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Retreating Rate of Chaturangi Glacier, Garhwal Himalaya, India Derived from Kinematic GPS Survey and Satellite Data


Affiliations
1 G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development, Kosi-Katarmal, Almora - 263 643, India
2 Centre of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru - 560 012, India
 

The regular monitoring of glaciers is important to determine their retreating rate and mass balance for overall glacier health. Chaturangi glacier, a major inactive tributary of the Gangotri glacier system was selected for the present study due to its dynamic nature and also because there are no previous records of its retreating rates. In order to reconstruct past retreating rates, total area loss, volume change and shift in snout position were measured through multi-temporal satellite data from 1989 to 2016 and kinematic GPS survey from 2015 to 2016. The results obtained from satellite data indicate that in the last 27 years Chaturangi glacier snout has retreated 1172.57 ± 38.3 m (average = 45.07 ± 4.31 m/year) with a total area and volume loss of 0.626 ± 0.001 sq. km and 0.139 km3 respectively. The field measurements through differential global positioning system survey revealed that the annual retreating rate was 22.84 ± 0.05 m/year. The large variations in results derived from both the methods are probably because of higher difference in their accuracy. Nevertheless, the results derived from both the methods are in agreement that Chaturangi glacier is retreating at a considerable rate.

Keywords

Glacier Snout, Kinematic Survey, Retreat Rate, Satellite Data.
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  • Retreating Rate of Chaturangi Glacier, Garhwal Himalaya, India Derived from Kinematic GPS Survey and Satellite Data

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Authors

Harish Bisht
G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development, Kosi-Katarmal, Almora - 263 643, India
Meenu Rani
G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development, Kosi-Katarmal, Almora - 263 643, India
Kireet Kumar
G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development, Kosi-Katarmal, Almora - 263 643, India
Saurabh Sah
G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development, Kosi-Katarmal, Almora - 263 643, India
Prakash Chandra Arya
Centre of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru - 560 012, India

Abstract


The regular monitoring of glaciers is important to determine their retreating rate and mass balance for overall glacier health. Chaturangi glacier, a major inactive tributary of the Gangotri glacier system was selected for the present study due to its dynamic nature and also because there are no previous records of its retreating rates. In order to reconstruct past retreating rates, total area loss, volume change and shift in snout position were measured through multi-temporal satellite data from 1989 to 2016 and kinematic GPS survey from 2015 to 2016. The results obtained from satellite data indicate that in the last 27 years Chaturangi glacier snout has retreated 1172.57 ± 38.3 m (average = 45.07 ± 4.31 m/year) with a total area and volume loss of 0.626 ± 0.001 sq. km and 0.139 km3 respectively. The field measurements through differential global positioning system survey revealed that the annual retreating rate was 22.84 ± 0.05 m/year. The large variations in results derived from both the methods are probably because of higher difference in their accuracy. Nevertheless, the results derived from both the methods are in agreement that Chaturangi glacier is retreating at a considerable rate.

Keywords


Glacier Snout, Kinematic Survey, Retreat Rate, Satellite Data.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv116%2Fi2%2F304-311