Assessing Orographic Variability in Glacial Thickness Changes at the Tibetan Plateau Using ICESat Laser Altimetry

Monitoring glacier changes is essential for estimating the water mass balance of the Tibetan Plateau. In this study, we exploit ICESat laser altimetry data in combination with the SRTM DEM and the GLIMS glacier mask to estimate trends in change in glacial thickness between 2003 and 2009 on the whole Tibetan Plateau. Considering acquisition...

Geometric dependency of Tibetan lakes on glacial runoff

The Tibetan Plateau is an essential source of water for Southeast Asia. The runoff from its ~34 000 glaciers, which occupy an area of ~50 000 km2, feeds Tibetan lakes and major Asian rivers like the Indus and Brahmaputra. Reported glacial shrinkage likely has an impact on the runoff. Unfortunately, accurate quantification of glacial changes is...

Determining geometric links between glaciers and lakes on the Tibetan plateau

The Tibetan plateau and surrounding mountain ranges contain the largest amount of ice outside the polar region. The Tibetan plateau also contains more than one thousand lakes and is the origin of a large part of the water resources of South and East Asia, the most densely populated regions on earth. Recent studies concluded that the glacial area...

Geometric dependency of Tibetan lakes on glacial runoff

The Tibetan plateau is an essential source of water for South-East Asia. The run-off from its ~ 34 000 glaciers, which occupy an area of ~ 50 000 km2, feed Tibetan lakes and major Asian rivers like Indus and Brahmaputra. Reported glacial shrinkage likely has its impact on the run-off. Unfortunately, accurate quantification of glacial changes is...

Seasonal trends in Tibetan lake level changes as observed by icesat laser altimetry

The Tibetan plateau is covered by hundreds of larger and smaller lakes. Until recently there was no method to monitor their water level variations due to lack of in-situ measurements or unfitness of available remote sensing methods. However the ICESat/GLA14 laser altimetry data provide global surface elevations for land during 18 one-month...