Glacier Volume Changes and Their Climatic Causes in Tirungkhad Basin Located in Western Himalaya

Abstract

In the Himalaya, a significant number of glaciers are shrinking due to climatic variations. Monitoring of these glaciers is important to assess future availability of water resources. However, Himalayan glaciers are normally difficult to monitor due to the rugged, mountainous terrain. Therefore, in the present study, Survey of India (SOI) topographical maps (1966) and Landsat datasets as ETM+ (2000, 2006) and TM (2011) were used to monitor glacier volume changes in the Tirungkhad basin, a tributary of Satluj River, located in the western Himalaya.  The glacial volumes were estimated using regression relationship between area and depth. The investigations have suggested an overall reduction of 32% from 1966 (9.13 km3) to 2011 (6.19 km3). Trend analysis showed significant increase in temperature (T_Max and T_Min) associated with significant decrease in snowfall (SWE) and insignificant decrease in rainfall. These investigations suggest that the variations in meteorological parameters may be one of the reasons for glacier volume changes in the study area. In the long run, these changes in volume of glaciers can create scarcity of water in the region.

Keywords: Glacier, Remote sensing, Volume, Climate, Himalaya