Glacier Shrinkage and Its Dependence on Climate in the Malan Mountain in Past 40Years Based on RS and GIS

The Malan Ice Caps are located at the central part of the Kunlun Mountains.In this study,serial RBV,MSS,TM and ETM+ Landsat data from 1973 to 2010 were used to map the glacier extents by applying remote sensing(RS) and visual interpretation.After constructing the glacier maps,the details of glaciers change during the last 37 years were obtained by using GIS tools.The results show that the Malan Ice Caps experienced a general shrinkage,the total glacierized area decreased by 6.8% from 1973 to 2010.The glacier retreat included a fast-slow-fast-slow process,with an insignificant retreat in recent decade,which reflected a transitional period of glacier change.In this retreat period,the glacier shrank 690.4 m in the south-north direction,and 84.29 in the east-west direction.By analyzing the climate records(annual mean temperature,summer mean temperature and annual precipitation) and glacier variation in the research area,it is found that glacier changes are a response to summer temperature increase.Annual precipitation also showed an upward trend,but had not compensated the mass loss due to ablation.Besides,topographic condition and the scale of glacier are key factors for glacier changes as well.