Area and Mass Changes of Glaciers in the West Kunlun Mountains Based on the Analysis of Multi-Temporal Remote Sensing Images and DEMs from 1970 to 2018

Abstract

Most of the world’s glaciers have retreated significantly against the background of recent climate warming, while reports have indicated that the glaciers in the West Kunlun Mountains (WKL) may be in a relatively stable state, although there are some gaps in previous research. Based on Landsat series data, topographic maps, SRTM and TanDEM-x data, this paper extracts detailed glacial area information and glacial mass balance during different time periods from 1970 to 2018. We found that, the total area of glaciers in the WKL decreased by 8.0 km2 from 1972 to 2018. The area decreased by 12.0 km2 from 1972 to 1991 and increased by 4.7 km2 from 2010 to 2018. Glacier surface elevation change results in the WKL showed that the overall glacier thickness slightly decreased from 1970 to 2016, with an average of 1.9 ± 1.0 m. The glaciers thinned by approximately 2.5 ± 1.0 m from 1970 to 2000, while from 2000 to 2016, the glaciers thickened approximately by 0.6 ± 1.0 m. Overall, the glaciers in the WKL showed very slight retreat. In addition, the mass changes of glaciers were affected by glacial surging.