Wreckage of glaciers over central Qinghai-Tibet Plateau from multi-mission satellite data and its relationship with climate change

As a response to climate change, the change of glaciers over Qinghai-Tibet plateau (QTP) has attracted interest for its significant impact on water supply in a large area in Asia. This study presents area, thickness, and volume change of glaciers in Dongkemadi region in central QTP, based on sequential Landsat images, multi-date elevation data from ICESat and empirical area-volume scaling relationship. The results show that the study glaciers have experienced a dramatic shrinkage from 1976 to 2011, with the glacial area reduced by 10.34% and volume reduced by 13.7%. The wreckage of glacier has been accelerated since 1990s and the rate of glacier loss has been stabilized at a linear rate of 0.26 km2 a-1 (0.29% a-1) since 1995. The elevation data reveal that the thinning was dominant over 2003-2008 with a linear rate of -0.56m a-1.We find that variation of glaciers is most strongly influenced by annual temperature, especially the summer temperature..