• A L RAMANATHAN

Articles written in Journal of Earth System Science

• Modelling ice thickness distribution and volume of Patsio Glacier in Western Himalayas

This study presents a recent estimate (for year 2017) of ice thickness and volume of a small glacier called Patsio Glacier located in Western Himalayas. Also, the present study aims to examine whether the improvement in GlabTop2 based estimates obtained for Chhota Shigri Glacier through the use of relatively accurate and high-resolution Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and glacier specific model parameterisation is consistent and can be extended to other glaciers. The version of GlabTop2 model used in this study is GlabTop2_IITB (Glacier Bed Topography version 2_Indian Institute of Technology Bombay). For validation purpose, ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey-based ice thickness estimates available at four cross-section profiles collected during July 2017 was used. Root mean square error (RMSE) of the modelled ice thickness estimates is about 14 m. Average and the maximum thickness of the modelled glacier ice is about 45 and 129 m, respectively. The obtained results when compared with an earlier study carried out using velocity-based approach indicate a significant improvement in the modelling accuracy. Moreover, a 16 percentage points reduction in uncertainty of the estimated ice thickness is seen when compared with a previous study involving different version of GlabTop2 model for Himalaya–Karakoram region. This is perhaps due to the use of a relatively accurate and high-resolution DEM and model parameterisation scheme adopted in this study, thus confirming the consistency of the modelling approach for different glaciers. Based on the obtained ice thickness estimates, the modelled volume of the glacier stored ice was calculated to be 0.11198 $\pm$ 0.0162 km$^{3}$ in 2017.

• # Journal of Earth System Science

Volume 130, 2021
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Posted on July 25, 2019

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