Dust dominates glacier darkening across majority of the Tibetan Plateau based on new measurements

Fangping Yan; Chaoliu Li; Shichang Kang; Zhaofu Hu; Chao Zhang; Chengde Yang; Pengfei Chen; Junhua Yang; Yinbo Xu; Yang Li; Shaopeng Gao; Cenlin He

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164661

Dust dominates glacier darkening across majority of the Tibetan Plateau based on new measurements

Sci Total Environ. 2023 Sep 15:891:164661. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164661. Epub 2023 Jun 3.

Authors

Fangping Yan¹, Chaoliu Li², Shichang Kang³, Zhaofu Hu¹, Chao Zhang¹, Chengde Yang³, Pengfei Chen³, Junhua Yang³, Yinbo Xu⁴, Yang Li⁵, Shaopeng Gao⁶, Cenlin He⁷

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: lichaoliu@nieer.ac.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁴ School of Geographical Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400045, China; State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China.
⁵ Institute of International Rivers and Eco-security, Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan 650500, China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment (TPESRE), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
⁷ Research Applications Laboratory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO 80301, USA.

PMID: 37277041
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164661

Abstract

Rapid retreat and darkening of most glaciers in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) are enhanced by the deposition of light-absorbing particles (LAPs). Here, we provided new knowledge on the estimation of albedo reduction caused by black carbon (BC), water-insoluble organic carbon (WIOC), and mineral dust (MD), based on a comprehensive study of snowpit samples from ten glaciers across the TP collected in the spring of 2020. According to the albedo reductions caused by the three LAPs, the TP was divided into three sub-regions: the eastern and northern margins, Himalayas and southeastern TP, and western to inner TP. Our findings indicated that MD had a dominant role in causing snow albedo reductions across the western to inner TP, with comparable effects to WIOC but stronger effects than BC in the Himalayas and southeastern TP. BC played a more important role in the eastern and northern margins of the TP. In conclusion, the findings of this study emphasize not only the important role of MD in glacier darkening across majority of the TP but also the influence of the WIOC in enhancing glacier melting which indicates the dominant contribution of non-BC components in the LAP-related glacier melting of the TP.

Keywords: Albedo reduction; Black carbon; Mineral dust; Tibetan Plateau; Water-insoluble organic carbon.