Five decades of Abramov glacier dynamics reconstructed with multi-sensor optical remote sensing

Mattea E. Berthier E. Dehecq A. Bolch T. Bhattacharya A. Ghuffar S. Barandun M. Hoelzle M.
20 January 2025 Copernicus Publications

Cryosphere
2025 #19 Issue 1 219 - 247 pp.

Reference glacier sites with systematic in situ monitoring provide crucial information to understand trends in regional change. Throughout Central Asia, several sites have been established over the past 15 years, often restarting long-term time series interrupted after the Soviet Unions collapse. The region also features widespread ice flow instabilities, including surge-type glaciers. Unstable ice dynamics have been usually observed within large-scale remote sensing studies, with limited ground validation or historical observations. This hampers interpretation of the driving factors of glacier change, their interaction with mass balance, and regional representativity of single glaciers. Here, we reconstruct ice dynamics at the reference Abramov glacier using satellite-based optical remote sensing. The glacier, monitored in situ over 1967-1999 and again since 2011, experienced a well-documented episode of fast flow in 1972-1973. We compile a 55-year dataset of digital elevation models (DEMs) and orthoimages by processing raw and analysis-ready imagery from multiple archives, including declassified reconnaissance satellites, the Satellite Pour lObservation de la Terre (SPOT), and RapidEye. Our estimates for glacier length and volume changes agree well with previous observational, remote sensing, and model studies. We describe at subseasonal scale a second pulsation over 2000-2005 - not observed in situ and poorly resolved by Landsat and ASTER products. We also measure the buildup to a third velocity pulsation, with doubling of mean annual velocity since 2011 despite a continued mass loss of -0.55 ± 0.06 m w.e. yr-1. The collected evidence indicates that Abramov is a surge-type glacier with a recurrence time of 20-30 years, challenging its representativity for regional mass balance. However, we also find a decreasing magnitude and increasing duration of the pulsations, suggestive of a potential ongoing transition towards more stable dynamics.

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Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
LEGOS, Université de Toulouse, CNES, CNRS, IRD, UT3, Toulouse, France
Univ. Grenoble Alpes, IRD, CNRS, INRAE, Grenoble INP, IGE, Grenoble, 38000, France
Institute of Geodesy, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria
Department of Earth Sciences and Remote Sensing, JIS University, Kolkata, India
Centre for Data Science, JIS Institute of Advanced Studies and Research, Kolkata, India
Department of Space Science, Institute of Space Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan
Central Asian Regional Glaciological Centre, Category 2 centre under the auspices of UNESCO, Almaty, Kazakhstan

Department of Geosciences
LEGOS
Univ. Grenoble Alpes
Institute of Geodesy
Department of Earth Sciences and Remote Sensing
Centre for Data Science
Department of Space Science
Central Asian Regional Glaciological Centre

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