Light-absorbing impurities in glacial environments over western Himalaya from reanalysis data and in situ observations.

In context with the scientific evidence of aerosol deposition induced snow and glacier melt, this paper provides baseline information about the spatiotemporal variability of aerosols and snow-ice chemistry filling the data and knowledge gap over the western Himalaya, India based on recently published paper [1]. A systematic approach was employed that entailed analysis of aerosol variability over four decades using MERRA-2 (Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications) data over five major mountain ranges in the western Himalaya. Further, data about nine physicochemical parameters was generated over three selected glaciers in the study area. HYSPLIT (HYbrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory) model simulated air mass sources at weekly intervals. This dataset is valuable for future investigations aimed at understanding and characterizing the impacts of light-absorbing impurities on radiative forcing, albedo changes, snow-melt, glacier recession and water quality in the western Himalaya.

Ascertaining glacier dynamics and geodetic mass changes in the Pangong Region of Trans-Himalayan Ladakh using remote sensing data.

Glaciers in the Himalayan arc are receding rapidly in the eastern and western parts as compared to other regions. Contrararily, the glaciers in the Trans-Himalayan region of Ladakh are comparatively stable. The differential retreat could be due to various climatic, topographic, and geologic influences. The use of multi-source remotely sensed imagery from open-source platforms and the GlabTop model has been discussed in this paper. This paper draws insights from a recently published paper which details the recession of 87 glaciers in the Trans Himalayan region of Ladakh using remote sensing data [1]. The use of remote sensing data from USGS and Planet Labs for assessing glacier area changes, frontal retreat, debris cover, topographic characteristics, and comparison with existing inventories has been discussed in this study. The geodetic mass changes have been assessed using SRTM and TanDEM-X of 2000 and 2012 respectively. The use of remotely sensed data discussed in this article will help glaciologists to better characterize and understand the glacier recession in the region. The GlabTop model has been used to simulate proglacial lake expansion to understand glacier-bed overdeepenings of four glaciers in the region. The GlabTop simulations will help disaster managers to better quantify the vulnerability and risk of downstream population and infrastructure to Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs).