Articles | Volume 13, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2361-2019
© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2361-2019
© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
11 Sep 2019
Research article |
| 11 Sep 2019
| 11 Sep 2019
Long-range terrestrial laser scanning measurements of annual and intra-annual mass balances for Urumqi Glacier No. 1, eastern Tien Shan, China
Chunhai Xu
State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science/Tien Shan Glaciological
Station, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Zhongqin Li
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science/Tien Shan Glaciological
Station, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
Huilin Li
State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science/Tien Shan Glaciological
Station, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Feiteng Wang
State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science/Tien Shan Glaciological
Station, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
Ping Zhou
State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science/Tien Shan Glaciological
Station, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
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Xing Wang, Feiteng Wang, Jiawen Ren, Dahe Qin, and Huilin Li
The Cryosphere, 18, 3017–3031, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-3017-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-3017-2024, 2024
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This work addresses snow storage at sports facilities in China. The snow pile at Big Air Shougang (BAS) lost 158.6 m3 snow (6.7 %) during pre-competition and Winter Olympic competition days in winter 2022. There were no significant variations in the snow quality of the snow piles at BAS and the National Biathlon Center except for in the upper part of the snow piles. The 0.7 and 0.4 m thick cover layers protected half the snow height over the summer at Beijing and Chongli, respectively.
Lu Gao, Haijun Deng, Xiangyong Lei, Jianhui Wei, Yaning Chen, Zhongqin Li, Miaomiao Ma, Xingwei Chen, Ying Chen, Meibing Liu, and Jianyun Gao
The Cryosphere, 15, 5765–5783, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-5765-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-5765-2021, 2021
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There is a widespread controversy on the existence of the elevation-dependent warming (EDW) phenomenon due to the limited observations in high mountains. This study provides new evidence of EDW from the Chinese Tian Shan based on a high-resolution (1 km, 6-hourly) air temperature dataset. The result reveals the significant EDW on a monthly scale. The warming rate of the minimum temperature in winter showed a significant elevation dependence (p < 0.01), especially above 3000 m.
Feiteng Wang, Xin Zhang, Fanglong Wang, Mengyuan Song, Zhongqin Li, and Jing Ming
The Cryosphere Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2021-133, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2021-133, 2021
Preprint withdrawn
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The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 impacts deeply in every aspects of human life and nature. After investigate the air pollutants in Xinjiang from 2019 through 2020, we find the mobility restrictions due to the COVID-19 dipped air NO2 concentration twice from 2019 normal in 2020 and snow chemistry records also show abnormal decrease in Urumqi Glacier No. 1.
Ethan Welty, Michael Zemp, Francisco Navarro, Matthias Huss, Johannes J. Fürst, Isabelle Gärtner-Roer, Johannes Landmann, Horst Machguth, Kathrin Naegeli, Liss M. Andreassen, Daniel Farinotti, Huilin Li, and GlaThiDa Contributors
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 3039–3055, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3039-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3039-2020, 2020
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Knowing the thickness of glacier ice is critical for predicting the rate of glacier loss and the myriad downstream impacts. To facilitate forecasts of future change, we have added 3 million measurements to our worldwide database of glacier thickness: 14 % of global glacier area is now within 1 km of a thickness measurement (up from 6 %). To make it easier to update and monitor the quality of our database, we have used automated tools to check and track changes to the data over time.
Feiteng Wang, Xiaoying Yue, Lin Wang, Huilin Li, Zhencai Du, Jing Ming, and Zhongqin Li
The Cryosphere, 14, 2597–2606, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2597-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2597-2020, 2020
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How to mitigate the melting of most mountainous glaciers is a disturbing issue for scientists and the public. We chose the Muz Taw Glacier of the Sawir Mountains as our study object. We carried out two artificial precipitation experiments on the glacier to study the role of precipitation in mitigating its melting. The average mass loss from the glacier decreased by over 14 %. We also propose a possible mechanism describing the role of precipitation in mitigating the melting of the glaciers.
Christian M. Zdanowicz, Bernadette C. Proemse, Ross Edwards, Wang Feiteng, Chad M. Hogan, Christophe Kinnard, and David Fisher
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 12345–12361, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-12345-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-12345-2018, 2018
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Black carbon (BC) particles emitted by natural and anthropogenic sources (e.g., wildfires, coal burning) can amplify climate warming by increasing sunlight energy absorption on snow-covered surfaces. This paper presents a new ice-core record of historical (1810–1990) BC deposition in the Canadian Arctic. The Devon ice cap record differs from Greenland ice cores, implying large variations in BC deposition across the Arctic that must be accounted for to better quantity their future climate impact.
Nancy A. N. Bertler, Howard Conway, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Daniel B. Emanuelsson, Mai Winstrup, Paul T. Vallelonga, James E. Lee, Ed J. Brook, Jeffrey P. Severinghaus, Taylor J. Fudge, Elizabeth D. Keller, W. Troy Baisden, Richard C. A. Hindmarsh, Peter D. Neff, Thomas Blunier, Ross Edwards, Paul A. Mayewski, Sepp Kipfstuhl, Christo Buizert, Silvia Canessa, Ruzica Dadic, Helle A. Kjær, Andrei Kurbatov, Dongqi Zhang, Edwin D. Waddington, Giovanni Baccolo, Thomas Beers, Hannah J. Brightley, Lionel Carter, David Clemens-Sewall, Viorela G. Ciobanu, Barbara Delmonte, Lukas Eling, Aja Ellis, Shruthi Ganesh, Nicholas R. Golledge, Skylar Haines, Michael Handley, Robert L. Hawley, Chad M. Hogan, Katelyn M. Johnson, Elena Korotkikh, Daniel P. Lowry, Darcy Mandeno, Robert M. McKay, James A. Menking, Timothy R. Naish, Caroline Noerling, Agathe Ollive, Anaïs Orsi, Bernadette C. Proemse, Alexander R. Pyne, Rebecca L. Pyne, James Renwick, Reed P. Scherer, Stefanie Semper, Marius Simonsen, Sharon B. Sneed, Eric J. Steig, Andrea Tuohy, Abhijith Ulayottil Venugopal, Fernando Valero-Delgado, Janani Venkatesh, Feitang Wang, Shimeng Wang, Dominic A. Winski, V. Holly L. Winton, Arran Whiteford, Cunde Xiao, Jiao Yang, and Xin Zhang
Clim. Past, 14, 193–214, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-193-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-193-2018, 2018
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Temperature and snow accumulation records from the annually dated Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution (RICE) ice core show that for the past 2 700 years, the eastern Ross Sea warmed, while the western Ross Sea showed no trend and West Antarctica cooled. From the 17th century onwards, this dipole relationship changed. Now all three regions show concurrent warming, with snow accumulation declining in West Antarctica and the eastern Ross Sea.
Xiaowen Wang, Lin Liu, Lin Zhao, Tonghua Wu, Zhongqin Li, and Guoxiang Liu
The Cryosphere, 11, 997–1014, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-997-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-997-2017, 2017
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Rock glaciers are abundant in high mountains in western China but have been ignored for 20 years. We used a new remote-sensing-based method to map active rock glaciers in the Chinese part of the Tien Shan and compiled an inventory of 261 active rock glaciers and included quantitative information about their locations, geomorphic parameters, and downslope velocities. Our dataset suggests that the lower limit of permafrost there is 2500–2800 m.
Daniel Farinotti, Douglas J. Brinkerhoff, Garry K. C. Clarke, Johannes J. Fürst, Holger Frey, Prateek Gantayat, Fabien Gillet-Chaulet, Claire Girard, Matthias Huss, Paul W. Leclercq, Andreas Linsbauer, Horst Machguth, Carlos Martin, Fabien Maussion, Mathieu Morlighem, Cyrille Mosbeux, Ankur Pandit, Andrea Portmann, Antoine Rabatel, RAAJ Ramsankaran, Thomas J. Reerink, Olivier Sanchez, Peter A. Stentoft, Sangita Singh Kumari, Ward J. J. van Pelt, Brian Anderson, Toby Benham, Daniel Binder, Julian A. Dowdeswell, Andrea Fischer, Kay Helfricht, Stanislav Kutuzov, Ivan Lavrentiev, Robert McNabb, G. Hilmar Gudmundsson, Huilin Li, and Liss M. Andreassen
The Cryosphere, 11, 949–970, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-949-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-949-2017, 2017
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ITMIX – the Ice Thickness Models Intercomparison eXperiment – was the first coordinated performance assessment for models inferring glacier ice thickness from surface characteristics. Considering 17 different models and 21 different test cases, we show that although solutions of individual models can differ considerably, an ensemble average can yield uncertainties in the order of 10 ± 24 % the mean ice thickness. Ways forward for improving such estimates are sketched.
Related subject area
Discipline: Glaciers | Subject: Mass Balance Obs
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Martina Barandun and Eric Pohl
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Meteorological and glacier mass balance data scarcity introduces large uncertainties about drivers of heterogeneous glacier mass balance response in Central Asia. We investigate the consistency of interpretations derived from various datasets through a systematic correlation analysis between climatic and static drivers with mass balance estimates. Our results show in particular that even supposedly similar datasets lead to different and partly contradicting assumptions on dominant drivers.
Jakub Małecki
The Cryosphere, 16, 2067–2082, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2067-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2067-2022, 2022
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This study presents a snapshot of the recent state of small mountain glaciers across the European High Arctic, where severe climate warming has been occurring over the past years. The analysis revealed that this class of ice mass might melt away from many study sites within the coming two to five decades even without further warming. Glacier changes were, however, very variable in space, and some glaciers have been gaining mass, but the exact drivers behind this phenomenon are unclear.
Kenshiro Arie, Chiyuki Narama, Ryohei Yamamoto, Kotaro Fukui, and Hajime Iida
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In recent years, seven glaciers are confirmed in the northern Japanese Alps. However, their mass balance has not been clarified. In this study, we calculated the seasonal and continuous annual mass balance of these glaciers during 2015–2019 by the geodetic method using aerial images and SfM–MVS technology. Our results showed that the mass balance of these glaciers was different from other glaciers in the world. The characteristics of Japanese glaciers provide new insights for earth science.
Johannes Marian Landmann, Hans Rudolf Künsch, Matthias Huss, Christophe Ogier, Markus Kalisch, and Daniel Farinotti
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In this study, we (1) acquire real-time information on point glacier mass balance with autonomous real-time cameras and (2) assimilate these observations into a mass balance model ensemble driven by meteorological input. For doing so, we use a customized particle filter that we designed for the specific purposes of our study. We find melt rates of up to 0.12 m water equivalent per day and show that our assimilation method has a higher performance than reference mass balance models.
Christian Vincent, Diego Cusicanqui, Bruno Jourdain, Olivier Laarman, Delphine Six, Adrien Gilbert, Andrea Walpersdorf, Antoine Rabatel, Luc Piard, Florent Gimbert, Olivier Gagliardini, Vincent Peyaud, Laurent Arnaud, Emmanuel Thibert, Fanny Brun, and Ugo Nanni
The Cryosphere, 15, 1259–1276, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1259-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1259-2021, 2021
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In situ glacier point mass balance data are crucial to assess climate change in different regions of the world. Unfortunately, these data are rare because huge efforts are required to conduct in situ measurements on glaciers. Here, we propose a new approach from remote sensing observations. The method has been tested on the Argentière and Mer de Glace glaciers (France). It should be possible to apply this method to high-spatial-resolution satellite images and on numerous glaciers in the world.
Feiteng Wang, Xiaoying Yue, Lin Wang, Huilin Li, Zhencai Du, Jing Ming, and Zhongqin Li
The Cryosphere, 14, 2597–2606, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2597-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2597-2020, 2020
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How to mitigate the melting of most mountainous glaciers is a disturbing issue for scientists and the public. We chose the Muz Taw Glacier of the Sawir Mountains as our study object. We carried out two artificial precipitation experiments on the glacier to study the role of precipitation in mitigating its melting. The average mass loss from the glacier decreased by over 14 %. We also propose a possible mechanism describing the role of precipitation in mitigating the melting of the glaciers.
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The Cryosphere, 14, 2267–2281, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2267-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2267-2020, 2020
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Michael Zemp, Matthias Huss, Nicolas Eckert, Emmanuel Thibert, Frank Paul, Samuel U. Nussbaumer, and Isabelle Gärtner-Roer
The Cryosphere, 14, 1043–1050, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1043-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1043-2020, 2020
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Wael Abdel Jaber, Helmut Rott, Dana Floricioiu, Jan Wuite, and Nuno Miranda
The Cryosphere, 13, 2511–2535, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2511-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2511-2019, 2019
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Ben M. Pelto, Brian Menounos, and Shawn J. Marshall
The Cryosphere, 13, 1709–1727, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-1709-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-1709-2019, 2019
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Changes in glacier mass are the direct response to meteorological conditions during the accumulation and melt seasons. We derived multi-year, seasonal mass balance from airborne laser scanning surveys and compared them to field measurements for six glaciers in the Columbia and Rocky Mountains, Canada. Our method can accurately measure seasonal changes in glacier mass and can be easily adapted to derive seasonal mass change for entire mountain ranges.
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The Cryosphere, 12, 3617–3633, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3617-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3617-2018, 2018
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The Cryosphere, 12, 2109–2122, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2109-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2109-2018, 2018
Martina Barandun, Matthias Huss, Ryskul Usubaliev, Erlan Azisov, Etienne Berthier, Andreas Kääb, Tobias Bolch, and Martin Hoelzle
The Cryosphere, 12, 1899–1919, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1899-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1899-2018, 2018
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Helmut Rott, Wael Abdel Jaber, Jan Wuite, Stefan Scheiblauer, Dana Floricioiu, Jan Melchior van Wessem, Thomas Nagler, Nuno Miranda, and Michiel R. van den Broeke
The Cryosphere, 12, 1273–1291, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1273-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1273-2018, 2018
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We analysed volume change, mass balance and ice flow of glaciers draining into the Larsen A and Larsen B embayments on the Antarctic Peninsula for 2011 to 2013 and 2013 to 2016. The mass balance is based on elevation change measured by the radar satellite mission TanDEM-X and on the mass budget method. The glaciers show continuing losses in ice mass, which is a response to ice shelf break-up. After 2013 the downwasting of glaciers slowed down, coinciding with years of persistent sea ice cover.
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Short summary
We take Urumqi Glacier No. 1 as an example and validate a long-range terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) as an efficient tool for monitoring annual and intra-annual mass balances, especially for inaccessible glacier areas where no glaciological measurements are available. The TLS has application potential for glacier mass-balance monitoring in China. For wide applications of the TLS, we can select some benchmark glaciers and use stable scan positions and in-situ-measured densities of snow–firn.
We take Urumqi Glacier No. 1 as an example and validate a long-range terrestrial laser scanner...
