Paper Info
Title
Recent Changes in Glaciers in the Northern Tien Shan, Central Asia
Abstract
The Tien Shan is regarded as the "Water tower of Central Asia," being a solid reservoir of freshwater resources and also a natural and early warning indicator of climate change. Research on glaciers is important for the sustainable development and management of water resources in Central Asia. This study investigated the spatiotemporal dynamics of glaciers in the northern Tien Shan from 1990 to 2015 using multi-source remote sensing and meteorological data. The results showed that the total area and volume of glaciers in the northern Tien Shan exhibited negative trends, decreasing by 456.43 km(2) (16.08%) and 26.14 km(3) (16.38%), respectively. The reduction in the total glacier area exhibited an accelerating trend, decreasing by 0.60%/a before 2000, but by 0.71%/a after 2000. Glaciers in the outer northern Tien Shan region, with areas < 2 km(2) showed the greatest shrinkage, especially those in the northeastern and southwestern regions. All aspects in the northern Tien Shan exhibited negative trends in the glacier area, especially in the east-west aspects (shrinkage of 24.74-38.37%). Regarding altitude, the termini of glaciers rose continuously from 1990 to 2015, particularly for glaciers below 3700 m, with a total area decrease of 30.37%, and the lower altitude of the glaciers showed a higher area decrease.
Year
DOI
Venue
2022
10.3390/rs14122878
REMOTE SENSING
Keywords
DocType
Volume
climate change, glacier, remote sensing, Tien Shan, Central Asia
Journal
14
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
12
2072-4292
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
0
6
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Qifei Zhang100.68
Yaning Chen2511.01
Zhi Li303.38
Yanyun Xiang400.68
Yupeng Li502.70
Congjian Sun600.34