Sovremennye problemy distantsionnogo zondirovaniya Zemli iz kosmosa, 2010, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 43-54
Inventorying of mountain glaciers and regionalization
of their spatial distribution by materials of remote sensing
Institute of geography RAS, Moscow, 29, Staromonetny per., 119017 Moscow
Vector files of glacier contours on the Asia territory were obtained in India, Nepal, China, Pakistan and Russia by
means of processing of topography maps, data of air-photo survey, images from satellites LANDSAT7-ETM+, TERRA-
ASTER, SPOT, IRS-LISS and other space apparatus. These data serve as basic for estimating of size of contemporary
glaciations in the river basins of High Asia and computation of its hydrological regime. Tools and modules of GIS
IDRISI ANDES together with known digital elevation models GTOPO30 (http://eros.usgs.gov/#/Find_Data/Products_
and_Data_Available/GTOPO30) and SRTM 3 (NASA, USGS http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org/) were used to process the vector
files of glacier polygons. The following set of parameters for each glacier was obtained as the result. 1. Minimal and
maximal altitudes of glacier a. s. l. 2. Mean altitude of glacier or low boundary of accumulation area. 3. Area of accumulation
and ablation parts and glacier as a whole. Relationship of areas: a) accumulation and ablation (glaciers coefficient),
and b) accumulation and glacier as a whole (AAR coefficient). 5. Distribution of area as function of altitude. 6.
Standard deviation of altitude inside of glacier contour. 7. Volume of glacier as function of its area. 8. Geographical
coordinates of glacier centroid. 9. Mean values of glacier aspect and slope. For optimization the methods of glacier
regime calculation 3533 homogeneous groups of glaciers were separated inside of watersheds of tributaries of river
basins Amudarya, Syrdarya, Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra and Tarim. As classification criteria were used eight ranges
of aspect and 23 grades of their area. Mean and average weighted characteristics of glacier were determined for each
group. Data in river basins of the High Asia for 27 698 glaciers with total area 43 981 km2 were used for illustration the
capabilities of suggested method.
Keywords: Inventorying, remote sensing, High-mountain Asia, grouping of glaciers
Full text