Presumed Little Ice Age glacial extent in the eastern Tian Shan, China

Abstract

<p>Mountain glaciers across the Tian Shan provide critical freshwater resources for the arid and semi-arid areas in Central Asia. Glacial extent during the Little Ice Age (LIA) has been investigated in individual valleys, but its spatial characteristic across a large region still remains unclear. We delineated the presumed maximum LIA glacial extents in three study regions of the eastern Tian Shan (the Boro-Eren, the Bogeda, and the Barkol-Karlik ranges) using Google Earth and the 30 m Shuttle Radar Topography Mission digital elevation model. The corresponding contemporary glaciers were extracted from the Second Glacier Inventory Dataset of China. The total area of 865 contemporary glaciers was estimated to cover 791.6 km² during a LIA Maximum and decreased to 484.6 km² around 2006–2010, with a relative area loss of 38.8%. The spatial pattern of glacier area loss exhibits a west–east decreasing trend between these three regions. This map provides a data set to investigate the pattern of LIA glacial extents and assess climate impact on water resources in the eastern Tian Shan at a centennial time scale.</p