The subject of climate change in the areas of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and the Himalayas has taken on increasing importance because of available water resources from their mountain glaciers. Many of these glaciers over the region have been retreating, while some are advancing and stable. Other studies report that some glaciers in the Himalayas show acceleration on their shrinkage. However, the causes of the glacier meltings are still difficult to grasp because of the complexity of climatic change and its influence on glacier issues. However, it is vital that we pursue further study to enable the future prediction on glacier changes

Yasunari, Teppei J.

NASA Technical Reports Server

What influences climate and glacier change in the southwestern 
China? 
1,2Teppei J, Yasunari 
I NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA 
2 Goddard Earth Sciences and Technology and Research, Universities Space Research 
Association, Columbia, MD 21044, USA 
The subject of climate change in the areas of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and the 
Himalayas has taken on increasing importance because of available water resources 
from their mountain glaciers (Immerzeel et al., 2010). Many of these glaciers over the 
region have been retreating, while some are advancing and stable (Yao et al., 2004, 
Scherler et al., 2011). Other studies report that some glaciers in the Himalayas show 
acceleration on their shrinkage (e.g., Fujita and Nuimura, 2011). However, the causes of 
the glacier meltings are still difficult to grasp because of the complexity of climatic 
change and its influence on glacier issues. However, it is vital that we pursue further 
study to enable the future prediction on glacier changes. 
The paper entitled "Climate and Glacier Change in Southwestern China during the 
Past Several Decades" by Li et al. (2011) provided carefully analyzed, quality 
controlled, long-term data on atmospheric temperature and precipitation during a period 
from 1961-2008. The data were obtained from 111 Chinese stations. The researchers 
did systematic analyses of temperature and precipitation over the whole southwestern 
Chinese domain. They discussed those changes in terms of other meteorological 
components such as atmospheric circulation patterns, radiation, and altitude difference, 
and then showed how these factors could contribute to climate and glacier changes in 
the region. 
Air temperature and precipitation are strongly associated with glacier mass balance 
because of heat balance and the addition of mass when it snows. Temperature warming 
trends over many places in the southwestern China were unequivocally dominant in all 
seasons and at higher altitude. This indicates that the heat contribution to the glaciers 
has been increasing. On the other hand, precipitation has a wider variability in time and 
space. It is more difficult to clearly understand precipitation's effect on the climate and 
glacier melting characteristics in the whole southwestern China as a collective view. 
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20120012430 2019-08-30T21:20:17+00:00Z
However, the precipitation patterns are probably modulated by climate feedbacks 
through many factors in southwestern China. Precipitation seasonality may also affect 
climatic sensitivity of glacier mass balance (Fujita, 2008). 
In addition to the authors' main focus above, other factors, also probably directly 
and indirectly, influence the climate and glacier mass balance changes. Those factors 
are: (1) debris-covered effect which heats (if it is thin) or insulates (if it is thick) the ice 
below the debris and it probably causes no uniform response on glacier meltings 
(Scherier et aI., 2011); (2) interaction between glacial lakes and exposed ice parts on 
glaciers (e.g., Sakai et al., 2009, Fujita et al., 2009); (3) atmospheric heating effect over 
the foothills of the Himalayas due to the Atmospheric Brown Cloud (ABC), including 
absorbing aerosols such as black carbon, dust, and organic matters (Ramanathan et al., 
2007), the so called Elevated Heat Pump (EHP) effect suggested by Lau et al. (2006, 
20 10); (4) snow darkening effect over non debris-covered parts of glaciers as the 
absorbing aerosol depositions reduce snow albedo and accelerate snow meltings by 
absorbing more solar energy at the snow surface (Warren and Wiscombe, 1980, Flarmer 
et al., 2007, 2009, Yasunari et aI., 2010, Qian et al., 2011); (5) another kind of snow 
darkening effect over non debris-covered glacier due to the growth of biological 
activities with dark-colored materials on glacier also reducing snow albedos (Takeuchi 
et aI., 2001); (6) Other factors on snow albedo reductions such as snow grain size, 
specific surface area, and depth changes, melt-water effect on snow, and changes in 
solar illumination conditions (e.g., Wiscombe and Warren, 1980, Flarmer et al., 2006, 
Yasunari et al., 2011, Aoki et aI., 1999, 2011); and finally, (7) feedbacks via 
interactions between the snow surface and atmosphere including all the factors above. 
What I'd like to emphasize is that the atmospheric warming trend indicated by Li 
et al. (2011) is robust and very likely associated with the dominant characteristics of 
glacier shrinkage across southwestern China, as discussed by the authors. However, the 
shrinkage rate of sub-regional scale variability is probably due to the modulations of 
precipitation, as well as other factors identified above. Further, the atmospheric 
warming is not limited to only southwestern China, but is also probable in the 
surrounding Tibetan and Himalayan regions (Gautarn et al., 2010). 
Comprehensive studies, including international projects discussing all the 
contributors above by a) field observations, b) global or regional modeling, and c) 
satellite data analyses, are essential to assess the future climate change and glacier 
retreat inlaround TP and the Himalayas. The authors' findings showed robust 
information on atmospheric warming trends and some wider variety on precipitation 
during 1961-2008 in the southwestern China. In addition, they indicated some possible 
connection between these findings and atmospheric circulation, altitudinal difference, 
and meteorological conditions. Future studies should promote a deeper discussion and 
understanding of the relationships. 
Hereafter, we must make a committed effort to study climate and glacier issues 
in/around TP and the Himalayas involving the existing warming trend. This trend 
fluctuates, year-by-year. The fluctuation of the warming and precipitation changes may 
directly contribute to climate change and glacier retreats. But the seven factors noted 
above likely modulate the climate change and glacier melting patterns in southwestern 
China on the warming trend in intra- and inter-annual timescales. The temperature and 
precipitation data in this study offers a terrific asset for future studies on climate and 
glacier issues inlaround this region. 
Acknowledgement 
I wish to thank Jan Angevine, at NASA/GSFC, for proofreading. 
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What Influences Climate and Glacier Change in the Southwestern China?

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