Recent changes of glacier coverage and current state of glacier lake outburst flood in the central Asian mountains.

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The current states of glaciers and glacier lakes in the Tien Shan mountains of Central Asia since 1970 were evaluated using satellite data and field survey. Satellite data showed that mountain glaciers have shrunk in the last 40 years. The glacier reduction has regional differences among the Tien Shan. The large reduction of glacier area was the outer ranges (Pskem region) of Tien Shan which has large annual precipitation and lower mountain ranges. Glacier lakes have also developed in the outer ranges and most of them appeared since the 1980s. In the northern part of Tien Shan, the number of present glacier lakes reached the same as that in the 1970s as many GLOF occur frequently.