Seasonal velocity changes at Duofeng glacier in West Kunlun Shan, China, detected by ALOS/PALSAR

Owing to its average elevation higher than 4000 m, a number of mountain glaciers are developed in Tibetan plateau. Those glaciated areas are thus termed as the Third Pole (TP) region. As is the case for North / South Pole region, the TP glaciers will also sensitively respond to global warming, contributing to global sea level rise. Moreover, the glaciers in TP are crucial water resource for people in the arid areas, directly influencing the social, agricultural and economic environment. However, harsh and remote environment prevents us from routinely monitoring those TP glaciers. In particular, there are few detailed studies in the West Kunlun Shan (WKS) [1–3]. Here we report out detection of seasonal velocity changes at Duofeng glacier, the largest north-facing one in WKS, using ALOS/PALSAR data. While space-borne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) techniques have been applied to many glaciers in the planet to study glacier surface flow [e.g., 4], there are few such systematic studies in WKS.