Recent climate variability and glacier evolution in Central Asia - a case study at the accumulation zone of Fedchenko Glacier in the Pamir

• Applicant: Dr. Astrid Lambrecht
• Subject Area: Physical Geography ; Geodesy, Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, Geoinformatics, Cartography
• Term: from 2015 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 284055954

The glaciers in the central Pamir Mountains seem to be much less affected by the observed general climatic changes than glaciers in many other mountain regions. Remote sensing investigations indicate that especially in the Central Pamir the glaciers might have gained mass during the last decade. However, these signals are ambiguous and also not uniform across the region. In the framework of an international program focusing on climate variability and retrieval of paleo-climate records from high-elevation ice cores, we propose a project to investigate the recent climate evolution and accumulation variability on the basis of geophysical and glaciological investigations in the main accumulation basin of Fedchenko Glacier in the Pamir. This basin is situated above 5100 m a.s.l. and constitutes one of the largest accumulation basins in the entire region. Detailed ground penetrating radar profiles will reveal the spatial as well as temporal variability of snow accumulation. These results will be combined with data from snow pits and shallow firn cores for validation and the retrieval of additional climate parameters, especially the temperature signal. On this basis the climatic evolution during the last decades can be investigated and correlated with long term weather station observations of the past. Additional measurements of the ice thickness distribution, the surface deformation and the ice velocities will be used investigate the distributed mass flux of the accumulation area and compare it to the accumulation conditions. In addition, the optimal location for the planned deep ice core drilling activities will be defined. The combination of these different measurements and data forms the basis to evaluate the sensitivity of the glacier reaction to individual climate parameters and will considerably improve the understanding of the observed glacier evolution in the climate context in the Pamir Mountains.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigators: Dr. Christoph Mayer; Dr.-Ing. Christof Völksen; Dr. Anja Wendt