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Differences in mass balance behavior for three glaciers from different climatic regions on the Tibetan Plateau

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An Erratum to this article was published on 27 September 2017

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Abstract

Glacier mass balance shows a spatially heterogeneous pattern in response to global warming on the Tibetan Plateau (TP), and the climate mechanisms controlling this pattern require further study. In this study, three glaciers where systematic glaciological and meteorological observations have been carried out were selected, specifically Parlung No. 4 (PL04) and Zhadang (ZD) glaciers on the southern TP and Muztag Ata No. 15 (MZ15) glacier in the eastern Pamir. The characteristics of the mass and energy balances of these three glaciers during the periods between October 1th, 2008 and September 23rd, 2013 were analyzed and compared using the energy and mass balance model. Results show that differences in surface melt, which mainly result from differences in the amounts of incoming longwave radiation (L in ) and outgoing shortwave radiation (S out ), represent the largest source of the observed differences in mass balance changes between PL04 and ZD glaciers and MZ15 glacier, where air temperature, humidity, precipitation and cloudiness are dramatically different. In addition, sensitivity experiments show that mass balance sensitivity to air temperature change is remarkably higher than that associated with precipitation change on PL04 and ZD glaciers, in contrast results from MZ15 glacier. And significantly higher sensitivities to air temperature change are noted for PL04 and ZD glaciers than for MZ15 glacier. These significant differences in the sensitivities to air temperature change are mainly caused by differences in the ratio of snowfall to precipitation during the ablation season, melt energy (L in +S out ) during the ablation season and the seasonality of precipitation among the different regions occupied by glaciers. In turn, these conditions are related to local climatic conditions, especially air temperature. These factors can be used to explain the different patterns of change in Tibetan glacier mass balance under global warming.

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Change history

  • 27 September 2017

    In the original publication of the article, Fig. 1 caption has been published incorrectly. In the original publication of the article, “OPS” in the note of Table 5 is changed to “QPS”. In the original publication of the article, “Fig. 1” in Line 15 of the second paragraph on Page 4 is changed to “Fig. S1”. In the original publication of the article, “Table S3” in Line 42 of the third paragraph on Page 6 is changed to “Table 3”. In the original publication of the article, “Table 2” in Line 10 of the second paragraph on Page 14 is changed to “Table 4”.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the staff at the Muztagh Ata Station for Westerly Environment Observation and Research and the Nam Co Monitoring and Research Station for Multisphere Interactions, Institute of Tibetan Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, for help in the field. We thank the Third Pole Environment Database, Institute of Tibetan Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Climate Center, China Meteorological Administration, for providing the climate data used herein. We thank two anonymous reviewers for valuable insights that greatly strengthened the manuscript. We thank Dieter Scherer and Julia Curio (Technical University of Berlin) and Fabien Maussion (University of Innsbruck) for providing the HAR data, and Kun Yang (Institute of Tibetan Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences) for providing the CMFD data. The SRTM data and the Landsat data were provided by the US Geological Survey. This study was jointly funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41190081, 91547104, 41601081, 91647205, 41371085, and 41125003) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2017M611014).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Building 3, Courtyard 16, Lincui Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, China

    Meilin Zhu, Tandong Yao, Wei Yang, Baiqing Xu & Guanjian Wu

  2. CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Tandong Yao, Wei Yang, Baiqing Xu & Guanjian Wu

  3. Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, No.12, Zhongguancun South Road, Haidian, Beijing, 100081, China

    Xiaojun Wang

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  1. Meilin Zhu
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  2. Tandong Yao
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  3. Wei Yang
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Correspondence to Meilin Zhu.

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Zhu, M., Yao, T., Yang, W. et al. Differences in mass balance behavior for three glaciers from different climatic regions on the Tibetan Plateau. Clim Dyn 50, 3457–3484 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-017-3817-4

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