Spatial surface velocity pattern in the glaciers of Chandra Basin, Western Himalaya. Issue 18 (17th September 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Patel, Lavkush Kumar; Sharma, Parmanand; Singh, Ajit T.; Pratap, Bhanu; Oulkar, Sunil; Thamban, Meloth
• Is Part Of: Geocarto international. Volume 37:Issue 18(2022)
• Page Start: 5327
• Page End: 5344
• Publication Date: 2022-09-17
• Subjects: Glaciers -- surface velocity -- GNSS survey -- Chandra basin -- Himalaya; Remote sensing -- Periodicals; Geographic information systems -- Periodicals; Geology -- Periodicals; Cartography -- Periodicals; 621.3678
• DOI: 10.1080/10106049.2021.1920627
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1010-6049

Abstract

Abstract: Himalayan glaciers are distinct by their surface characteristics, such as debris-cover, supra/proglacial lakes, ice-cliff, and tributaries' contributions, thus complicating their surface velocity pattern and their response towards climate warming. While remote sensing and modelled surface velocity estimation are valuable on a larger scale, in situ high-resolution data is crucial to validate them. In this study, four glaciers (Batal, Sutri Dhaka, Samudra Tapu, and Gepang Gath) from Chandra Basin were monitored to measure point-wise surface displacement using a static GNSS system during 2017–2018. Among them, the highest surface velocity was observed over Samudra Tapu (∼64.3 ma −1 ), a large and clean-type glacier, while the lowest was for Batal (∼6.2 ma −1 ), a small and debris-covered glacier. Our study highlighted the contrasting behaviour of lake-terminating and debris-covered glaciers for the surface velocity and also emphasize the additional control of the slope, supraglacial lake, debris thickness and convergence of glacier channels on the glacier surface velocity.