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Spatio-temporal patterns related to the viscous creep in perennially frozen sediments of rock glaciers in cold mountains have rarely been studied outside the densely populated European Alps. This study investigates the spatial and temporal variability of rock glacier movement in the Ile Alatau and Kungöy Ala-Too mountain ranges, northern Tien Shan, a region with particularly large and fast rock glaciers. Over the study region of more than 3000 km 2 , an inventory of slope movements was constructed using a large number of radar interferograms and high-resolution optical imagery. The inventory includes more than 900 landforms, of which around 550 were interpreted as rock glaciers. Out of the active rock glaciers inventoried, 45 are characterized by a rate of motion exceeding 100 cm/a. From these fast rock glaciers we selected six (Gorodetzky, Morenny, Archaly, Ordzhonikidze, Karakoram, and Kugalan Tash) and studied them in more detail using offset tracking between repeat aerial images and historical and modern high-resolution optical satellite data. Two of these rock glaciers showed a steady increase in decadal surface velocities from the 1950s onwards, with speeds being roughly 2 to 4 times higher in recent years compared to the 1950s and 1960s. Three rock glaciers showed similar accelerations over the last 1 to 2 decades but also phases of increased speeds in the 1960s. This development indicates a possible significant increase in current sediment and ice fluxes through rock glaciers and implies that their material transport in the region might gain geomorphodynamic importance relative to material transport by glaciers, assuming the latter decreases together with the regional glacier shrinkage. The study demonstrates how air and satellite image archives are exploited to construct one of the longest decennial times series of rock glacier speeds currently available. Our results are in line with findings from Europe about rock glacier speeds increasing with atmospheric warming and underline local variability of such an overall response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present an updated, spatially resolved estimate of 2003–2008 glacier surface elevation changes for the entire region of High Mountain Asia (HMA) from ICESat laser altimetry data. The results reveal a diverse pattern that is caused by spatially greatly varying glacier sensitivity, in particular to precipitation availability and changes. We introduce a spatially resolved zonation where ICESat samples are grouped into units of similar glacier behaviour, glacier type and topographic settings. In several regions, our new zonation reveals local differences and anomalies that have not been described previously. Glaciers in the Eastern Pamirs, Kunlun Shan and central TP were thickening by 0.1–0.7 m a -1 , and the thickening anomaly has a crisp boundary in the Eastern Pamirs that continues just north of the central Karakoram. Glaciers in the south and east of the TP were thinning, with increasing rates towards southeast. We attribute the glacier thickening signal to a stepwise increase in precipitation around ∼1997 –2000 on the Tibetan Plateau (TP). The precipitation change is reflected by growth of endorheic lakes in particular in the northern and eastern TP. We estimate lake volume changes through a combination of repeat lake extents from Landsat data and shoreline elevations from ICESat and the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) digital elevation model (DEM) for over 1300 lakes. The rise in water volume contained in the lakes corresponds to 4–25 mm a -1 , when distributed over entire catchments, for the areas where we see glacier thickening. The precipitation increase is also visible in sparse in situ measurements and MERRA-2 climate reanalysis data but less visible in ERA-Interim reanalysis data. Taking into account evaporation loss, the difference between average annual precipitation during the 1990s and 2000s suggested by these datasets is 34–100 mm a -1 , depending on region, which can fully explain both lake growth and glacier thickening (Kunlun Shan) or glacier geometry changes such as thinning tongues while upper glacier areas were thickening or stable (eastern TP). The precipitation increase reflected in these glacier changes possibly extended to the northern slopes of the Tarim Basin, where glaciers were nearly in balance in 2003–2008. Along the entire Himalaya, glaciers on the first orographic ridge, which are exposed to abundant precipitation, were thinning less than glaciers in the dryer climate of the inner ranges. Thinning rates in the Tien Shan vary spatially but are rather stronger than in other parts of HMA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a reconstruction of the seasonal mass balance of Glacier No. 354, located in the Akshiirak range, Kyrgyzstan, from 2003 to 2014. We use a distributed accumulation and temperature-index melt model driven by daily air temperature and precipitation from a nearby meteorological station. The model is calibrated with in situ measurements of the annual mass balance collected from 2011 to 2014. The snow-cover depletion pattern observed using satellite imagery provides additional information on the dynamics of mass change throughout the melting season. Two digital elevation models derived from high-resolution satellite stereo images acquired in 2003 and 2012 are used to calculate glacier volume change for the corresponding period. The geodetic mass change thus derived is used to validate the modelled cumulative glacier-wide balance. For the period 2003–12 we find a cumulative mass balance of –0.40±10mw.e.a-1. This result agrees well with the geodetic balance of –0.48±0.07mw.e.a-1over the same period. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Geographic variability of the recent changes of glacier coverage in the Tien Shan Mountains, Central Asia, is assessed using Corona KH-4B satellite photographs for 1968–1971, Landsat 7 ETM+data for 1999–2002, and ALOS/PRISM and AVNIR data for 2006–2008. The four mountain regions investigated (Pskem, Ili-Kungöy, At-Bashy, and SE-Fergana) cover several distributed glacierized areas in the Tien Shan Mountain system, a region that is affected by highly variable local precipitation regimes. Over the 30years investigated between ~1970 and ~2000, glacier area decreased by 19% in the Pskem region, 12% in the Ili-Kungöy region, 12% in the At-Bashy region, and 9% in the SE-Fergana region. In the last 7years (~2000 to ~2007), glacier area shrank by 5% in the Pskem region, 4% in the Ili-Kungöy region, 4% in the At-Bashy region, and 0% in the SE-Fergana region. Glacier behavior has varied markedly in these regions. The most dramatic glacier shrinkage has occurred in the outer ranges of the Tien Shan Mountains. Recent glacier area loss has resulted from rising summer temperatures. Regional differences of glacier-area changes related to local climate conditions, to the altitudinal distribution of glacier areas, and to the relative proportion of glaciers in different size classes. The observed accelerated glacier shrinkage is expected to have two impacts on the more populated outer ranges: 1) water shortages during summer and 2) increased threat from glacier hazards such as glacier lake outburst floods (GLOFs) and ice avalanches. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In Kyrgyzstan, outburst flood disasters from glacial lakes are increasing. An example is the sudden drainage on 8 August 2019 of the Toguz-Bulak glacial lake in the Tosor river basin of the northern Tien Shan region. In this study, we used remote sensing and field surveys to examine the reasons for the outburst. We found that the lake area changed from 0.021 km² to 0.002 km2 due to the outburst, in which most of the initial 130,000 m3 of water discharged within four hours. In examining the longer-term behavior of this lake, we found that from 2010 through 2019, it appears in June and disappears in September every year. Its maximum area occurs in late July and early August. With the expansion of the lake basin between 2010 and 2019, the lake also increased greatly in size, particularly so in the three years before the outburst, linked to high summer temperatures and the resulting higher inflow of glacier meltwater, finally leading to the sudden drainage in 2019. Before this outburst, a 2-m high moraine dam retained the lake. Continuously inflowing meltwater and the related increasing pressure by the lake water mass eventually broke the moraine dam. Satellite radar interferometry revealed active displacement fringes in the lake basin and moraine dam due to the melting and subsidence of buried ice. An analysis using digital elevation models from 1964 and 2010 also confirms the surface lowering in the lake basin by up to 8.5 m and on the moraine dam by 2 m. Such lowering of the proglacial moraine complex destabilized the moraine dam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the responses of Tien Shan glaciers - and glaciers elsewhere - to climatic changes are becoming increasingly well understood, this is less the case for permafrost in general and for rock glaciers in particular. We use a novel approach to describe the climate sensitivity of rock glaciers and to reconstruct periods of high and low rock glacier activity in the Tien Shan since 1895. Using more than 1500 growth anomalies from 280 trees growing on rock glacier bodies, repeat aerial photography from Soviet archives and high-resolution satellite imagery, we present here the world's longest record of rock glacier movements. We also demonstrate that the rock glaciers exhibit synchronous periods of activity at decadal timescales. Despite the complex energy-balance processes on rock glaciers, periods of enhanced activity coincide with warm summers, and the annual mass balance of Tuyuksu glacier fluctuates asynchronously with rock glacier activity. At multi-decadal timescales, however, the investigated rock glaciers exhibit site-specific trends reflecting different stages of inactivation, seemingly in response to the strong increase in air temperature since the 1970s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using field surveys in 2013, 2014, and 2016 plus satellite data from the 1999–2015 period, we analyze the seasonal drainage cycle of supraglacial lakes on seven debris-covered glaciers in the central Tien Shan. We characterize this cycle by the number of lakes and their water levels. The cycle of the Southern Inylchek Glacier starts to increase in the beginning of April, reaches a maximum in May–June, and decreases sharply in June–July. The increase in April to June comes from an inflow of meltwater from snow and ice, and the subsequent decrease arises from a greater connectivity to the englacial drainage network. For the Southern Inylchek Glacier, 94% of the supraglacial lakes that exist and appear during 2013–2015 drain during all three years, indicating that most lakes could connect to the englacial drainage network for three years. Concerning the water level, lakes in close proximity and with the same base-level tend to synchronize their seasonal water levels through the englacial channels. Although the maximum water level of the three-year, field-measured lake is about the same from 2014 through 2016, the date of maximum water level varies between mid-May and mid-June. During this period, the lifetime and size of the supraglacial lakes are controlled by the timing of their connectivity to the englacial drainage network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]