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© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Glaciers play an important role in understanding the climate, water resources, and surrounding natural change. Baishui River Glacier No. 1, a temperate glacier in the monsoon-influenced Southeastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, has experienced significant ablation due to regional warming during the past few decades. However, little is known about the yearly changes in Baishui River Glacier No. 1. To investigate how Baishui River Glacier No. 1 has changed in recent years, digital orthophoto maps and digital elevation models were obtained from an unmanned aerial vehicle on 20 October 2018 and 22 July 2021, covering 84% and 47% of the total area, respectively. The results of the Baishui River Glacier No. 1 changes were obtained by differencing the digital elevation models, manual tracking, and terminus-retreat calculation methods. Our results showed that the surveyed area had a mean elevation change of −4.26 m during 2018 and 2021, and the lower area lost more ice than other areas. The terminus of Baishui River Glacier No. 1 has retreated by 16.35 m/a on average, exhibiting spatial variation with latitude. Moreover, we initially found that there was a high correlation between surface velocity and elevation gradient in this high-speed glacier. The surface velocity of Baishui River Glacier No. 1 was derived with the manual feature tracking method and ranged from 10.48 to 32.00 m/a, which is slightly smaller than the seasonal average. However, the snow coverage and ice melting of the two epochs led to the underestimation of our elevation change and velocity results, which need further investigation.

Details

Title
Yearly Elevation Change and Surface Velocity Revealed from Two UAV Surveys at Baishui River Glacier No. 1, Yulong Snow Mountain
Author
Li, Leiyu 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Yang, Yuande 1 ; Wang, Shijin 2 ; Wang, Chuya 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Wang, Qihua 1 ; Chen, Yuqiao 1 ; Wang, Junhao 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Ai, Songtao 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Che, Yanjun 3 

 Chinese Antarctic Center of Surveying and Mapping, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China; [email protected] (L.L.); [email protected] (C.W.); [email protected] (Q.W.); [email protected] (Y.C.); [email protected] (J.W.); [email protected] (S.A.); Key Laboratory of Polar Environment Monitoring and Public Governance, Ministry of Education, Wuhan 430079, China 
 Yulong Snow Mountain Cryosphere and Sustainable Development Observation and Research Station/State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China; [email protected] 
 Department of Geography Science, Yichun University, Yichun 336000, China; [email protected] 
First page
231
Publication year
2024
Publication date
2024
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
20734433
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2930677306
Copyright
© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.