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An Integrated Approach to Quantify Changes in NW Indian Himalayan Ice and Snow in Large Spatial Extent

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Abstract

Monitoring spatio-temporal changes in glaciers and snow is important for estimating the impact of climate change in glaciated landscapes. The existing methods to map snow, ice, and debris-covered glaciers are complicated and have limitations. We introduce an integrated methodology to map the extent of total snow, isolated ice pockets together with the glaciers at the regional (megascopic) scale. In addition, we examined the sensitivity of the proposed methodology to different scales of mapping and datasets with different spatial resolutions (Landsat 8—30 m and Sentinel 2A—10 m). We implemented the approach in the five major river basins of Northwest India and developed an inventory for all the components of its glaciated area. All these data will help by providing inputs in hydrological models for assessing meltwater generated from the catchment. A change detection analysis in all these five river basins shows a maximum decrease in glacier and ice bodies by around 40% in the Ravi River basin to an overall 3% decrease in glacier and ice bodies in the Beas River basin over the past two and a half decades. The maximum loss in permanent snow cover is also in the Ravi River basin, whereas snow cover in the Yamuna River basin shows a slight increase. We also observed a rise in temperature, a recession of snowlines, and the emergence of glacial lakes in the region.

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Acknowledgements

This study has been carried out with the support from the Ministry of Education, Government of India. Data availability from the Google Earth Engine, Google Earth, the Global Land Ice Measurements from Space initiative (GLIMS) for their RGI glacier inventory product, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts for ERA5 data, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) for their digital elevation model, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for their open access product is greatly appreciated.

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, Government of India.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India

    Pritha Chakravarti, Vikrant Jain & Vimal Mishra

Authors
  1. Pritha Chakravarti
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  2. Vikrant Jain
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  3. Vimal Mishra
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Pritha Chakravarti. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Pritha Chakravarti and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Pritha Chakravarti.

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Chakravarti, P., Jain, V. & Mishra, V. An Integrated Approach to Quantify Changes in NW Indian Himalayan Ice and Snow in Large Spatial Extent. Remote Sens Earth Syst Sci 6, 188–207 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41976-023-00092-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41976-023-00092-x

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