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Climate-Glacier Relationship in the Monsoon-Arid Transition Zone: a Case Study in Himachal Pradesh, India

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Climate-Glacier Relationship in the Monsoon-Arid Transition Zone: a Case Study in Himachal Pradesh, India Climate-Glacier relationship in the monsoon-arid transition zone : A Case study in Himachal Pradesh, India Farooq Azam Mohd To cite this version: Farooq Azam Mohd. Climate-Glacier relationship in the monsoon-arid transition zone : A Case study in Himachal Pradesh, India. Earth Sciences. Université de Grenoble, 2014. English. NNT : 2014GRENU032. tel-01230980 HAL Id: tel-01230980 https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01230980 Submitted on 19 Nov 2015 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. THESIS Submitted to obtain the degree of DOCTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GRENOBLE Speciality : Earth Sciences, Universe and Environment Arrêté ministériel : 1 November 2011 Presented by Mohd Farooq AZAM Thesis directed by Patrick Wagnon and co-directed by Christian Vincent & Ramanathan Alagappan Prepared in the Laboratoire de Glaciologie et de Géophysique de l’Environnement/Laboratoire d'Etudes des Transferts en Hydrologie et Environnement, UJF/CNRS in Doctoral school Earth Sciences, Universe and Environment Climate-Glacier relationship in the monsoon-arid transition zone: A Case study in Himachal Pradesh, India. Defended publicly : 17 December 2014, Before the jury : Mr. Gerhard KRINNER Research Director, CNRS, LGGE (France), President Mr. Martin HOELZLE Professor, University of Fribourg (Switzerland), Reporter Mr. Thomas SCHULER Assistant Professor, University of Oslo (Norway), Reporter Mr. Pierre RIBSTEIN Professor, Pierre-and-Marie-Curie University (France), Examiner Mr. Claudio SMIRAGLIA Professor, University of Milano (Italy), Examiner Mr. Patrick WAGNON Chargé de recherche, IRD, LTHE (France), Director Mr. Christian VINCENT Ingénieur de Recherche, CNRS, LGGE (France), Co-director Mr. Ramanathan ALAGAPPAN Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University (India), Co-guide Université Joseph Fourier / Université Pierre Mendès France / Université Stendhal / Université de Savoie / Grenoble INP Dedicated to: the victims of Leh flash flood in August 2010, Kedarnath disaster in June 2013 and J&K flood in September 2014 Abstract The Hindu-Kush Karakoram Himalaya (HKH) region is the largest snow and ice reservoir on the planet outside the Polar Regions. In the HKH region the mass balance and meteorological observations are sparse and the historical knowledge is mainly concentrated on snout fluctuation records. Hitherto, the understanding of glacier-climate relationship is poor in the HKH region. Therefore, the goal of the present work is to improve the understanding of glacier-climate relationship on a representative glacier Chhota Shigri’ in the western Himalaya. A number of in-situ measurements concerning mass balances, surface velocity, ice thickness and meteorology have been collected during and before the present PhD work since 2002. These data sets were first analyzed to understand the glacier behaviour and then used in the models to understand the glacier relationship with climatic variables. Between 2002 and 2013, glacier showed a mass wastage/unsteady-state conditions with a cumulative mass loss of –6.45 m w.e. Further, the ice flux analysis over 2002-2010 suggested that the glacier has experienced a period of steady-state or slightly positive mass balance during the 1990s. We first reconstructed the annual and seasonal mass balances using a degree day model from simple meteorological variables, precipitation and temperature. This reconstruction allowed us to examine the mass balances between 1969 and 2012. Since 1969, Chhota Shigri showed a moderate mean mass wastage at a rate of −.3 m w.e. a-1. A period of steady-state between 1986 and 2000, already suggested by ice flux analysis and geodetic measurements, was confirmed. The mass balance evolution of this glacier revealed that the mass wastage is recent and provide a very different pattern than that of usually found in the literature on western Himalayan glaciers. The analysis of decadal time scale mass balances with meteorological variables suggested that winter precipitation and summer temperature are almost equally important drivers controlling the mass balance pattern of this glacier. Second, in order to understand the detailed physical basis of climatic drivers, a surface energy balance study was also performed using the in-situ meteorological data from the ablation area of Chhota Shigri Glacier. Net all-wave radiation was the main heat flux towards surface with 80% contribution while sensible, latent heat and conductive heat fluxes shared 13%, 5% and 2% of total heat flux, respectively. Our study showed that the intensity of snowfall events during the summer- monsoon is among the most important drivers responsible for glacier-wide mass balance evolution of Chhota Shigri Glacier. However, due to the lack of precipitation measurements and the strong precipitation gradient in this region, the distribution of precipitation on the glacier remains unknown and needs further detailed investigations. Keywords: Himalaya, Glacier, Mass Balance, Steady-State, Energy Balance, Summer-Monsoon, Albedo. i Résumé La région de l’Hindu-Kush Karakoram Himalaya (HKH) est la plus grande région englacée de la planète, exceptée les calottes polaires. Dans cette région, les mesures météorologiques et de bilans de masse sont sporadiques et les observations glaciologiques concernent essentiellement les mesures de fluctuations des fronts des glaciers. Ainsi, la réponse de ces glaciers aux changements climatiques est très mal connue. Le but de ce travail de thèse est d’améliorer la connaissance de des relations entre les variables météorologiques et les bilans de masse glaciaires à partir de l’étude du glacier Chhota Shigri situé dans l’Ouest de l’Himalaya. De nombreuses mesures in-situ de bilans de masse, de vitesses d’écoulement, d’épaisseurs et de météorologie ont été réalisées depuis et au cours de ce PhD. L’analyse de ces observations permet de comprendre le comportement du glacier au regard des fluctuations climatiques. Entre 2002 et 2013, nos observations indiquent une perte de masse cumulée équivalente à une lame d’eau de -.5 m. Par ailleurs, l’analyse des observations des flux de glace suggèrent que le glacier a connu un état proche d’un état d’équilibre avec des bilans nuls ou légèrement positifs au cours des années 1990. Nous avons reconstitués les bilans de masse annuels et saisonniers depuis 1969 en utilisant des variables météorologiques. Depuis 1969, les bilans de masse sont faiblement négatifs, équivalents à -.3 m d’eau par an. Cette reconstitution montre que le glacier était proche de l’état d’équilibre entre 1 et , ce qui confirme les résultats obtenus à partir de l’analyse des flux de glace et des mesures géodésiques. Cette étude montre également que la perte de masse glaciaire est récente et révèle des fluctuations de bilans de masse avant l’année très différentes de ce que l’on trouve dans la littérature. L’analyse des bilans de masse à l’échelle décennale révèle que les précipitations hivernales et les températures estivales jouent un rôle sensiblement équivalent. Afin de comprendre plus en détail les variables climatiques qui contrôlent le bilan de masse, une étude a été conduite à partir des flux d’énergie en surface à l’aide de stations météorologiques sur le glacier et à proximité du glacier. Le bilan net de toutes les longueurs d’onde contrôlent % des flux d’énergie entrant en surface alors que les flux de chaleur sensible, latente et conductif contribue pour 13, 5 et 2 % respectivement du flux entrant total. Par ailleurs, notre étude montre que les événements de fortes précipitations au cours de la période de mousson jouent un rôle important sur l’évolution des bilans de masse. Néanmoins, à cause du manque de données de précipitation dans cette région et le fort gradient régional, la répartition des précipitations sur le glacier reste mal connue. Keywords: Himalaya, Glacier, Bilan de masse, Etat d’équilibre, Bilan d’énergie, Mousson, Albedo. iii Acknowledgements This research was funded by Institut de recherche pour le Développement (IRD), France and supported by Indo-French Centre for the Promotion of Advanced Research (IFCPAR) project no. 3900- W1, the French Service d’Observation GLACIOCLIM as well as the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India. My love for the mountains dates back to early years of my childhood. My obsession for mountains led me to incessant encounters with the glaciers where the fact endowed upon me to understand the declining health of the Himalaya by contributing in the field of glaciology. The eagerness to contribute to the glacier research took proper shape with my supervisors Patrick and Christian to whom I owe my deepest reverence. Besides, being true mentors they always kept a friendly environment. The several visits to Christian’s family were always refreshing. I would also like to express my gratitude to Prof. AL Ramanathan who provided me amenities in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi as well as for the field expeditions on Chhota Shigri Glacier. Great thanks to Yves for providing the computer machine to carry out this work.
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