Snow cover and land surface temperature assessment of Gangotri basin in the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) using MODIS satellite data for climate change inferences

摘要

Climate change has become a cause of concern as well as the challenge of this century. Himalayan mountain ranges with high snow fields and numerous valley glaciers may bear the brunt of such changes already being reported including Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Gangotri is one of the most prominent snow-fed catchments of Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) due to origin of river Ganga situated within it. Spatio-temporal changes in snow covered area of this basin were examined for melting seasons of the years 2006 to 2010 and a latest reference year of 2012 as a special test case. Standard snow data products (MOD10A2) of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)-Terra sensor with spatial resolution of 500 m were used. For all the years of reference, snow covered area percentage was derived for respective months representing usual ablation or melting periods. Snow depletion curves (SDCs) were generated for such periods of the respective years. CARTOSAT digital elevation model (DEM) was used for topographic information of terrain. Relationship of SDCs with the land surface temperatures (LST) of the basin was worked upon using MODIS-Terra LST (MOD11A2) product (version 5) with 1 km resolution at 8-day interval for the day time temperature for respective months of above reference years. Thereafter, interpolation and simulation of snow covered areas was carried out on the basis of LST data. The study thus produced snow cover maps for the years of reference as well as their relationship with LST for climate change inferences.