Quantifying ice storage in upper Indus river basin using ground-penetrating radar measurements and glacier bed topography model version 2

Ice reserve estimates is a fundamental prerequisite for water resources management. We selected the UIB (upper Indus river basin) as study area because it contains the most abundant mid-latitude glaciers outside the polar region, however, the ice reserve estimates remain unclear due to the harsh topography. In this study, we validated the parameters of the GlabTop2 model (Glacier Bed Topography version 2) using the ice thickness measured by GPR (ground-penetrating radar) and compared the “GPR-measured ice thickness and ice bed elevation” versus “the estimated results obtained from GlabTop2.” Integrated with IDW (inverse distance weighted) interpolated results of glaciers of various sizes, a reasonable parametric scheme (τ = 120 kPa and f = 0.8) of GlabTop2 was applied on vast amounts of glaciers in the UIB region. The GlabTop2 estimates indicated that the ice thickness of the UIB varied from 0 to 736.0 ± 110.0 m, with an average value of 74.5 ± 11.2 m. A significant spatial heterogeneity exists in the sub-basins. The Shyok, Shigar and Hunza that contain the most abundant ice reserve. Lesser quantities are stored in the Western Himalaya and Hindu Kush ranges, which account for 11.3 % and 6.7 % of the total ice reserve in the UIB, respectively. A total volume of 1162.4 ± 175.1 km³ of glacier can be converted to 1046.2 ± 157.6 Gt ice reserve; this is 13.6 times the annual average discharge obtained from the outlet of the Besham hydrological station. We aim to present estimates that can provide the baseline information for glaciology study of the Indus river.