Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Ambinakudige, Shrinidhi S.

Committee Member

Rodgers, John C., III

Committee Member

Meng, Qingmin

Date of Degree

12-15-2012

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Geosciences

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.)

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Geosciences

Abstract

Mass balance records of glaciers help to understand long term climate change, yet there are very few in-situ measurements of mass balance in Himalayan glaciers. Mass balance of major glaciers in the Sagarmatha National Park was assessed using Digital Elevation Model prepared from ASTER images for period 2002 & 2005 and 2002 & 2008, employing geodetic model. Overall glacial mass balance during 2002-2005 was -2.978 plus/minus 0.89 and during 2002-2008 was -0.94 plus/minus 0.34 m.w.e per annum. Glacier melt could form glacial lakes in high Himalayas. One of the glacial lakes, Imja Lake in the study area increased its surface area by 268% from 1975 to 2010. Temperature analysis from MODIS data between 2000 and 2011 indicated increase in temperature in the study area. General loss of glacial mass in the Himalayan region indicated, and these loses if continue in the future will lead to catastrophic environmental and economic impacts.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/19078

Download

Share

COinS