Rapid mass losses of Urumqi River Basin glaciers, eastern Tianshan Mountains revealed from multi-temporal DEMs, 1964–2021

ABSTRACT

Glacier volume changes have remarkable impacts on regional water resources; however, their estimation uncertainties remain large. In this study, the surface elevations of seven glaciers at the headwaters of the Urumqi River exhibited obvious thinning at the rate of 0.32 m a−1 from 1964 to 2021. Correlations between the ice volume change (dV) derived from surface elevation conversion and the area change (dS) were established for valley, cirque, and hanging glaciers. The ice volumes of valley, cirque, and hanging glaciers in the Urumqi River Basin decreased by 0.99 km3, 0.18 km3, and 0.59 km3, respectively, and the total ice volume decreased by 1.76 km3 during 1964–2021. Ice volume losses are accelerating. The correlation between dV and dS for valley glaciers produced a large estimation difference for the ice volume change of Urumqi Glacier No. 1 (UG1) compared with the glaciological mass balance (15%), while the estimation differences of ice volume changes for the three types of glaciers in the Urumqi River Basin were within acceptable limits (10%) based on the geodetic results. This new method has vast potential in estimating ice volume changes at the basin or regional scale, or even across western China.

KEYWORDS:

• Multi-temporal DEMs; ice volume change; glacier area change; Urumqi River
• Tianshan Mountains

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was jointly funded by the Third Xinjiang Scientific Expedition Program [grant number 2021xjkk0801], the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 42371148], the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of Chinese Academy of Sciences [grant number Y2021110], the State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science [grant number SKLCS-ZZ-2023], the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant numbers 42001066, 42301166], and the Natural Science Foundation of Gansu Province [grant number 23JRRA658].