What drives the decrease of glacier surface albedo in High Mountain Asia in the past two decades?

Yao Xiao; Chang-Qing Ke; Xiaoyi Shen; Yu Cai; Haili Li

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160945

What drives the decrease of glacier surface albedo in High Mountain Asia in the past two decades?

Sci Total Environ. 2023 Mar 10:863:160945. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160945. Epub 2022 Dec 14.

Authors

Yao Xiao¹, Chang-Qing Ke², Xiaoyi Shen¹, Yu Cai¹, Haili Li¹

Affiliations

¹ Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science and Technology, Key Laboratory for Land Satellite Remote Sensing Applications of Ministry of Natural Resources, School of Geography and Ocean Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Novel Software Technology and Industrialization, Nanjing 210023, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of South China Sea Studies, Nanjing 210023, China.
² Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science and Technology, Key Laboratory for Land Satellite Remote Sensing Applications of Ministry of Natural Resources, School of Geography and Ocean Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Novel Software Technology and Industrialization, Nanjing 210023, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of South China Sea Studies, Nanjing 210023, China. Electronic address: kecq@nju.edu.cn.

PMID: 36526205
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160945

Abstract

Glacier surface albedo is an important factor affecting glacier ablation, and a positive feedback mechanism has been observed between the surface albedo and mass balance of glaciers. It is important to understand the driving factors and mechanisms of glacier albedo changes (GAC). Based on the MODIS (Moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer)-derived MOD10A1 and MYD10A1 albedo products, the glacier albedo trends in each MODIS grid cell during each melt season in High-Mountains Asia (HMA) from 2000 to 2020 were calculated. Decreasing glacier albedo trends were found, with a decline rate of 0.25 × 10^-2 yr^-1; in addition, the GACs exhibited great spatial differences among the 15 subregions. The geographical detector model (GDM) is a new spatial statistical method that can quantitatively reveal the driving forces of climate factors and light-absorbing particles on GAC under single-factor and two-factor interactions. These driving forces can be measured by the corresponding q value. The results showed that on the whole, solid precipitation (snowfall) had the strongest impact on GAC, followed by the glacier surface temperature. The q values of black carbon (BC) and dust were <0.1, but BC or dust had the greatest q value in the 9 subregions. The effects of each factor differed among different elevation zones. The interaction detector indicated that the q value under the influence of two factors was greater than that under a single factor, and the strongest interaction was between snowfall and BC, followed by between snowfall and dust. In 15 subregions, most of the greatest q values in each region corresponded to an interaction with BC or dust. Here, we obtained the main driving factors of GAC in different regions and emphasized the interactions between climatic factors and light-absorbing particles; these results provide references for further studies of glacier mass balance and surface albedo.

Keywords: Driving factor; Geographical detector model; Glacier albedo changes; High Mountain Asia; Interaction.