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Effects of Monsoon on Glaciers(A case study of Batura Glacier)

aShahid Iqbal, bMaryam Altaf, cShahid Parvez

aM.Phil (Space Science) Student, Department of Space Science, University of the Punjab, Lahore. <[email protected]>bM.Phil (Space Science) Student, Department of Space Science, University of the Punjab, Lahore. <[email protected]>

cAssistant Professor, Department of Space Science, University of the Punjab, Lahore. <[email protected]>

12-14 Nov 2014, Islamabad

International Conference on Space (ICS-2014) Organized by SUPARCO, IST, and ISNET

www.pu.edu.pk

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Effects of monsoon on glaciers

3. Study objectives / area

4. Methodology

5. MeteoSat processing

6. LandSat processing

7. Variation in snow extents

8. Results and discussions

9. Conclusions

INTRODUCTION

• Pakistan being a glacier resource rich country and dominated by the monsoon

system of the world in the region of “South Asia” always requires proper

monitoring, mapping and estimation for better planning and decision making.

• Pakistan has been bestowed with a high number of glaciers, covering an area of

around 13,680 km2 (Shakir & Ehsan, 2010). These enormous reservoirs of fresh

water serve as a natural regulator of water supplies in the region.

• The water melted from these glaciers serves as an important resource to feed major

rivers in Pakistan. Monsoon rains also provide huge amount of water to these rivers.

EFFECTS OF MONSOON ON GLACIERS

• Melting of glaciers is mainly due to climate variability.

• Seasonal Monsoon is one of the most important dominating factors which affects

this melting process significantly.

• Monsoon is a process that occurs on annual basis but even then it’s not possible to

predict the timing of monsoon and the resulted rainfall amount.

• Monsoon rainfall provides way to decline the towering of glaciers. As much as

the low pressure system is highly intensified as the amount of rainfall increase.

• Higher amount of rainfall causes high melting ratio which cumulatively proves to

enrich the irrigation system of the country.

STUDY OBJECTIVES

• To study Glacier retreat and Monsoon variation in Pakistan

• To monitor the correlation between Glacier retreating due to

Monsoon in Pakistan.

• To explore the potential of remote sensing, image processing,

and GIS.

STUDY AREA• Batura Glacier

• 57 km long glacier

• One of the eight largest glaciers

outside the polar region in the

middle and low latitudes.

• Located at 36o30’N to 36o40’N

and 74o22’33’’E to 74o52’30” E

• 7,500m above sea level.

Batura Glacier

METHODOLOGY

Data

Processing

Results

DATA USED

• METEOSAT-7 geostationary

satellite images (2010-2011)

METEOSAT-7 image

Landsat ETM+ image

• Landsat TM and ETM+images (2009-2011)

METEOSAT PROCESSING

METEOSAT PROCESSING

• From METEOSAT, trajectories were drawn for all three bands visible,

infrared and water vapor using ArcGIS in context of low pressure system.

• The daily movements of monsoon depression (at 24 hours interval) for the

spell-1 in 2010 and spell-2 in 2011 were detected.

• The movement of monsoon spell in 2010 was quite complex as compared

to that in 2011.

• These trajectories provided a good prediction about seasonal monsoon

depression which caused severe rainfall in our country as a result of which

glaciers were affected and their melting rate was changed.

Trajectory of monsoon depression in Visible band for

July 2010 and July 2011

1-7-2010

2-7-2010

3-7-2010

4-7-2010

5-7-2010

6-7-2010

7-7-2010

1-7-2010

2-7-2010

3-7-2010

4-7-2010

5-7-2010

6-7-2010

7-7-2010

1-7-2011

2-7-2011

3-7-2011

4-7-2011

5-7-2011

1-7-2011

2-7-2011

3-7-2011

4-7-2011

5-7-2011

1-7-2010

2-7-2010

3-7-2010

4-7-2010

5-7-2010

6-7-2010

7-7-2010

1-7-2010

2-7-2010

3-7-2010

4-7-2010

5-7-2010

6-7-2010

7-7-2010

1-7-2011

2-7-2011

3-7-2011

4-7-2011

5-7-2011

Trajectory of monsoon depression in Infrared band for


1-7-20112-7-2011

3-7-2011

4-7-2011

5-7-2011

Trajectory of monsoon depression in Water vapor band for


5-7-2011

4-7-2011

3-7-2011

2-7-2011

1-7-2011

1-7-2010

2-7-2010

3-7-2010

4-7-2010

5-7-2010

6-7-2010

7-7-2010

1-7-2011

2-7-2011

3-7-2011

4-7-2011

5-7-2011

1-7-2010

2-7-2010

3-7-2010

4-7-2010

5-7-2010

6-7-2010

7-7-2010

Trajectory of monsoon depression in all three bands for July 2010

1-7-2010

2-7-2010

3-7-2010

4-7-2010

5-7-2010

6-7-2010

7-7-2010

1-7-2010

2-7-2010

3-7-2010

4-7-2010

5-7-2010

6-7-2010

7-7-2010

1-7-20102-7-20103-7-20104-7-20105-7-20106-7-20107-7-2010

1-7-2011

2-7-2011

3-7-2011

4-7-2011

5-7-2011

1-7-2011

2-7-2011

3-7-2011

4-7-2011

5-7-2011

1-7-20112-7-20113-7-20114-7-20115-7-2011

Trajectory of monsoon depression in all three bands for July 2011

• Our observation concludes that yearly and bi-yearly variabilities of the monsoon

depressions at different scales are connected to tropospheric bi-yearly oscillations

(TBYO) and multi yearly variability to El Nino Southern Oscillation.

• The METEOSAT visible imagery clearly indicates that areal extent of the monsoon

depression dated 02-07-2011 is the biggest monsoonal activity that spreads across

the western coast of India to Combodia.

• Such big depression bears tremendous amount of rainfall that can cause natural and

agricultural disasters (e.g., floods, flash-floods, Land-slides, and Erosions, etc.).

• The precise tracking of monsoon depression and their velocities on daily basis can

help masses to minimize financial, anthropogenic and agricultural losses in the

region of monsoon belt.

• The consecutive floods in 2010 and 2011 are the worst examples in the history of

Pakistan that caused a wide spread damage to agricultural, infrastructure, and above

all human lives.

METEOSAT - RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

LANDSAT PROCESSING

• From LANDSAT, we observed variations in snow extents of Batura Glacier

during different years on quarterly basis.

• Apply Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) on all images to

enhance glacier snow relative to other features.

NDSI = (Band 2 - Band 5) / (Band 2 + Band 5)

• Change in glacier area was calculated for all images using unsupervised

classification.

LANDSAT PROCESSING

LANDSAT PROCESSING

Raw Image (Bands 125)

NDSI Image Classified Image

Clipped Image

May 2009

June 2010

May2011

Variation in Snow Extent from 2009 to 2011

47.5956

42.329 43.392

23.0241

28.2907 27.2277

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Snow covered area Snow free area

Sq

Mil

es

June-09May-10 May-11

Sq

Mil

es

47.5956

42.329

43.392

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

30-May-09 5-Jun-10 4-May-11

Snow covered area

July 2009

Aug 2011


July 2010

Sq

Mil

es

37.31334.329

27.7326

33.3068

28.2907

42.8871

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1-Jul-09 11-Jul-10 24-Aug-11


Monsoon

Sq

Mil

es

37.31334.329

27.7326

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

1-Jul-09 11-Jul-10 24-Aug-11

Snow covered area


Sep 2009

Oct 2010

Nov 2011

Monsoon

Sq

Mil

es

33.313

28.0885

48.2913

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

9-Sep-09 9-Oct-10 15-Nov-11

Snow covered area

Sq

Mil

es 33.313

28.0885

48.2913

37.3068

42.5313

22.3284

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

9-Sep-09 9-Oct-10 15-Nov-11


• Based on the statistical analysis, it was deduced that there is a sinusoidal

variation trend in the Batura Glacier snow coverage as shown in Graph.

• Due to melting of Glacier in the summer season, huge amount of water is

available in the month of July.

• In 2010, there was very little snow extent due to high temperature in that

year and causes heavy flood destruction in the Hunza Valley. Because the

Hunza River is the main catchment of Batura Glacier due to which Attabad

Lake at Attabad is formed.

LANDSAT - RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Monsoon Monsoon Monsoon

Temporal Changes of Snow Cover in Batura Glacier from 2009-2011

Sq

Mil

es

61.7695

47.5956

37.313

33.313

59.4726

42.32942.329

28.0885

43.392

27.7326

48.2913

8.85027

23.0241

33.3068

37.3068

11.1472

28.290728.2907

42.5313

27.2277

42.8871

22.3284

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

1-M

ar-0

9

1-A

pr-

09

1-M

ay-0

9

1-J

un

-09

1-J

ul-

09

1-A

ug-

09

1-S

ep-0

9

1-O

ct-0

9

1-N

ov-

09

1-D

ec-

09

1-J

an-1

0

1-F

eb-1

0

1-M

ar-1

0

1-A

pr-

10

1-M

ay-1

0

1-J

un

-10

1-J

ul-

10

1-A

ug-

10

1-S

ep-1

0

1-O

ct-1

0

1-N

ov-

10

1-D

ec-

10

1-J

an-1

1

1-F

eb-1

1

1-M

ar-1

1

1-A

pr-

11

1-M

ay-1

1

1-J

un

-11

1-J

ul-

11

1-A

ug-

11

1-S

ep-1

1

1-O

ct-1

1

1-N

ov-

11


Snow Extent Variations in July

Sq

Mil

es

37.313

34.329

27.7326

33.3068

28.2907

42.8871

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1-Jul-09 11-Jul-10 24-Aug-11


CONCLUSIONS

• It was investigated that snow extent of Batura Glacier decreases

from Snow Falling Season (from Nov to Feb every year) to

Monsoon Season (from June to August every year) in Pakistan,

causing glacier melting.

• The consecutive floods in 2010 and 2011 were the worst examples

in the history of Pakistan due to heavy rains and glacier melting.

• Based on the processing and analysis of Landsat images of 2009-

2011, it was investigated that overall there was a fluctuating trend

in snow cover of the Batura Glacier.

• Remote Sensing and GIS technologies are highly helpful in

identification, mapping, estimation and exploitation of monsoon as

well as glaciers spread under the ambit of spatial and temporal

domains.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Availability and incorporation of ground based data including but

not limited to; water melting, discharge, velocity, snow falling,

and snow depth, etc would be helpful for such studies.

• Similarly microwave imaging data would also be useful for glacier

mapping during cloud and raining seasons.

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Himalaya has received, 17, 119–126.

2. Jilani, R., & Naseer, A. (2008). Monitoring of Mountain Glacial Variations in Northern

Pakistan , and ALOS Data.

3. Miller, J. K. (2010). "The International Karakoram Project" (Volume-2), Proceeding of the

international conference held at the Royal Geographical Society London, Cambridge

University Press, Cambridge.

4. Sara, H., Iqbal, S., Khan, H. U. A., Humza, M., Hassan, M., & Parvez, S. (2013). Poster on

Monitoring and Mapping Batura Glacier using Remote Sensing.

5. Shakir, A. S., & Ehsan, S. (2010). Climate Change Impact on River Flows in Chitral

Watershed, 7, 12–23

6. Potty.K.V.J.,&Mohanty, U.C. (2000).Numerical simulation of monsoon depressions.

7. Pant,G.B.,& Kumar, K.R. (1997). Climates of South Asia, John Wiley &Sons.ISBN 0-471-

94948-5.

8. Rasul, G. and Q. Z Chaudhry. Review of Advance in Research on Asian Summer Monsoon.

Pakistan journal of Meteorology., 6, 1-10(2010).

REFERENCES

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