Dynamic Response of Glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau to Climate Change - Phase III (DynRG-TiP-III)

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Glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau (TiP) are characteristic elements of the natural environment forming water resources of cardinal importance both for ecosystems and local population. During the last decades, strong climate trends and related changes in glacial systems have been observed. Despite the existence of many glaciological studies virtually nothing is known on the dynamic response of glaciers on the TiP to climate change. The central goal of the proposed research is improving our understanding of atmosphere-cryosphere interactions on the TiP by adding new data and improved methods on short- and long-term variations in energy and mass balance components due to large-scale atmospheric forcing, including variations and shifts in glacier dynamics induced by climate change. As in Phase I of the DynRG-TiP project, field studies and remote sensing data analyses will focus on glaciers in the Nyainqentanglha Mountains near Nam Co, where the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP) of the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) operates one of the best facilitated research stations of the TiP. The field measurements carried out by the ITP have been supplemented by own field measurements and analysis of remote sensing data in Phase I, and shall be continued and further improved in Phase II. Based on the observational data we will further develop and apply an optimised numerical model framework for computing surface energy and mass balance components of selected glaciers on the TiP to estimate their future dynamic response on climate change. The promising results achieved during Phase I indicate that the continuation of the project is of high scientific value.