青藏高原冰川变化遥感监测研究综述

在全球变暖影响下,青藏高原冰川消融造成的冰川径流增大、冰湖溃决等问题威胁着山区及其周边居民的生命财产安全,对青藏高原冰川变化的研究日益紧迫。本文综述了国内外山地冰川变化遥感监测手段的发展、冰川面积及冰面高程变化的遥感监测研究现状、存在问题与发展趋势,并总结了中国青藏高原冰川变化遥感监测研究的主要成果。此外,本文基于2003-2009年ICESat/GLAS数据,计算了青藏高原各山区冰面高程变化及其冰川消融量。结果显示：青藏高原冰川面积持续减少,青藏高原冰面高程的平均变化为-0.24±0.03 m/a,冰川融水量为-14.86±11.88 km³/a,冰川变化呈现从青藏高原东、南外缘山区往内陆与西、北部山区减慢的时空特征。

A Review on the Research of Glacier Changes on the Tibetan Plateau by Remote Sensing Technologies

It is well known that glaciers in mountains are retreating widely in a warmer climate during recent decades on the Tibetan Plateau (TP). The runoffs from both glaciers and glacier lakes have been increased significantly, and the potential outbursts of glacier lakes have threaten the residence safety in China and the adjacent countries. However, most of the glaciers locate in very distant mountains. As glaciers are difficult to be investigated due to the huge investments and long travelling time of field survey, remote sensing monitoring has been the major approach adopted to understand the changes of glaciers nowadays. This paper has summarized several important items about current glacier studies, which includes: the development of remote sensing techniques on mountain glacier monitoring; the previous concluded results on glacier surface elevation changes in the major mountains on TP; and the problems and research trends of glacier studies based on the remote sensing techniques. Moreover, this paper reveals the glacier surface elevation changes on TP based on the ICESat/GLAS data. It shows that during 2003-2009 the glacier surface elevation on TP has changed by -0.24±0.03 m/a in average and yielding a mass change by -14.86±11.88 km³/a, whose melting water would run into rivers or lakes. The glacier change pattern on TP shows an obviously spatial-temporal heterogeneity, which decreases from the south and east TP toward the inland TP, and then it keeps decreasing toward the north and west TP.