Winter speed-up of two surging glaciers in West Kunlun Shan, Northwestern Tibet

Abstract:

We detected winter speed-up of two surging glaciers in the West Kunlun Shan (WKS), based on satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images since 2007. Surging glacier is a surge-type glacier in the active phase, flowing rapidly and transporting ice masses into the down-glaciers. The WKS is located in northwestern Tibetan Plateau (TP) and is one of the driest and the coldest place around TP. Accumulation and ablation mostly occur in summer season from May to August [Zhang et al., 1989; Maussion et al., 2014]. Zhang et al. (1989) estimated the annual average precipitation and temperature near the equilibrium line altitude (5930 m) is 300 mm and -13.9 deg. C, respectively. Under this sub-polar environment, polythermal glaciers exist in the WKS [Aniya, 2008]. We detected development of two surging flow with unprecedented temporal resolution up to 11 days. The two surging initiated around 2000 and continued by 2015. Surging flow accelerated at least 200 m/year. Moreover, it seasonally fluctuated their flow speed up to 200% in early winter against those in spring to early summer. The observed seasonal modulation in the surface velocities strongly suggests the presence of surface meltwater and subsequent rerouting through englacial and subglacial drainage system under a years-long surging glacier in the sub-polar environment.