Mass Balance Estimation of Dokriani Glacier in Central Indian Himalaya Using Remote Sensing Data
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Mass Balance Estimation of Dokriani Glacier in Central Indian Himalaya Using Remote Sensing Data Har Amrit Singh Sandhu1 • Hemendra Singh Gusain2 • Manoj Kumar Arora1 • Arun Bawa1 Received: 23 December 2017 / Accepted: 23 August 2018 Ó Indian Society of Remote Sensing 2018
Abstract Dokriani Glacier is regarded as one of the important glaciers of Bhagirathi River basin, which fed river Ganges. The length of the glacier is about 4.6 km, and snout elevation is about 4028 m m.s.l. The mass balance of this glacier was calculated using field-based measurements for few years during 1994 to 2000. However, due to remote and poor accessibility, the field-based measurements could not continue; thus, remote sensing-based methods become useful tool to estimate the longterm mass balance of the glacier. In this study, glacier mass balance has been determined using accumulation area ratio (AAR) method. Remote sensing data sets, e.g. Landsat TM, ETM ? and OLI, have been used to estimate AAR for different years from 1994 to 2014. An attempt has also been made to develop a mathematical relationship between remote sensing-derived AAR and field-observed mass balance data of the glacier. Further, this relationship has been used to estimate mass balance of the glacier for different years using remote sensing-derived AAR. Estimated mass balance was validated from ground-observed mass balance for few years. The field-observed and remote sensing-derived mass balance data are compared and showed high correlation. It has been observed that AAR for the Dokriani Glacier varies from 0.64 to 0.71. Mass balance of the glacier was observed between - 15.54 cm and - 50.95 cm during the study period. The study highlights the application of remote sensing in mass balance study of the glaciers and impact of climate change in glaciers of Central Indian Himalaya. Keywords AAR Mass balance Dokriani Glacier
Introduction Out of total global water, only 2.5% is available as fresh water and about 73.1% of the fresh water is stored on glaciers in the form of snow and ice (Gleick 1996). The melt water of Himalayan glacier is serving more than 500 million people for industrial, domestic and agriculture purposes through major rivers like Ganga, Brahmaputra and Indus. Since glacier mass balance study is an important parameter to assess future availability of water, it is important in world’s perspective (Bamber and Kwok 2004; Negi et al. 2012). Mass balance is defined as the total loss or gain of glacier mass at the end of a hydrological year & Har Amrit Singh Sandhu [email protected] 1
PEC University of Technology, Sector 12, Chandigarh, India
2
Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment, Sector 37, Chandigarh, India
(Kulkarni et al. 2004). It depends on various factors like size, altitude and shape of the glacier as well as climate of the region. The mass balance is generally estimated by measuring the total accumulation of seasonal snow and ablation of snow and ice. The equilibrium line, which is the boundary between accumulatio
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