Glacier mass balance in High Mountain Asia inferred from a GRACE release-6 gravity solution for the period 2002–2016

作     者：XIANG Longwei WANG Hansheng JIANG Liming SHEN Qiang Holger STEFFEN LI Zhen XIANG Longwei;WANG Hansheng;JIANG Liming;SHEN Qiang;Holger STEFFEN;LI Zhen

作者机构：School of GeosciencesYangtze UniversityWuhan 430100China State Key Laboratory of Geodesy and Earth's DynamicsInnovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesWuhan 430077China University of Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing 100049China Geodetic InfrastructureLantmäterietGävle 80182Sweden 

出 版 物：《Journal of Arid Land》 (干旱区科学（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2021年第13卷第3期

页      面：224-238页

核心收录：

学科分类：07[理学] 0705[理学-地理学] 070501[理学-自然地理学] 

基　　金：This work is funded by the National Key R&D Program of China(2017YFA0603103) the National Natural Science Foundation of China(41974009,42004007) the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences,Chinese Academy of Sciences(QYZDB-SSW-DQC027,QYZDJ-SSW-DQC042) the open fund of State Key Laboratory of Geodesy and Earth's Dynamics(SKLGED2021-2-6) 

主　　题：glaciers mass balance GRACE precipitation snowfall radiation energy High Mountain Asia 

摘      要：We provide estimates of glacier mass changes in the High Mountain Asia (HMA) area from April2002 to August 2016 by employing a new version of gravity solutions of the Gravity Recovery and ClimateExperiment (GRACE) twin-satellite mission. We find a total mass loss trend of the HMA glaciers at a rateof –22.17 (±1.96) Gt/a. The largest mass loss rates of –7.02 (±0.94) and –6.73 (±0.78) Gt/a are found forthe glaciers in Nyainqentanglha Mountains and Eastern Himalayas, respectively. Although most glaciers inthe HMA area show a mass loss, we find a small glacier mass gain of 1.19 (±0.55) and 0.77 (±0.37) Gt/a inKarakoram Mountains and Western Kunlun Mountains, respectively. There is also a nearly zero massbalance in Pamirs. Our estimates of glacier mass change trends confirm previous results from the analysisof altimetry data of the ICESat (ICE, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite) and ASTER (AdvancedSpaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) DEM (Digital Elevation Model) satellites inmost of the selected glacier areas. However, they largely differ to previous GRACE-based studies which weattribute to our different post-processing techniques of the newer GRACE data. In addition, we explicitlyshow regional mass change features for both the interannual glacier mass changes and the 14-a averagedseasonal glacier mass changes. These changes can be explained in parts by total net precipitation (netsnowfall and net rainfall) and net snowfall, but mostly by total net radiation energy when compared to datafrom the ERA5-Land meteorological reanalysis. Moreover, nearly all the non-trend interannual masschanges and most seasonal mass changes can be explained by the total net radiation energy data. The massloss trends could be partly related to a heat effect due to increased net rainfall in Tianshan Mountains, QilianMountains, Nyainqentanglha Mountains and Eastern Himalayas. Our new results for the glacier mass changein this study could help improve the understanding of glac