Surging Glacier Dynamics in Tarim Basin Using SAR Data

The glaciers of High Mountain Asia form one of the largest assemblies of ice-mass outside the Polar regions. The meltwater originating from these glaciers feed into innumerable river streams acting as an important perennial source of water. Within this region, we study one basin, Tarim which consists of glaciers that show surging activity. Of the 200 glaciers in the selected region of study, six glaciers show strong surge at the terminus. This has been explained with the high velocity observed for these glaciers. However, there are glaciers which are in the transient phase of their surge-cycle which tend to behave differently. Such events when compared to previously reported activities suggest that glaciers have surging cycles that are not the same throughout.