Glacier & lake areas and snowlines over past two decades: Status of Alaknanda Basin

Abstract

We use satellite remote sensing and a DEM to determine the snowline altitude of the Alaknanda basin. One hundred and six glaciers were monitored, indicating that the Alaknanda basin has decreased in area by 58% over the period 1990-2014. It is observed that snowline altitude is generally higher during 2010/11 than 2012/13 and 2013/14. The lowest snowline altitudes were observed to be 3335 m a.s.l. in March 2011 and 3300 m a.s.l. in February of 2014. Our detailed data on glacial and lake areas over 30 years provide an important spatiotemporal assessment of climate variability in this area. These Ddata which we obtain can be integrated into further on studies to analyze inter-annual glacial and lake area changes and assess hydrological dependence and consequences for downstream populations.