateau, and the changes atop the roof of the world are visible from the ground floor of the World Wide Web.