Articles | Volume 11, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-133-2017
© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-133-2017
© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Brief communication: Thinning of debris-covered and debris-free glaciers in a warming climate
Argha Banerjee
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Earth and Climate Science, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, India
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Cited
46 citations as recorded by crossref.
- DCG-MIP: the Debris-Covered Glacier melt Model Intercomparison exPeriment F. Pellicciotti et al.
- Contextualizing lobate debris aprons and glacier-like forms on Mars with debris-covered glaciers on Earth M. Koutnik & A. Pathare
- Characterizing 4 decades of accelerated glacial mass loss in the west Nyainqentanglha Range of the Tibetan Plateau S. Wang et al.
- Reversed Surface-Mass-Balance Gradients on Himalayan Debris-Covered Glaciers Inferred from Remote Sensing R. Bisset et al.
- Assessing controls on mass budget and surface velocity variations of glaciers in Western Himalaya S. Bhushan et al.
- Assessing the state, parameter-interlinkages and dynamic shift of glaciers in the western Himalaya P. Garg et al.
- Glacier mass budget and climate reanalysis data indicate a climatic shift around 2000 in Lahaul-Spiti, western Himalaya K. Mukherjee et al.
- Ecosystem shifts in Alpine streams under glacier retreat and rock glacier thaw: A review S. Brighenti et al.
- Debris cover effects on energy and mass balance of Batura Glacier in the Karakoram over the past 20 years Y. Zhu et al.
- Mass- and Energy-Balance Modeling and Sublimation Losses on Dokriani Bamak and Chhota Shigri Glaciers in Himalaya Since 1979 S. Srivastava & M. Azam
- Unravelling the evolution of Zmuttgletscher and its debris cover since the end of the Little Ice Age N. Mölg et al.
- Disaggregating geodetic glacier mass balance to annual scale using remote-sensing proxies A. Banerjee et al.
- Debris properties and mass-balance impacts on adjacent debris-covered glaciers, Mount Rainier, USA P. Moore et al.
- Snowfall Variability Dictates Glacier Mass Balance Variability in Himalaya-Karakoram P. Kumar et al.
- Evolution of debris cover on glaciers of the Eastern Alps, Austria, between 1996 and 2015 F. Fleischer et al.
- Glaciohydrology of the Himalaya-Karakoram M. Azam et al.
- The dual role of meltwater in buffering river runoff in the Yarlung Zangbo Basin, Tibetan Plateau Y. Feng et al.
- A Weak Precipitation Sensitivity of Glacier Runoff A. Banerjee
- Downwasting of the debris-covered area of Lirung Glacier in Langtang Valley, Nepal Himalaya, from 1974 to 2010 T. Nuimura et al.
- Ice cliff contribution to the tongue-wide ablation of Changri Nup Glacier, Nepal, central Himalaya F. Brun et al.
- Glacier mass loss in the Alaknanda basin, Garhwal Himalaya on a decadal scale S. Remya et al.
- Estimation of the total sub-debris ablation from point-scale ablation data on a debris-covered glacier S. Shah et al.
- Debris cover and the thinning of Kennicott Glacier, Alaska: in situ measurements, automated ice cliff delineation and distributed melt estimates L. Anderson et al.
- Spatiotemporal Changes of Glaciers in the Yigong Zangbo River Basin over the Period of the 1970s to 2023 and Their Driving Factors S. Yuan et al.
- Glacier area changes and its relation to climatological trends over Western Himalaya between 1971 and 2018 L. Patel et al.
- Monitoring glacier characteristics and their mass balance using a multidimensional approach over the glaciers of the Chandra basin, western Himalaya A. Patel et al.
- Possible biases in scaling-based estimates of glacier change: a case study in the Himalaya A. Banerjee et al.
- Initial glaciological investigations on a large Himalayan glacier: Drang Drung (Zanskar, Ladakh, India) M. Azam et al.
- Glacier-influenced hydrological regimes in the Afghanistan Hindu Kush Himalaya under current and future climate J. Shokory et al.
- The Role of Differential Ablation and Dynamic Detachment in Driving Accelerating Mass Loss From a Debris‐Covered Himalayan Glacier A. Rowan et al.
- High-Resolution Monitoring of Glacier Mass Balance and Dynamics with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles on the Ningchan No. 1 Glacier in the Qilian Mountains, China B. Cao et al.
- Quantifying short-term backwasting rates of a supraglacial ice cliff at Machoi Glacier in the Indian Himalaya P. Singh et al.
- The Causes of Debris-Covered Glacier Thinning: Evidence for the Importance of Ice Dynamics From Kennicott Glacier, Alaska L. Anderson et al.
- Debris Emergence Elevations and Glacier Change J. Shea et al.
- Which heterogeneous glacier melting patterns can be robustly observed from space? A multi-scale assessment in southeastern Tibetan Plateau L. Ke et al.
- Numerical Simulation of Supraglacial Debris Mobility: Implications for Ablation and Landform Genesis P. Moore
- Estimation of ice ablation on a debris-covered glacier from vertical debris-temperature profiles S. Laha et al.
- Impact of Climate Change on the Glaciers of Spiti River Basin, Himachal Pradesh, India A. Kulkarni et al.
- Spatio-Temporal Changes of Mass Balance in the Ablation Area of the Muz Taw Glacier, Sawir Mountains, from Multi-Temporal Terrestrial Geodetic Surveys C. Xu et al.
- Review of the status and mass changes of Himalayan-Karakoram glaciers M. AZAM et al.
- Spatially Variable Glacier Changes in the Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal, 2000 to 2016 A. Lovell et al.
- Modeling the Response of the Langtang Glacier and the Hintereisferner to a Changing Climate Since the Little Ice Age R. Wijngaard et al.
- Vegetation Ecology of Debris-Covered Glaciers (DCGs)—Site Conditions, Vegetation Patterns and Implications for DCGs Serving as Quaternary Cold- and Warm-Stage Plant Refugia T. Fickert et al.
- Retreat rates of debris-covered and debris-free glaciers in the Koshi River Basin, central Himalayas, from 1975 to 2010 Y. Xiang et al.
- Assessment of climate change impacts on glacio-hydrological processes and their variations within critical zone M. Shafeeque et al.
- Recent slowdown and thinning of debris-covered glaciers in south-eastern Tibet N. Neckel et al.
46 citations as recorded by crossref.
- DCG-MIP: the Debris-Covered Glacier melt Model Intercomparison exPeriment F. Pellicciotti et al.
- Contextualizing lobate debris aprons and glacier-like forms on Mars with debris-covered glaciers on Earth M. Koutnik & A. Pathare
- Characterizing 4 decades of accelerated glacial mass loss in the west Nyainqentanglha Range of the Tibetan Plateau S. Wang et al.
- Reversed Surface-Mass-Balance Gradients on Himalayan Debris-Covered Glaciers Inferred from Remote Sensing R. Bisset et al.
- Assessing controls on mass budget and surface velocity variations of glaciers in Western Himalaya S. Bhushan et al.
- Assessing the state, parameter-interlinkages and dynamic shift of glaciers in the western Himalaya P. Garg et al.
- Glacier mass budget and climate reanalysis data indicate a climatic shift around 2000 in Lahaul-Spiti, western Himalaya K. Mukherjee et al.
- Ecosystem shifts in Alpine streams under glacier retreat and rock glacier thaw: A review S. Brighenti et al.
- Debris cover effects on energy and mass balance of Batura Glacier in the Karakoram over the past 20 years Y. Zhu et al.
- Mass- and Energy-Balance Modeling and Sublimation Losses on Dokriani Bamak and Chhota Shigri Glaciers in Himalaya Since 1979 S. Srivastava & M. Azam
- Unravelling the evolution of Zmuttgletscher and its debris cover since the end of the Little Ice Age N. Mölg et al.
- Disaggregating geodetic glacier mass balance to annual scale using remote-sensing proxies A. Banerjee et al.
- Debris properties and mass-balance impacts on adjacent debris-covered glaciers, Mount Rainier, USA P. Moore et al.
- Snowfall Variability Dictates Glacier Mass Balance Variability in Himalaya-Karakoram P. Kumar et al.
- Evolution of debris cover on glaciers of the Eastern Alps, Austria, between 1996 and 2015 F. Fleischer et al.
- Glaciohydrology of the Himalaya-Karakoram M. Azam et al.
- The dual role of meltwater in buffering river runoff in the Yarlung Zangbo Basin, Tibetan Plateau Y. Feng et al.
- A Weak Precipitation Sensitivity of Glacier Runoff A. Banerjee
- Downwasting of the debris-covered area of Lirung Glacier in Langtang Valley, Nepal Himalaya, from 1974 to 2010 T. Nuimura et al.
- Ice cliff contribution to the tongue-wide ablation of Changri Nup Glacier, Nepal, central Himalaya F. Brun et al.
- Glacier mass loss in the Alaknanda basin, Garhwal Himalaya on a decadal scale S. Remya et al.
- Estimation of the total sub-debris ablation from point-scale ablation data on a debris-covered glacier S. Shah et al.
- Debris cover and the thinning of Kennicott Glacier, Alaska: in situ measurements, automated ice cliff delineation and distributed melt estimates L. Anderson et al.
- Spatiotemporal Changes of Glaciers in the Yigong Zangbo River Basin over the Period of the 1970s to 2023 and Their Driving Factors S. Yuan et al.
- Glacier area changes and its relation to climatological trends over Western Himalaya between 1971 and 2018 L. Patel et al.
- Monitoring glacier characteristics and their mass balance using a multidimensional approach over the glaciers of the Chandra basin, western Himalaya A. Patel et al.
- Possible biases in scaling-based estimates of glacier change: a case study in the Himalaya A. Banerjee et al.
- Initial glaciological investigations on a large Himalayan glacier: Drang Drung (Zanskar, Ladakh, India) M. Azam et al.
- Glacier-influenced hydrological regimes in the Afghanistan Hindu Kush Himalaya under current and future climate J. Shokory et al.
- The Role of Differential Ablation and Dynamic Detachment in Driving Accelerating Mass Loss From a Debris‐Covered Himalayan Glacier A. Rowan et al.
- High-Resolution Monitoring of Glacier Mass Balance and Dynamics with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles on the Ningchan No. 1 Glacier in the Qilian Mountains, China B. Cao et al.
- Quantifying short-term backwasting rates of a supraglacial ice cliff at Machoi Glacier in the Indian Himalaya P. Singh et al.
- The Causes of Debris-Covered Glacier Thinning: Evidence for the Importance of Ice Dynamics From Kennicott Glacier, Alaska L. Anderson et al.
- Debris Emergence Elevations and Glacier Change J. Shea et al.
- Which heterogeneous glacier melting patterns can be robustly observed from space? A multi-scale assessment in southeastern Tibetan Plateau L. Ke et al.
- Numerical Simulation of Supraglacial Debris Mobility: Implications for Ablation and Landform Genesis P. Moore
- Estimation of ice ablation on a debris-covered glacier from vertical debris-temperature profiles S. Laha et al.
- Impact of Climate Change on the Glaciers of Spiti River Basin, Himachal Pradesh, India A. Kulkarni et al.
- Spatio-Temporal Changes of Mass Balance in the Ablation Area of the Muz Taw Glacier, Sawir Mountains, from Multi-Temporal Terrestrial Geodetic Surveys C. Xu et al.
- Review of the status and mass changes of Himalayan-Karakoram glaciers M. AZAM et al.
- Spatially Variable Glacier Changes in the Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal, 2000 to 2016 A. Lovell et al.
- Modeling the Response of the Langtang Glacier and the Hintereisferner to a Changing Climate Since the Little Ice Age R. Wijngaard et al.
- Vegetation Ecology of Debris-Covered Glaciers (DCGs)—Site Conditions, Vegetation Patterns and Implications for DCGs Serving as Quaternary Cold- and Warm-Stage Plant Refugia T. Fickert et al.
- Retreat rates of debris-covered and debris-free glaciers in the Koshi River Basin, central Himalayas, from 1975 to 2010 Y. Xiang et al.
- Assessment of climate change impacts on glacio-hydrological processes and their variations within critical zone M. Shafeeque et al.
- Recent slowdown and thinning of debris-covered glaciers in south-eastern Tibet N. Neckel et al.
Saved (final revised paper)
Latest update: 11 May 2026
Short summary
Measurements of debris-covered and debris-free glaciers in the Himalaya-Karakoram show similar decadal scale thinning, despite a suppression of melt under the debris. Using physical arguments, supported by simulations of 1-D idealised glaciers, we analyse the evolution of thinning rates on both glacier types under a warming climate. The dynamics of the emergence velocity profile control the thinning rate evolution in general and lead to the observed trends in the thinning rate data.
Measurements of debris-covered and debris-free glaciers in the Himalaya-Karakoram show similar...