Coupling of decreased snow accumulation and increased light-absorbing particles accelerates glacier retreat in the Tibetan Plateau

Chaoliu Li; Fangping Yan; Chao Zhang; Shichang Kang; Mukesh Rai; Hongbo Zhang; Shuai Hu; Cenlin He

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151095

Coupling of decreased snow accumulation and increased light-absorbing particles accelerates glacier retreat in the Tibetan Plateau

Chaoliu Li
, Fangping Yan
, Chao Zhang
, Shichang Kang
, Mukesh Rai
, Hongbo Zhang
, Shuai Hu
, Cenlin He

Hydrometeorological Applications Program

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Most glaciers in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) are experiencing dramatic retreat, which is resulting in serious environmental and ecological consequences. In addition to temperature increases, increased light-absorbing particles (LAPs) and decreased precipitation were proposed to, independently, play important roles in reducing glacier accumulation. Based on investigations of effect from an extremely low precipitation event in the TP and surrounding regions caused by La Niña from October 2020 to April 2021, a new mechanism was provided. It was shown that decreased precipitation during study period leaded to both low snow accumulation and high LAP concentrations in snow on glacier surfaces in the TP. This phenomenon will strongly enhance earlier and accelerated glacier melt in this critical region and needs to be considered in future related studies.

Original language	English
Article number	151095
Journal	Science of the Total Environment
Volume	809
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151095
State	Published - Feb 25 2022

Keywords

Black carbon
Glacier melt
La Niña
The Tibetan Plateau

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10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151095

Cite this

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title = "Coupling of decreased snow accumulation and increased light-absorbing particles accelerates glacier retreat in the Tibetan Plateau",

abstract = "Most glaciers in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) are experiencing dramatic retreat, which is resulting in serious environmental and ecological consequences. In addition to temperature increases, increased light-absorbing particles (LAPs) and decreased precipitation were proposed to, independently, play important roles in reducing glacier accumulation. Based on investigations of effect from an extremely low precipitation event in the TP and surrounding regions caused by La Ni{\~n}a from October 2020 to April 2021, a new mechanism was provided. It was shown that decreased precipitation during study period leaded to both low snow accumulation and high LAP concentrations in snow on glacier surfaces in the TP. This phenomenon will strongly enhance earlier and accelerated glacier melt in this critical region and needs to be considered in future related studies.",

keywords = "Black carbon, Glacier melt, La Ni{\~n}a, The Tibetan Plateau",

author = "Chaoliu Li and Fangping Yan and Chao Zhang and Shichang Kang and Mukesh Rai and Hongbo Zhang and Shuai Hu and Cenlin He",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Coupling of decreased snow accumulation and increased light-absorbing particles accelerates glacier retreat in the Tibetan Plateau

AU - Li, Chaoliu

AU - Yan, Fangping

AU - Zhang, Chao

AU - Kang, Shichang

AU - Rai, Mukesh

AU - Zhang, Hongbo

AU - Hu, Shuai

AU - He, Cenlin

PY - 2022/2/25

Y1 - 2022/2/25

N2 - Most glaciers in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) are experiencing dramatic retreat, which is resulting in serious environmental and ecological consequences. In addition to temperature increases, increased light-absorbing particles (LAPs) and decreased precipitation were proposed to, independently, play important roles in reducing glacier accumulation. Based on investigations of effect from an extremely low precipitation event in the TP and surrounding regions caused by La Niña from October 2020 to April 2021, a new mechanism was provided. It was shown that decreased precipitation during study period leaded to both low snow accumulation and high LAP concentrations in snow on glacier surfaces in the TP. This phenomenon will strongly enhance earlier and accelerated glacier melt in this critical region and needs to be considered in future related studies.

AB - Most glaciers in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) are experiencing dramatic retreat, which is resulting in serious environmental and ecological consequences. In addition to temperature increases, increased light-absorbing particles (LAPs) and decreased precipitation were proposed to, independently, play important roles in reducing glacier accumulation. Based on investigations of effect from an extremely low precipitation event in the TP and surrounding regions caused by La Niña from October 2020 to April 2021, a new mechanism was provided. It was shown that decreased precipitation during study period leaded to both low snow accumulation and high LAP concentrations in snow on glacier surfaces in the TP. This phenomenon will strongly enhance earlier and accelerated glacier melt in this critical region and needs to be considered in future related studies.

KW - Black carbon

KW - Glacier melt

KW - La Niña

KW - The Tibetan Plateau

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85117712206

U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151095

DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151095

M3 - Article

C2 - 34688751

AN - SCOPUS:85117712206

SN - 0048-9697

VL - 809

JO - Science of the Total Environment

JF - Science of the Total Environment

M1 - 151095

ER -

Coupling of decreased snow accumulation and increased light-absorbing particles accelerates glacier retreat in the Tibetan Plateau

Abstract

Keywords

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