Contrasting Signals of Glacier Changes in Zanskar Valley,Jammu & Kashmir,India Using Remote Sensing and GIS

The study of advancement and recession of the glaciers in the Himalayas is essential due to their contrasting response towards climatic change. In the present study, Survey of India (SOI) topographical maps of 1962, IRS: LISS-III image of 2001 and LANDSAT-5: TM (Thematic Mapper) image of 2009 were used to analyze the glacier fluctuations in a part of Zanskar valley. The analysis carried out on 212 glaciers indicated decrease of 57 km² (8 %) of glacier area over many glacier which was partly compensated with area increase by 42 km² (6 %) in other glaciers, resulting an overall glacier area decrease by only 15 km² (2 %) from 1962–2001. Due to glacier fragmentation the number of glaciers increased from 212 in 1962 to 238 by 2001. Although majority of glaciers (88 %) exhibited retreat (up to 13 my^?1), minor advancement (<15 my^?1) also took place in few glaciers during this period. Advancement took place mainly in larger glaciers (2–5 km² and >5 km²) located over wider altitudinal range (700 m–1,000 m) whereas smaller glaciers (<2 km²) with narrow altitudinal range (100 m–500 m) exhibited retreat. The supraglacial debris analysis indicated that percentage of debris cover over glaciers ranges from 1.43 % to 18.15 %. Smaller glaciers (<2 km²) were debris free in comparison to the larger glaciers (>5 km²). During 2001–2009 majority of the glaciers were apparently stable in terms of their area and snout position indicating less impact of climate forcing in parts of Zanskar valley as compared to other parts of the Himalaya.     

Enhancing resilience of highway bridges through seismic retrofit

The present study evaluates seismic resilience of highway bridges that are important components of highway transportation systems. To mitigate losses incurred from bridge damage during seismic events, bridge retrofit strategies are selected such that the retrofit not only enhances bridge seismic performance but also improves resilience of the system consisting of these bridges. To obtain results specific to a bridge, a reinforced concrete bridge in the Los Angeles region is analyzed. This bridge was severely damaged during the Northridge earthquake because of shear failure of one bridge pier. Seismic vulnerability model of the bridge is developed through finite element analysis under a suite of time histories that represent regional seismic hazard. Obtained bridge vulnerability model is combined with appropriate loss and recovery models to calculate seismic resilience of the bridge. Impact of retrofit on seismic resilience is observed by applying suitable retrofit strategy to the bridge assuming its undamaged condition prior to the Northridge event. Difference in resilience observed before and after bridge retrofit signified the effectiveness of seismic retrofit. The applied retrofit technique is also found to be cost‐effective through a cost‐benefit analysis. First order second moment reliability analysis is performed, and a tornado diagram is developed to identify major uncertain input parameters to which seismic resilience is most sensitive. Statistical analysis of resilience obtained through random sampling of major uncertain input parameters revealed that the uncertain nature of seismic resilience can be characterized with a normal distribution, the standard deviation of which represents the uncertainty in seismic resilience. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Area Change and Thickness Variation over Pensilungpa Glacier (J&;K) using Remote Sensing

Accurate representations of the Earth’s surface in the form of digital elevation models (DEMs) are essential for a variety of applications in glaciological and remote-sensing research. In the present study area change and thickness variation over Pensilungpa glacier was attempted using remote sensing approach. It can be remarked that a net loss of 9.23 sq. km. which is 38% of the glacier area mapped in 1962 indicate a drastic change over the glacier area during 1962–2007. Estimation of glacier thickness change on Pensilungpa glacier based on ASTER DEM (2003) and Survey of India (SOI) contour based DEM (1962) indicated increase in the glacier elevation in the accumulation zone mainly by 30 to 90 m and similar reduction by 30 to 90 m in the ablation zone.     

Impact of climate change on dynamic behavior of offshore wind turbine

Global warming is expected to change the wind and wave patterns at a significant level, which may lead to conditions outside current design criteria of monopile supported offshore wind turbine (OWT). This study examines the impact of climate change on the dynamic behavior and future safety of an OWT founded in clay incorporating dynamic soil–structure interaction. A statistical downscaling model is used to generate the time series of future wind speed and wave height at local level. The responses and fatigue life of OWT are estimated for present and future periods and extent of change in design is investigated at offshore location along the west coast of India. Wind speed, wave height, and wave period data are collected from the buoy deployed by Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services and the future climate for the next 30 years is simulated using the general circulation model corresponding to Special Report on Emission Scenarios A1B scenario. The OWT is modeled as Euler–Bernoulli beam and soil–structure interaction is incorporated using nonlinear p-y springs. This study shows that changes in design of OWT are needed due to increased responses owing to the effect of climate change. Fatigue life is found to be decreased because of climate change.     

Evaluating patterns of temporal glacier changes in Greater Himalayan Range,Jammu & Kashmir,India

To account for the variable response of the Himalayan glaciers towards climatic warming during the recent past, an attempt has been made in the present study to evaluate the changes in glacier area and shift in glacier snout position of selected glaciers in a part of the Greater Himalayan Range (GHR), Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), India. Multi-temporal satellite images of different years viz. 1975, 1989, 1992, 2001 and 2007 were used for mapping the boundaries of glaciers. Among the three observation periods (1975–1989/1992, 1989/1992–2001 and 2001–2007), during 1989/1992–2001 the majority of the glaciers exhibited considerable decrease in area. In contrast during 2001–2007, some glaciers exhibited increase in area indicating comparatively cooler climatic conditions as compared to the previous period. With reference to snout retreat, all the glaciers had a fluctuating trend of retreat during the observation periods although the retreat rate was higher during 1989/1992–2001 in some glaciers.     

The major lightning regions and associated casualties over India

Natural Hazards - Lightning, a climate-related highly localized natural phenomenon, claims lives and damage properties. These losses could only be reduced by the identification of active seasons...     

Rapid flash flood calamity in Chamoli,Uttarakhand region during Feb 2021: an analysis based on satellite data

Natural Hazards - The present study investigates the accelerating factors for extreme flash flood at Chamoli district of Uttarakhand on 7 February 2021. The Sentinel-2A and 2B satellite data have...     

Aerosol particle behavior during Dust Storm and Diwali over an urban location in north western India

In this study, the aerosol behavior during two contradictory events, i.e., dust storm (DS) and Diwali (DW) has been studied over Jaipur. The aerosol particle number concentration shows distinct features between DS and DW events. The total ANC was found minimum during DS while maximum during DW. The 24 h mean of total ANC was 9.15 × 10⁴ (±7.71 × 10⁴) and 5.38 × 10⁵ (±3.73 × 10⁵ particles/l) during DS and DW, respectively. The total ANC increases from 7.78 × 10⁴ to 5.32 × 10⁵ and 3.52 × 10⁵ to 1.70 × 10⁶ particles/l in 24 h during DS and DW, respectively. In DS, the ANC in coarse mode (2 < particle diameter < 20 μm) is significantly high while in DW, the ANC in fine mode (0.3 < particle diameter < 2 μm) exhibits higher concentration. During dust episode, a significant change in ANC (3.0 × 10³ to 1.12 × 10⁵ particles/l) was observed for the particle of size range in 2.0–20 μm with a slight increase in particles number concentration (7.48 × 10⁴ to 4.20 × 10⁵ particles/l) in 0.3–2.0 μm range is also observed. During DS, the fine and coarse mode particles increased 4.61 and 36.44 times while during DW, it increased 3.83 and 0.95 times, respectively. The relatively high particle levels during DW are attributed for two reasons: local emissions due to burning of fire crackers and meteorological conditions, i.e., low wind speeds and low mixing-layer heights lead to relatively high particle concentrations.