Glacier changes from 1975 to 2016 in the Aksu River Basin, Central Tianshan Mountains

doi:10.1007/s11442-019-1640-z

Abstract

Abstract:

In this study, we analyzed glacier changes in the Aksu River Basin during the period 1975-2016, based on Landsat MSS/TM/ETM+/OLI imagery analysis and the Chinese Glacier Inventory (CGI). The results showed that the total number, area, and volume of the studied glaciers in the Aksu River Basin decreased by 202 (7.65%), 965.7 km² (25.88%), and 74.85-78.52 km³ (23.72%-24.3%), respectively. The rate of glacier retreat in the basin was slower in the north, northwest and west, but reached the highest in the east (measuring 0.86% yr^-1). Furthermore, there were significant regional differences in the distribution and change of glaciers, the Kumalak River Basin had the largest glacier number and area, about 63.15% and 76.47% of the studied basin, and the rate of glacier retreat in the Kumalak River Basin was 0.65% yr^-1, it was higher than the Toxkan River Basin which reached 0.57% yr^-1. We found the shrinkage rate of glacier for different periods in the past 41 years, during 1975-1990 the glaciers showed the greatest retreat, while the rate of glacier area retreat slowed down significantly from 1990 to 2000. In recent 16 years since 2000, the rate of glacier retreat in the Toxkan River Basin was higher compared with 1990-2000. The RGI50-13.04920 glacier of Kumalak River Basin had been in a state of retreat since 1990. Over the past 41 years, the temperature and precipitation in the Aksu River Basin increased obviously, and the warming temperatures were clearly the main reason for glacier retreat in the region, while the increased precipitation in the mountain area may have a direct relation with the retreating rate of glaciers.

Key words: glacier change, glacier retreat, remote sensing, Aksu River Basin

Qifei ZHANG, Yaning CHEN, Zhi LI, Yupeng LI, Yanyun XIANG, Wei BIAN. Glacier changes from 1975 to 2016 in the Aksu River Basin, Central Tianshan Mountains[J].Journal of Geographical Sciences, 2019, 29(6): 984-1000.

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Period	Data	Path/Row	Satellite sensor	Spatial resolution
1975	1977-08-18	158/31	Landsat MSS	80 m (Channels 4-6, 7)
	1975-08-12	159/31	Landsat MSS
	1975-08-13	160/31	Landsat MSS
	1975-08-13	160/32	Landsat MSS
1990	1990-08-02	146/31	Landsat TM	30 m (Channels 3-5, 7)
	1989-08-22	147/31	Landsat TM
	1991-08-19	148/31	Landsat TM
	1991-08-19	148/32	Landsat TM
	1990-08-07	149/31	Landsat TM
	1990-08-07	149/32	Landsat TM
2000	2003-07-29	146/31	Landsat ETM+	15/30 m (Channels 3-5, 7)
	1999-08-26	147/31	Landsat ETM+
	1999-09-18	148/31	Landsat ETM+
	1999-09-18	148/32	Landsat ETM+
	1999-08-16	149/32	Landsat ETM+
2016	2016-08-09	146/31	Landsat OLI	15/30 m (Channels 4-6, 7)
	2016-09-01	147/31	Landsat OLI
	2015-08-21	148/31	Landsat OLI
	2016-09-08	148/32	Landsat OLI
	2015-08-12	149/31	Landsat OLI
	2015-08-12	149/32	Landsat OLI

Interval area (km2)	0.01-0.1	0.1-0.5	0.5-1	1-2	2-5	5-10	10-20	20-30	30-50	50-70	>70
Number change	317	-84	-173	-156	-41	-31	-10	-1	0	-1	0
Number change (%)	147.44	-6.80	-30.89	-43.94	-22.53	-33.70	-38.46	-12.50	0	-100	0
Area change (%)	131.58	-14.72	-29.20	-43.20	-21.06	-34.76	-35.25	-16.17	-1.71	-100	-7.63

Sub-basin	Glacier number				Glacier area proportion (%)
Sub-basin	1975	1990	2000	2016	1975	1990	2000	2016
Toxkan	998	968	971	970	4.77	3.90	3.87	3.66
Kumalak	1710	1597	1572	1536	22.30	17.62	17.32	16.34
Total	2708	2565	2543	2506	12.04	9.59	9.45	8.92

Glacier ID	Sub-basin	Length change			Area change			Terminus change
Glacier ID	Sub-basin	m	(%)	m yr^-1	km²	(%)	km² yr^-1	m	(%)	m yr^-1
RGI50-13.09540	Toxkan	1530.1	1.54	37.32	5.43	26.26	0.13	47	1.21	1.15
RGI50-13.04920	Kumalak	660.22	12.87	16.1	1.9	19.62	0.05	77	2.18	1.88

Glacier ID	Sub-basin	Length change (m yr^-1)			Area change (% yr^-1)
Glacier ID	Sub-basin	1975-1990	1990-2000	2000-2016	1975-1990	1990-2000	2000-2016
RGI50-13.09540	Toxkan	44.36	35.69	31.74	1.42	0.2	0.27
RGI50-13.04920	Kumalak	10.79	13.95	22.43	1.02	0.27	0.15