regionally differentiated contribution of mountain glaciers and ice caps to future sea level rise the contribution to sea level rise from mountain glaciers and ice caps has grown over the past decades a projection of their melting during the twenty first century based on temperature and precipitation projections from ten climate models suggests that by 2100 these glaciers will lose about 21 of their total global volume

a debris flow calendar derived from sediments of lake lago di braies n italy abstract in this study lake sediments were used for developing a high resolution calendar of past debris flow events debris flows frequently occur in the high alpine catchment of the lake lago di braies n italy while the coarse grained material accumulates on the debris flow cones the fine grained material is flushed into the lake this material forms characteristic layers in the lake sediments which are different from the typical annual lamination by analysing thin sections of sediment debris flow events of the last 2250 years were reconstructed with an annual resolution since debris flow frequency varies strongly periods with high and low frequencies can be distinguished however neither a debris flow magnitude frequency relationship nor a strong reaction of debris flow activity to past climate changes was identifiable in this study

effect of precipitation seasonality on climatic sensitivity of glacier mass balance abstract numerical calculations are described aimed at evaluating the influence of precipitation seasonality and seasonality concentration on climatic sensitivity of glacier mass balance equilibrium line altitudes elas are modeled using idealized meteorological variables and then a warming test 1 c is performed which revealed that the effects of latitude and the annual precipitation amount are less than those of precipitation seasonality and its concentration calculation shows higher sensitivities for the glaciers located in a summer precipitation climate than for those located within a winter precipitation climate difference due to seasonality is enhanced with the seasonality concentration the present study suggests that the earlier parameterization of glacier mass balance with annual precipitation amount is insufficient to describe the response of glaciers to climate change distribution of precipitation seasonality and its concentration suggest that many parts of the world have a summer precipitation climate but their seasonality concentration is not significant worldwide on the other hand an extensive region of asia and part of the andes are located in the highly concentrated summer precipitation climate this suggests the high sensitivity of glacier mass balance in these regions to climate change

downwasting of the debris covered area of lirung glacier in langtang valley nepal himalaya from 1974 to 2010 abstract despite the widespread shrinkage of debris covered himalayan glaciers in recent decades the underlying processes driving these changes are poorly understood this study presents recent mass balance data for the debris covered area of lirung glacier in langtang valley nepal himalaya constrained using multi temporal remotely sensed digital elevation models calibrated to in situ gps survey data and surface flow velocity data from phase only correlation the results indicate surface lowering of between 1 3 and 1 8 m a 1 during the study period 1974 2010 with accelerated glacier thinning after 2000 similarly we observed a decline in emergence velocity in the upper debris covered area since 2000 we argue that this deceleration plays a key role in surface lowering in contrast to declining surface mass balance which we suggest is a residual effect of emergence velocity and surface lowering taken together our findings indicate that the recent increase in surface lowering is attributable to the declining flux of ice from the upper to lower debris covered areas of lirung glacier furthermore this pattern suggests that downwasting of the upper debris covered area will be augmented by a positive feedback between surface lowering and decelerated flow velocity

spatially variable response of himalayan glaciers to climate change affected by debris cover the present state and future evolution of himalayan glaciers has been controversial an analysis of remotely sensed frontal changes and surface velocities from glaciers in the greater himalaya between 2000 and 2008 shows large regional variability in the responses of himalayan glaciers to climate change

late holocene annual growth in three alpine stalagmites records the influence of solar activity and the north atlantic oscillation on winter climate annual growth rates and the ratio of dark to light colored calcite within single annual laminae in three contemporaneously deposited holocene speleothems from grotta di ernesto an alpine cave in northern italy respond to changes in surface temperature rather than precipitation based on monitoring of present day calcite growth and correlation with instrumental data for surface climatic conditions we interpret a higher ratio of dark to light colored calcite and the simultaneous thinning of annual laminae as indicative of colder than present winters such dark and thin laminae occur in those parts of the three stalagmites deposited from ad 1650 to 1713 and from ad 1798 to 1840 as reconstructed through lamina counting these periods correspond to the well known maunder and dalton minima of solar activity an 11 yr cyclicity in growth rate coupled with reduced calcite deposition during the historic minima of solar activity is indicative of a solar influence on lamina thickness spectral analysis of the lamina thickness data also suggests that the north atlantic oscillation variability influenced winter temperatures based on the present day controls on cave calcite formation we infer that high frequency changes in solar activity modulated the seasonal duration of soil co2 production

performance of aster and srtm dems and their potential for assessing glacial lakes in the lunana region bhutan himalaya to assess the potential volume of a glacial lake outburst flood glof more precisely than in previous studies we analyze ground survey data and remote sensing digital elevation models dems around glacial lakes in the lunana region bhutan based on a dem generated from differential gps ground surveys we first evaluate the relative accuracies of dems produced by the advanced spaceborne thermal emission and reflection radiometer aster and the shuttle radar topography mission srtm root mean square errors of the altitudinal difference between these dems and ground survey data were 11 0 m for aster and 11 3 m for srtm these errors are similar to those of previous studies we show that a topographical classification allows a better estimate of elevation on lakes ponds riverbeds and glaciers due to their flat surfaces while the relative accuracy is worse over moraines and hill slopes due to their narrow ridges and steep slopes using the optical satellite images and the ground survey data we re evaluate the glof volume in 1994 as 17 2 5 3 10 6 m 3 we show glof related information such as distance altitudinal difference and gradient at possible outburst points where the lake level is higher than the neighboring riverbed and or glacial lake

time variable ice loss in asian high mountains from satellite gravimetry abstract substantial amount of glacial ice is considered to be melting in the asian high mountains gravimetry by grace satellite during 2003 2009 suggests the average ice loss rate in this region of 47 12 gigaton gt yr 1 equivalent to 0 13 0 04 mm yr 1 sea level rise this is twice as fast as the average rate over 40 years before the studied period and agrees with the global tendency of accelerating glacial loss such ice loss rate varies both in time and space mass loss in himalaya is slightly decelerating while those in northwestern glaciers show clear acceleration uncertainty still remains in the groundwater decline in northern india and proportion of almost isostatic e g tectonic uplift and non isostatic e g glacial isostatic adjustment portions in the current uplift rate of the tibetan plateau if gravity increase associated with ongoing glacial isostatic adjustment partially canceled the negative gravity trend the corrected ice loss rate could reach 61 gt yr 1

palaeogeographical reconstructions of lake maliq korca basin albania between 14 000 bp and 2000 bp since the early 1990s excavations of a protohistoric lakeside settlement in the korca basin carried out by a french albanian archaeological team have induced geomorphological and palynological studies about the sedimentary records of lake maliq these studies allow us to distinguish a series of centennial scale high and low lake level events between 4200 and 4000 cal bp 2899 2637 bc 2843 2416 bc and 2600 cal bp 822 671 bc probably due to large scale climate changes in the mediterranean basin in addition the sediment sequence also gives evidence of a millennial scale trend of lake level rise it appears to be an interplay between lake level rises and falls against tectonic subsidence of the basin allowing accommodation space for sediment deposition the variations of the lake s level and the lake s surface area influenced the development and the abandonment of the nearby lakeside settlements like the tell of sovjan in order to prepare an archaeological survey around the now dried up lake we made a 3d model of the holocene deposit from the lake including these lake level results geomorphological mapping excavation data numerous core logs ams 14 c dating and srtm dem data the gis model allowed us to propose four palaeogeographical reconstructions of the extension of lake maliq around 14 000 bp during the mesolithic around 9000 bp 8781 8542 bc the early middle bronze age transition around 3800 bp 2310 2042 bc and the iron age 2600 bp 822 671 bc a map of the thickness of the sediments above potential archaeological layers is also proposed

persistent positive north atlantic oscillation mode dominated the medieval climate anomaly the medieval climate anomaly mca was the most recent pre industrial era warm interval of european climate yet its driving mechanisms remain uncertain we present here a 947 year long multidecadal north atlantic oscillation nao reconstruction and find a persistent positive nao during the mca supplementary reconstructions based on climate model results and proxy data indicate a clear shift to weaker nao conditions into the little ice age lia globally distributed proxy data suggest that this nao shift is one aspect of a global mca lia climate transition that probably was coupled to prevailing la nina like conditions amplified by an intensified atlantic meridional overturning circulation during the mca

glacier mass balance in the qinghai tibet plateau and its surroundings from the mid 1970s to 2000 based on hexagon kh 9 and srtm dems abstract in the context of global warming glacier changes in the qinghai tibet plateau qtp and its surroundings have attracted a great amount of public attention to date there have been many studies of glacier mass balance across the qtp however given that most of the previous studies have focused on a short observation period 2000 2015 and that long term mass change measurements are available only for some local regions we utilized declassified kh 9 images and 1 arc second shuttle radar topography mission srtm digital elevation models dems to provide the region wide mass balance from the mid 1970s to 2000 for a larger scale including 11 sample regions across the qtp and its surroundings the final results indicate that the glaciers in the northwest of the qtp have shown a less negative or near zero mass balance ranging from 0 11 0 13 m w e a 1 to 0 02 0 10 m w e a 1 compared to those in the southeast part with a mass balance range of 0 30 0 12 m w e a 1 to 0 11 0 14 m w e a 1 the most serious mass loss has emerged in the central eastern himalaya integrating our results with the observations after 2000 suggests that over the past four decades mid 1970s to the mid 2010s the glaciers in the himalaya nyainqentanglha and tanggula mountains as a whole have exhibited accelerated mass loss and the most significant acceleration has occurred in the eastern nyainqentanglha moreover the hindu raj glaciers have shown a stable rate of continuous mass loss while a nearly stable or slight mass gain state in the western kunlun region can be dated back to at least as far as the mid 1970s

regional and global volumes of glaciers derived from statistical upscaling of glacier inventory data 1 very few global scale ice volume estimates are available for mountain glaciers and ice caps although such estimates are crucial for any attempts to project their contribution to sea level rise in the future we present a statistical method for deriving regional and global ice volumes from regional glacier area distributions and volume area scaling using glacier area data from 123 000 glaciers from a recently extended world glacier inventory we compute glacier volumes and their sea level equivalent sle for 19 glacierized regions containing all mountain glaciers and ice caps on earth on the basis of total glacierized area of 741 103 68 103 km2 we estimate a total ice volume of 241 103 29 103 km3 corresponding to 0 60 0 07 m sle of which 32 is due to glaciers in greenland and antarctica apart from the ice sheets however our estimate is sensitive to assumptions on volume area scaling coefficients and glacier area distributions in the regions that are poorly inventoried i e antarctica north america greenland and patagonia this emphasizes the need for more volume observations especially of large glaciers and a more complete world glacier inventory in order to reduce uncertainties and to arrive at firmer volume estimates for all mountain glaciers and ice caps

magnetotelluric array data analysis from north west fennoscandia abstract new magnetotelluric mt data in north west fennoscandia were acquired within the framework of the project magnetotellurics in the scandes masca the project focuses on the investigation of the crustal and upper mantle lithospheric structure in the transition zone from stable precambrian cratonic interior to passive continental margin beneath the caledonian orogen and the scandinavian mountains in western fennoscandia an array of 59 synchronous long period and 220 broad band mt sites was occupied in the summers of 2011 to 2013 we estimated mt transfer functions in the period range from 0 003 to 10 5 s the q function multi site multi frequency analysis and the phase tensor were used to estimate strike and dimensionality of mt data dimensionality and strike analyses indicate generally 2 d behaviour of the data with 3 d effects at some sites and period bands in this paper we present 2 d inversion of the data 3 d inversion models are shown in the parallel paper we choose to invert the determinant of the impedance tensor to mitigate 3 d effects in the data on our 2 d models seven crustal scale and four lithospheric scale 2 d models are presented the resistive regions are images of the archaean and proterozoic basement in the east and thin caledonian nappes in the west the middle and lower crust of the svecofennian province is conductive the southern end of the kittila greenstone belt is seen in the models as a strong upper to middle crustal conductor in the caledonides the highly conductive alum shales are observed along the caledonian thrust front the thickest lithosphere is in the palaeoproterozioc svecofennian domain not in the archaean the thickness of the lithosphere is around 200 km in the north and 300 km in the south west

reconstructing absolute water level variability of lake prespa sw balkans during the medieval climate anomaly and little ice age from a prograding beach ridge complex lake prespa beach ridges register climate driven water level fluctuations that contain a strong north atlantic signal this study examines the beach ridge complex that underlies the koula isthmus

the physical basis of glacier volume area scaling ice volumes are known for only a few of the roughly 160 000 glaciers worldwide but are important components of many climate and sea level studies which require water flux estimates a scaling analysis of the mass and momentum conservation equations shows that glacier volumes can be related by a power law to more easily observed glacier surface areas the relationship requires four closure choices for the scaling behavior of glacier widths slopes side drag and mass balance reasonable closures predict a volume area scaling exponent which is consistent with observations giving a physical and practical basis for estimating ice volumes glacier volume is insensitive to perturbations in the mass balance scaling but changes in average accumulation area ratios reflect significant changes in the scaling of both mass balance and ice volume

twenty first century glacier slowdown driven by mass loss in high mountain asia glaciers in high mountain asia have experienced heterogeneous rates of loss since the 1970s yet the associated changes in ice flow that lead to mass redistribution and modify the glacier sensitivity to climate are poorly constrained here we present observations of changes in ice flow for all glaciers in high mountain asia over the period 2000 2017 based on one million pairs of optical satellite images trend analysis reveals that in 9 of the 11 surveyed regions glaciers show sustained slowdown concomitant with ice thinning in contrast the stable or thickening glaciers of the karakoram and west kunlun regions experience slightly accelerated glacier flow up to 94 of the variability in velocity change between regions can be explained by changes in gravitational driving stress which in turn is largely controlled by changes in ice thickness we conclude that despite the complexities of individual glacier behaviour decadal and regional changes in ice flow are largely insensitive to changes in conditions at the bed of the glacier and can be well estimated from ice thickness change and slope alone changes in glacier speed in high mountain asia are closely linked to mass balance through gravitational driving stress and largely insensitive to basal conditions according to satellite derived ice flow observations

elevation changes of glaciers revealed by multitemporal digital elevation models calibrated by gps survey in the khumbu region nepal himalaya 1992 2008 due to remoteness and high altitude only a few ground based glacier change studies are available in high mountain areas in the himalaya however digital elevation models based on remotely sensed data rs dems provide feasible opportunities to evaluate how fast himalayan glaciers are changing here we compute elevation changes in glacier surface total area 183 3 km in the khumbu region nepal himalaya for the period 1992 2008 using multitemporal rs dems and a map derived dem calibrated with differential gps survey data in 2007 elevation change is calculated by generating a weighted least squares linear regression model our method enables us to provide the distribution of uncertainty of the elevation change debris covered areas show large lowering rates the spatial distribution of elevation change shows that the different wastage features of the debris covered glaciers depend on their scale slope and the existence of glacial lakes the elevation changes of glaciers in the eastern khumbu region are in line with previous studies the regional average mass balance of 0 40 0 25mw e a for the period 1992 2008 is consistent with a global value of about 0 55mw e a for the period 1996 2005

electrical conductivity structure of north west fennoscandia from three dimensional inversion of magnetotelluric data abstract new magnetotelluric mt data in north west fennoscandia were acquired within the framework of the project magnetotellurics in the scandes masca the project focuses on the investigation of the crustal and upper mantle lithospheric structure in the transition zone from stable precambrian cratonic interior to passive continental margin beneath the caledonian orogen and the scandinavian mountains in western fennoscandia an array of 59 simultaneous long period and 220 broad band mt sites were occupied in the summers of 2011 to 2013 the 3 d inversion of the masca data was obtained using the modem 3 d code the full impedance and tipper data were used for the inversion the rocks of archaean and proterozoic basement towards east and the caledonian nappes towards west are modelled as resistive structures in the central and southern parts the whole crust is resistive and reflects the trans scandinavian igneous belt granitoids the middle to lower crust of the svecofennian province is conductive an uppermost crustal conductor is revealed in the skelleftea ore district the south end of the kittila greenstone belt is seen in the models as a strong upper to middle crustal conductor in the caledonides the highly conductive alum shales are observed along the caledonian thrust front a map of the crustal conductance for the north west fennoscandian shield is presented

glacier surface motion pattern in the eastern part of west kunlun shan estimation using pixel tracking with palsar imagery mountain glacier is considered as one of the most sensitive natural indicators of climate change glacier surface motion distribution in west kunlun shan wks has been attracting considerable attention and represents a fundamental glacier parameter for better understanding glacier dynamics ice mass balance and even for the climate change this paper would present the accurate ice motion observation of mountain glacier in eastern part of wks by the refined pixel tracking method with phased array type l band synthetic aperture radar images acquired on december 13 2008 and january 28 2009 the standard deviation values in nonglacial area before after topographic effect compensation are 0 61 and 0 43 m respectively during 46 day temporal interval in addition the terrain almost is a determining factor of ice velocity distribution in study area because the elevation of topography is generally shown to be positive correlated with glacier surface velocity along the central line furthermore with estimated detailed glacier surface movement distribution pattern we found that the continental glaciers were actively moving with spatially variable ice motion while the icecaps maintain the stable status without apparent motion on most part of surface therefore the refined sar based pixel tracking method including topographic effect compensation operation provides a useful and robust tool to map and measure the glacier motion in mountain area with complex terrain

changes in ice thickness and flow velocity of yala glacier langtang himal nepal from 1982 to 2009 to investigate recent glacier changes in the himalayan region we carried out gps and ground penetrating radar gpr measurements at yala glacier a benchmark glacier in nepal glacier surface elevation and ice thickness were surveyed along a 1 5 km profile from the glacier top to the terminus ice flow velocity was measured at five locations by surveying stakes for either 1 year or 4 day periods obtained surface elevation and ice velocity were compared with those measured in 1982 and 1996 the mean ice thickness along the radar profile was 36 m in 2009 and the ice has been thinning at rates of 0 69 0 25 and 0 75 0 24 m a 1 during the periods 1982 96 and 1996 2009 respectively the thinning rate increases down glacier reaching a magnitude up to 1 8 m a 1 near the terminus from 1996 to 2009 the ice velocity has reduced by 70 from 1982 to 2009 in the lower half of the glacier by assuming a constant driving stress over the glacier the total ice volume in 2009 was estimated as 0 061 km 3 our results indicate that yala glacier has lost 40 of its ice volume over the last 27 years and that the rate of the mass loss has accelerated over the last decade

late glacial to holocene climate change and human impact in the mediterranean the last ca 17ka diatom record of lake prespa macedonia albania greece lake prespa macedonia albania greece occupies an important location between mediterranean and central european climate zones although previous multi proxy research on the late glacial to holocene sequence core co1215 320 cm ca 17 cal ka bp to present has demonstrated its great value as an archive of quaternary palaeoclimate data some uncertainty remains in the interpretation of climate change with the exception of oxygen stable isotope data previous palaeolimnological interpretation has relied largely on proxies for productivity here existing interpretation is strengthened by the addition of diatom data results demonstrate that shifts in diatom assemblage composition are driven primarily by lake level changes and thus permit more confident interpretation of shifts in moisture availability over time while corroborating previous interpretation of catchment and climate induced productivity shifts an inferred cold arid shallow lake phase between ca 17 1 and 15 7 cal ka bp is not only followed by a high productivity phase from ca 15 7 cal ka bp with late glacial warming but also is the first evidence for a gradual increase in lake level in line with other regional records clear evidence for a younger dryas climate reversal between ca 13 1 and 12 3 cal ka bp is followed by an unusually gradual transition to the holocene and deeper oligotrophic mesotrophic lake conditions are reached by ca 11 0 cal ka bp in contrast to the arid episode from ca 10 0 to 8 0 ka inferred from positive 18 ocalcite values rapid diatom inferred lake level increase after the start of the holocene suggests high moisture availability in line with palynological evidence but with only very subtle evidence for the impact of an 8 2 ka cold event the maintenance of high lake levels until 1 9 cal ka bp and the peak of inferred humidity from ca 7 9 to 6 0 cal ka bp matches the oxygen stable isotope profile and confirms that the latter is driven primarily by evaporative concentration rather than reflecting regional shifts in precipitation sources over time during the late holocene progressive eutrophication is inferred between 1 9 and present two shallow phases at ca 1 0 cal ka bp and at ca 100 years ago probably represent an aridity response which is added to increase human impact in the catchment overall the study is important in confirming previous tentative inferences that late glacial to holocene moisture availability has strong affinity with other sites in the eastern mediterranean it also tracks the pattern of north atlantic forcing

seasonal surface velocities of a himalayan glacier derived by automated correlation of unmanned aerial vehicle imagery debris covered glaciers play an important role in the high altitude water cycle in the himalaya yet their dynamics are poorly understood partly because of the difficult fieldwork conditions in this study we therefore deploy an unmanned aerial vehicle uav three times may 2013 october 2013 and may 2014 over the debris covered lirung glacier in nepal the acquired data are processed into orthomosaics and elevation models by a structure from motion workflow and seasonal surface velocity is derived using frequency cross correlation in order to obtain optimal surface velocity products the effects of different input data and correlator configurations are evaluated which reveals that the orthomosaic as input paired with moderate correlator settings provides the best results the glacier has considerable spatial and seasonal differences in surface velocity with maximum summer and winter velocities 6 and 2 5ma 1 respectively in the upper part of the tongue while the lower part is nearly stagnant it is hypothesized that the higher velocities during summer are caused by basal sliding due to increased lubrication of the bed we conclude that uavs have great potential to quantify seasonal and annual variations in flow and can help to further our understanding of debris covered glaciers

spatial seasonal and interannual variability of supraglacial ponds in the langtang valley of nepal 1999 2013 supraglacial ponds play a key role in absorbing atmospheric energy and directing it to the ice of debris covered glaciers but the spatial and temporal distribution of these features is not well documented we analyse 172 landsat tm etm scenes for the period 1999 2013 to identify thawed supraglacial ponds for the debris covered tongues of five glaciers in the langtang valley of nepal we apply an advanced atmospheric correction routine landcor 6s and use band ratio and image morphological techniques to identify ponds and validate our results with 2 5 m cartosat 1 observations we then characterize the spatial seasonal and interannual patterns of ponds we find high variability in pond incidence between glaciers may october means of 0 08 1 69 of debris area with ponds most frequent in zones of low surface gradient and velocity the ponds show pronounced seasonality appearing in the pre monsoon as snow melts peaking at the monsoon onset at 2 of debris covered area then declining in the post monsoon as ponds drain or freeze ponds are highly recurrent and persistent with 40 5 of pond locations occurring for multiple years rather than a trend in pond cover over the study period we find high interannual variability for each glacier after controlling for seasonality

relative contribution of surface mass balance and ice flux changes to the accelerated thinning of the mer de glace alps over 1979 2008 by subtracting surface topographies from 1979 1994 2000 and 2008 we measured ice thinning rates increasing from 1 m a 1 1979 1994 to more than 4 m a 1 2000 2008 on the tongue of the mer de glace the relative contributions of changes in surface mass balance and ice fluxes to this acceleration in the thinning are estimated using field and remote sensing measurements between 1979 1994 and 2000 2008 surface mass balance diminished by 1 2 m w e a 1 mainly because of atmospheric warming mass balance changes induced by the growing debris covered area and the evolving glacier hypsometry compensated each other meanwhile the mer de glace slowed down and the ice fluxes through two cross sections at 2200 m a s l and 2050 m a s l decreased by 60 between 1979 1994 and 2000 2008 two thirds of the increase in the thinning rates was caused by reduced ice fluxes and one third by rising surface ablation however those numbers need to be interpreted cautiously given our inability to respect mass conservation below our upper cross section an important implication is that large errors would occur if one term of the continuity equation e g surface mass balance was deduced from the two others e g elevation and ice flux changes

recent contributions of glaciers and ice caps to sea level rise satellite measurements of earth s gravity field show that the mass loss of glaciers and ice caps contributed to sea level rise by approximately 0 4 millimetres per year between 2003 and 2010 the extent to which mass loss from ice covered land areas contributes to sea level rise is not known accurately in part because previous global estimates use different techniques for glaciers ice caps and ice sheets the gravity recovery and climate experiment grace satellite has provided monthly measurements of the global gravity field since 2002 using grace data jacob et al assess regional mass loss between 2003 and 2010 and conclude that mass loss from ice covered land areas contributed almost 1 5 mm per year to the sea level rise estimated mass loss from the high mountains of asia was negligible in contrast to some other reports glaciers and ice caps gics are important contributors to present day global mean sea level rise1 2 3 4 most previous global mass balance estimates for gics rely on extrapolation of sparse mass balance measurements1 2 4 representing only a small fraction of the gic area leaving their overall contribution to sea level rise unclear here we show that gics excluding the greenland and antarctic peripheral gics lost mass at a rate of 148 30 gt yr 1 from january 2003 to december 2010 contributing 0 41 0 08 mm yr 1 to sea level rise our results are based on a global simultaneous inversion of monthly grace derived satellite gravity fields from which we calculate the mass change over all ice covered regions greater in area than 100 km2 the gic rate for 2003 2010 is about 30 per cent smaller than the previous mass balance estimate that most closely matches our study period2 the high mountains of asia in particular show a mass loss of only 4 20 gt yr 1 for 2003 2010 compared with 47 55 gt yr 1 in previously published estimates2 5 for completeness we also estimate that the greenland and antarctic ice sheets including their peripheral gics contributed 1 06 0 19 mm yr 1 to sea level rise over the same time period the total contribution to sea level rise from all ice covered regions is thus 1 48 0 26 mm 1 which agrees well with independent estimates of sea level rise originating from land ice loss and other terrestrial sources6

structure of the scandes lithosphere from surface to depth abstract in this review we give an overview of geophysical data and models available for the scandinavian mountains and adjacent areas as they are of relevance to the debate about the existence and cause of neogene uplift emphasis is given to potential field and petrophysical data of which the earth science communities of norway and sweden have a long tradition of acquisition and interpretation this is reflected in the wealth and dense coverage of data available the topography of the scandes mountain chain correlates to a large degree with a bouguer gravity low which suggests isostatic compensation but comparison with magnetic and petrophysical data shows that the gravity low is partly influenced by the trans scandinavian igneous belt signals due to the effects of surface geology can be further eliminated by considering the near surface density distribution as provided by petrophysical sampling to illuminate the entire lithospheric structure active and passive seismic and magnetotelluric data can be used recent and ongoing experiments are aimed at improving the existing models of the lithosphere integration of these different geophysical data sets allows the structure of the lithosphere of the scandes and its surroundings to be addressed seismic models show no pronounced crustal root below the scandes which could provide isostatic compensation but instead an increase of crustal thickness towards the central fennoscandian shield from the integrated model isostatic compensation is inferred to be largely controlled by the density distribution of the crust and that a high density lower crust to the east of the scandes is necessary to achieve isostatic equilibrium on a regional scale we demonstrate the typical crustal structure with profiles crossing from the scandes into the shield and a combined onshore offshore basement map

discovering anomalous dynamics and disintegrating behaviour in glaciers of chandra bhaga sub basins part of western himalaya using dinsar abstract glacier velocity is one of the important parameters to know about glacier dynamics its mass and health understanding glacier velocity also assists in the analysis of ice thickness ice flux and mass balance furthermore basin sub basin wise studies are helpful to understand the climate change over that region instead of monitoring individual glaciers in the current study the spatial distribution of glacier velocity is generated for the entire chandra and bhaga sub basins in the lahaul spiti district of himachal pradesh india using advanced land observing satellite 2 phased array type l band synthetic aperture radar 2 alos 2 palsar 2 differential interferometry pair images with a 14 days temporal gap the glaciers in chandra sub basin are found to have a high flow rate as compared to the glaciers in bhaga sub basin local slope and ice thickness which decrease towards the terminus in general control the movement of valley glaciers and lower movement rate is observed for most of glaciers towards the terminus frontal area however a few glaciers of bhaga sub basin demonstrate an accelerated movement in their frontal areas this irregular behaviour is also studied in this work and it is discovered that terrain slope and influx of melting water from adjacent glaciers are the major causes for such behaviour of these glaciers they are therefore prone to accelerated mass loss compared to other glaciers in the sub basin another key finding of the anomalous glacier dynamics study is the disintegrating behaviour of glaciers which is also identified by interpreting the responses of physical scattering mechanisms retrieved from glaciers using fully polarimetric alos 2 palsar 2 warming temperatures are expected to cause glacier retreat and separation of tributary glaciers from the main glacier body melt water from tributary glaciers can further accelerate glacier flow and ice melt in lower part of glacier trunk this can lead to formation of dead ice zones and disintegration of himalayan glaciers which are supported by numerous tributary glaciers therefore we expect that the loss in glacier area due to warming will be larger than the present prediction where mass loss is considered from conventional way