Abstract
Continental glacier melts directly influence the environment, resulting in sea-level rise affecting the settlements along the coast. The increase in global warming and constant change in the glacier mass grabbed the attention of researchers in understanding the evolution and distribution of glaciers. Despite the increase in the number of glacier studies, the difficulty is experienced by the researchers in understanding the supra-glacial debris cover and its characteristics. Supraglacial debris cover affects surface melt by increasing and decreasing ablation under thin and thick debris cover. In the present study, estimation of supraglacial debris cover (SDC) over Austre Brøggerbreen and Vestre Brøggerbreen glaciers of Ny-Ålesund is carried out with the aid of Landsat 5/7/8 datasets between 2000 and 2020. Supraglacial debris-cover is mapped using NDSI and band ratio techniques based on thresholding and it is estimated that Austre Brøggerbreen and Vestre Brøggerbreen glaciers are covered by 7.29% and 15.19% of SDC respectively. Results obtained are validated by a field visit to Arctic glacier, which is the first of its kind enhancing India’s scientific credentials in Polar research.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The dataset utilized/analyzed during the current study will be available from the corresponding author upon request.
References
Benn DI, Bolch T, Hands K et al (2012) Response of debris-covered glaciers in the Mount Everest region to recent warming, and implications for outburst flood hazards. Earth-Science Rev 114:156–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2012.03.008
Bhambri R, Bolch T, Chaujar RK, Kulshreshtha SC (2011) Glacier changes in the Garhwal Himalaya, India, from 1968 to 2006 based on remote sensing. J Glaciol 57:543–556. https://doi.org/10.3189/002214311796905604
Bolch T, Menounos B, Wheate R (2010) LANDSAT-based inventory of glaciers in Western Canada, 1985–2005. Remote Sens Environ 114:127–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2009.08.015
Budikova D (2009) Role of Arctic sea ice in global atmospheric circulation: a review. Glob Planet Chang 68:149–163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2009.04.001
Campbell JB, Wynne RH (2011) Introduction to remote sensing, 5th edn. The Guilford Press, New York
Chander G, Markham BL, Helder DL (2009) Summary of current radiometric calibration coefficients for Landsat MSS, TM, ETM+, and EO-1 ALI sensors. Remote Sens Environ 113:893–903. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2009.01.007
Collier E, Maussion F, Nicholson LI et al (2015) Impact of debris cover on glacier ablation and atmosphere–glacier feedbacks in the Karakoram. Cryosph 9:1617–1632. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1617-2015
Ding M, Wang S, Sun W (2018) Decadal climate change in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, a representative area of the Arctic. Condens Matter 3:12. https://doi.org/10.3390/condmat3020012
Fyffe CL, Brock BW, Kirkbride MP et al (2019) The impact of supraglacial debris on proglacial runoff and water chemistry. J Hydrol 576:41–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.06.023
Gardner AS, Sharp MJ, Koerner RM et al (2009) Near-surface temperature lapse rates over Arctic glaciers and their implications for temperature downscaling. J Clim 22:4281–4298. https://doi.org/10.1175/2009JCLI2845.1
Gobbi M, Isaia M, De Bernardi F (2010) Arthropod colonisation of a debris-covered glacier. The Holocene 21:343–349. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683610374885
Hewitt K (2014) Glaciers of the Karakoram Himalaya. In: Encyclopedia of snow, ice and glaciers. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 429–436
Hewitt K, Clague J, Orwin J (2008) Legacies of rock slope failures in mountain landscapes. Earth-Science Rev 87:1–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2007.10.002
Jia Y, Li Z, Jin S et al (2020) Runoff changes from Urumqi Glacier no. 1 over the past 60 years, Eastern Tianshan, Central Asia. Water (Switzerland) 12:1–15. https://doi.org/10.3390/W12051286
Karimi N, Farokhnia A, Karimi L et al (2012) Combining optical and thermal remote sensing data for mapping debris-covered glaciers (Alamkouh Glaciers, Iran). Cold Reg Sci Technol 71:73–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coldregions.2011.10.004
Kulkarni AV, Srinivasulu J, Manjul SS, Mathur P (2002) Field based spectral reflectance studies to develop NDSI method for snow cover monitoring. J Indian Soc Remote Sens 30:73–80. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02989978
Markham BL, Barker JL (1986) Landsat MSS and TM post-calibration dynamic rangers, exoatmospheric reflectance and at-satellite temperatures. EOSAT Landsat Tech Notes 3–8
Marshall SJ, Sharp MJ, Burgess DO, Anslow FS (2007) Near-surface-temperature lapse rates on the Prince of Wales Icefield, Ellesmere Island, Canada: implications for regional downscaling of temperature. Int J Climatol 27:385–398. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.1396
Maturilli M, Herber A, König-Langlo G (2013) Climatology and time series of surface meteorology in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. Earth Syst Sci Data 5:155–163. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-5-155-2013
Mustonen T, Jeffries M, Richter-Menge J, Overland J (2015) Arctic Report Card 2015
Nagai H, Fujita K, Nuimura T, Sakai A (2013) Southwest-facing slopes control the formation of debris-covered glaciers in the Bhutan Himalaya. Cryosph 7:1303–1314. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-7-1303-2013
Nuth C, Gilbert A, Köhler A et al (2019) Dynamic vulnerability revealed in the collapse of an Arctic tidewater glacier. Sci Rep 9:5541. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-41117-0
Patel L, Sharma P, Thamban M (2019) Spatio-temporal variability of snow water equivalent over the Vestre Broggerbreen and Feiringbreen glaciers, Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. J Earth Syst Sci 128:183. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-019-1224-4
Paul F, Kääb A, Maisch M et al (2002) The new remote-sensing-derived Swiss glacier inventory: I. Methods. Ann Glaciol 34:355–361. https://doi.org/10.3189/172756402781817941
Pratibha S, Kulkarni A (2018) Decadal change in supraglacial debris cover in Baspa basin, Western Himalaya. Curr Sci 114:792–799. https://doi.org/10.18520/cs/v114/i04/792-799
Racoviteanu A, Williams MW (2012) Decision tree and texture analysis for mapping debris-covered glaciers in the Kangchenjunga area, eastern Himalaya. Remote Sens 4:3078–3109
Ranzi R, Grossi G, Iacovelli L, Taschner S (2004) Use of multispectral ASTER images for mapping debris-covered glaciers within the GLIMS Project
Reddy KR, Devaraj S, Biradar S et al (2019) Spatial distribution of land use/land cover analysis in Hanamkonda taluk, Telangana - a case study. Indian J Geo-Marine Sci 48:1761–1768
Reid T, Carenzo M, Pellicciotti F, Brock B (2012) Including debris cover effects in a distributed model of glacier ablation. J Geophys Res 117:18105. https://doi.org/10.1029/2012JD017795
Reznichenko NV, Davies TRH, Alexander DJ (2011) Effects of rock avalanches on glacier behaviour and moraine formation. Geomorphology 132:327–338. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2011.05.019
RGI Consortium (2012) Randolph Glacier Inventory – a dataset of global glacier outlines: version 2.0: technical report. , Global Land Ice Measurements from Space, Colorado. Digital Media.
Sahu R, Gupta R (2018) Conceptual framework of combined pixel and object-based method for delineation of debris-covered glaciers. ISPRS Ann Photogramm Remote Sens Spat Inf Sci 173–180
Sahu R, Gupta RD (2020) Glacier mapping and change analysis in Chandra basin, Western Himalaya, India during 1971–2016. Int J Remote Sens 41:6914–6945. https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2020.1752412
Shroder JF, Bishop MP, Copland L, Sloan VF (2000) Debris-covered glaciers and rock glaciers in the Nanga Parbat Himalaya, Pakistan. Geogr Ann Ser A, Phys Geogr 82:17–31. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0435-3676.2000.00108.x
Storey J, Scaramuzza P, Schmidt G (2005) Landsat 7 scan line corrector-off gap-filled product development. In: Pecora 16 “Global Priorities in Land Remote Sensing”
Zhang Y, Hirabayashi Y, Fujita K et al (2016) Heterogeneity in supraglacial debris thickness and its role in glacier mass changes of the Mount Gongga. Sci China Earth Sci 59:170–184. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-015-5118-2
Acknowledgments
National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, Goa has supported the logistical access to Ny-Ålesund to carry out this scientific research work. The authors also thank Drone Aerospace Systems Pvt. Ltd., Sierra Aerospace, and CIIRC-Jyothy Institute of Technology, Bengaluru, Karnataka for supporting the research work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Geetha Priya Mursugesan conceptualized the idea, and provided the necessary resources to carry out this research and supervised Varshini Narayan and Suresh Devaraj throughout this study. Varshini Narayan processed and analyzed the datasets. Geetha Priya Murugesan and Suresh Devaraj wrote the manuscript. Suresh Devaraj provided essential technical inputs that helped improve the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Ethical statement
All ethical practices have been followed in relation to the development, data analysis, writing, and publication of this research article.
Consent to participate
Consent to participate is “Not applicable” for the manuscript.
Consent to publish
The datasets used in the present study are open-access datasets downloaded from USGS Earth explorer, and the results are generated by the author in the laboratory. None of the data used belongs to any person in any form.
Additional information
Responsible Editor: Philippe Garrigues
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Murugesan, G.P., Narayan, V. & Devaraj, S. Spatial analysis of supraglacial debris cover in Svalbard, Arctic Region—a decadal study. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 22823–22831 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-12282-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-12282-x