| Autor: |
Kneib, Marin, Dehecq, Amaury, Brun, Fanny, Karbou, Fatima, Charrier, Laurane, Leinss, Silvan, Wagnon, Patrick, Maussion, Fabien |
| Předmět: |
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| Zdroj: |
EGUsphere; 9/22/2023, p1-34, 34p |
| Abstrakt: |
Avalanches are important contributors to the mass balance of glaciers located in mountain ranges with steep topographies. They result in localised over-accumulation that is seldom accounted for in glacier models, due to the difficulty to quantify this contribution, let alone the occurrence of avalanches in these remote regions. Here, we developed an approach to semi-automatically map avalanche deposits over long time periods and at scales of multiple glaciers, utilising imagery from Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). This approach performs particularly well for scenes acquired in winter and in the morning, but can also be used to identify avalanche events throughout the year. We applied this method to map 16,302 avalanche deposits over a period of five years at a 6 to 12 days interval over the Mt Blanc massif (European Alps), the Everest (Central Himalaya) and Hispar (Karakoram) regions. These three survey areas are all characterised by steep mountain slopes, but also present contrasting climatic characteristics. Our results enable the identification of avalanche hotspots at the surface of these glaciers and allow us to quantify the avalanche activity and its spatio-temporal variability across the three regions. The avalanche deposits are preferentially located at lower elevations relative to the hypsometry of the glacierized catchments, and are also constrained to a smaller elevation range at the Asian sites, where they have a limited influence on their extensive debris-covered tongues. Avalanche events coincide with solid precipitation events, which explains the high avalanche activity in winter in the Mt Blanc massif and during the monsoon in the Everest region. However, there is also a time lag of 1–2 months, visible especially in the Everest region, between the precipitation and avalanche events, indicative of some snow retention on the mountain headwalls. Ultimately, this study provides critical insights into these mass redistribution processes as well as tools to account for their influence on glacier mass balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Databáze: |
Complementary Index |
| Externí odkaz: |
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