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| Titel |
Assessment of permafrost distribution maps in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region using rock glaciers mapped in Google Earth |
| VerfasserIn |
M.-O. Schmid, P. Baral, S. Gruber, S. Shahi, T. Shrestha, D. Stumm, P. Wester |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
1994-0416
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: The Cryosphere ; 9, no. 6 ; Nr. 9, no. 6 (2015-11-11), S.2089-2099 |
| Datensatznummer |
250116868
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/tc-9-2089-2015.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
The extent and distribution of permafrost in the mountainous parts of the
Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region are largely unknown. A long tradition of permafrost research, predominantly on rather
gentle relief, exists only on the Tibetan
Plateau. Two permafrost maps are available digitally that
cover the HKH and provide estimates of permafrost extent, i.e., the areal
proportion of permafrost: the manually delineated Circum-Arctic Map of
Permafrost and Ground Ice Conditions (Brown et al.,
1998) and the Global Permafrost Zonation Index, based on a computer model
(Gruber, 2012). This article provides a first-order assessment of
these permafrost maps in the HKH region based on the mapping of rock glaciers.
Rock glaciers were used as a proxy, because they are visual indicators of
permafrost, can occur near the lowermost regional occurrence of permafrost
in mountains, and can be delineated based on high-resolution
remote sensing imagery freely available on Google Earth. For the mapping,
4000 square samples (~ 30 km2) were randomly
distributed over the HKH region. Every sample was investigated and rock
glaciers were mapped by two independent researchers following precise
mapping instructions. Samples with insufficient image quality were recorded
but not mapped.
We use the mapping of rock glaciers in Google Earth as first-order evidence
for permafrost in mountain areas with severely limited ground truth. The
minimum elevation of rock glaciers varies between 3500 and 5500 m a.s.l. within
the region. The Circum-Arctic Map of Permafrost and Ground Ice
Conditions does not reproduce mapped conditions in the HKH region
adequately, whereas the Global Permafrost Zonation Index does so with more
success. Based on this study, the Permafrost Zonation Index is inferred to
be a reasonable first-order prediction of permafrost in the HKH. In the
central part of the region a considerable deviation exists that needs
further investigations. |
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