Glacier mass changes over Duxueshan, Burog Kangri, and Zangser Kangri in the Inner Tibetan Plateau

The variation of glacier mass balance during the past decades remains poorly known for Duxueshan, Burog Kangri, and Zangser Kangri (DBZ) which are located in the Inner Tibetan Plateau (ITP), a transition zone with shifting influences between the westerlies and the Indian summer monsoon. In the present study, glacier area and mass changes were determined by topographic maps (TOPO), Landsat imagery and multi-temporal digital elevation models (DEMs) generated with TOPO, SRTM, TanDEM-X bistatic interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) images, and High Mountain Asia 8-m DEMs. On average, the glaciers showed a slight retreat from 343.27 ± 5.23 km2 in 1971 to 334.67 ± 3.21 km2 in 2018 (0.05 ± 0.04% a−1). However, glaciers lost mass at a rate of -0.32 ± 0.03 m w.e. a−1 from 1971 to 2012. For the 1999–2012 and 2012–2017 periods, mass balances of − 0.03 ± 0.16 and 0.09 ± 0.04 m w.e. a−1, respectively, were observed, which represents an approximately equilibrium. Two glaciers also advanced in our investigation period, and we confirmed one of them surged in 2015.