Evaluating glacier surges in Karakoram region using earth observation data

Abstract

A glacier is said to be in a state of surge if it has abnormally high velocity and advances very rapidly (10–100 times faster than normal) in a short period of time (lasting few months to a few years). The glacier velocities can be easily assessed using feature-tracking techniques and image correlation algorithms. The applications of multi-source remotely sensed imagery from open source platforms for understanding glacier surges has been discussed in this paper. This paper draws insights for understanding glacier surges in Karakoram region using remote sensing data from two recently published papers (Rashid et al., 2020, 2018). The use of remote sensing data from United States Geological Survey (USGS) and Planet Labs for assessing glacier surface velocity, movement/advance of snout, supraglacial debris cover dynamics and evolution of ice-dammed lake has been discussed.

Keywords

• Glacier surges
• Remote sensing
• Glacier velocity
• Karakoram