Brief communication: Mass balance of glaciers in the Eastern Hindu Kush from 1979 to 2002 using KH-9 panoramic and SPOT-5 stereo imagery
- 1Institute of Space Technology (Islamabad, Pakistan)
Abstract
Glaciers exhibit region-specific mass loss patterns in response to ongoing climate change. In this study, we provide a geodetic mass balance assessment for glaciers within the Hindu Kush region spanning the period 1979–2002, utilizing KH-9 panoramic imagery and SPOT-5 stereo satellite imagery. Our analysis reveals a moderate mass loss of -0.14±0.09 m w.e. a ⁻¹ , a rate similar to post-2000 observations given their uncertainties. We found that debris-covered glaciers and clean-ice glaciers experienced a nearly similar mass loss at the respective rates of -0.15±0.08 and -0.14±0.11 m w.e. a ⁻¹ , which is close to the regional mass balance. However, we observe that most of the retreating glaciers are clean-ice with the highest retreat of 2.4 km. Additionally, we discuss and analyze the response of the surging glaciers, and observe a mass loss of -0.15±0.12 and -0.14±0.08 m w.e. a ⁻¹ for surging and non-surging glaciers, respectively. These observations represent the first geodetic mass balance estimates for the Eastern Hindu Kush prior to 2000, extending the temporal record of glacier change by two decades and revealing that moderate mass loss has been sustained since the late 1970s, similar to the post-2000 observations.
Versions
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BibTeX
@article{ramzan2026brief,
title = {{Brief communication: Mass balance of glaciers in the Eastern Hindu Kush from 1979 to 2002 using KH-9 panoramic and SPOT-5 stereo imagery}},
author = {Azka Ramzan and Sajid Ghuffar},
journal = {The Cryosphere},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.5194/tc-20-5993-2026},
url = {https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/20/5993/2026/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Brief communication: Mass balance of glaciers in the Eastern Hindu Kush from 1979 to 2002 using KH-9 panoramic and SPOT-5 stereo imagery
AU - Azka Ramzan
AU - Sajid Ghuffar
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/15
JO - The Cryosphere
DO - 10.5194/tc-20-5993-2026
UR - https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/20/5993/2026/
AB - Glaciers exhibit region-specific mass loss patterns in response to ongoing climate change. In this study, we provide a geodetic mass balance assessment for glaciers within the Hindu Kush region spanning the period 1979–2002, utilizing KH-9 panoramic imagery and SPOT-5 stereo satellite imagery. Our analysis reveals a moderate mass loss of -0.14±0.09 m w.e. a ⁻¹ , a rate similar to post-2000 observations given their uncertainties. We found that debris-covered glaciers and clean-ice glaciers experienced a nearly similar mass loss at the respective rates of -0.15±0.08 and -0.14±0.11 m w.e. a ⁻¹ , which is close to the regional mass balance. However, we observe that most of the retreating glaciers are clean-ice with the highest retreat of 2.4 km. Additionally, we discuss and analyze the response of the surging glaciers, and observe a mass loss of -0.15±0.12 and -0.14±0.08 m w.e. a ⁻¹ for surging and non-surging glaciers, respectively. These observations represent the first geodetic mass balance estimates for the Eastern Hindu Kush prior to 2000, extending the temporal record of glacier change by two decades and revealing that moderate mass loss has been sustained since the late 1970s, similar to the post-2000 observations.
SN - 1994-0424
ER -