Annual to seasonal glacier mass balance in High Mountain Asia from Pléiades stereo images: examples from the Pamir and the Tibetan Plateau

Abstract

Glaciers are crucial sources of freshwater in particular for the arid lowlands surrounding High Mountain Asia. In order to better constrain glacio-hydrological models, annual, or even better, seasonal information about glacier mass changes is highly beneficial. In this study, we test the suitability of very high-resolution Pleiades DEMs to measure glacier-wide mass balance at annual and seasonal scales in two regions of High Mountain Asia (Muztagh Ata in Eastern Pamir and parts of Western Nyainqêntanglha, South-central Tibetan Plateau), where recent estimates have shown contrasting glacier behaviour. We find that the average annual mass balance in Muztagh Ata between 2020 and 2022 was -0.11 ±0.21 m w.e. a-1, suggesting the continuation of a recent phase of slight mass loss following a prolonged period of balanced mass budgets previously observed. The mean annual mass balance in Western Nyainqêntanglha for the same period was highly negative (-0.60 ±0.15 m w.e. a-1 on average), suggesting increased mass loss rates. The 2022 winter (+0.21 ±0.24 m w.e.) and summer (-0.31 ±0.15 m w.e.) mass budgets in Muztag Ata and Western Nyainqêntanglha (-0.04 ±0.27 m w.e. [winter]; -0.66 ±0.07 m w.e. [summer]) suggest winter and summer accumulation-type regimes, respectively. We support our findings by implementing a Sentinel-1–based Glacier Index to identify the firn and wet snow areas on glaciers and characterize accumulation type and demonstrate the potential of very high-resolution Pleiades data to monitor mass balance at short time scales and to improve our understanding of glacier accumulation regimes across High Mountain Asia.