Articles | Volume 8, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-2367-2014
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-2367-2014
Research article
 | 
16 Dec 2014
Research article |  | 16 Dec 2014

Deglaciation of the Caucasus Mountains, Russia/Georgia, in the 21st century observed with ASTER satellite imagery and aerial photography

M. Shahgedanova, G. Nosenko, S. Kutuzov, O. Rototaeva, and T. Khromova

Abstract. Changes in the map area of 498 glaciers located on the Main Caucasus ridge (MCR) and on Mt. Elbrus in the Greater Caucasus Mountains (Russia and Georgia) were assessed using multispectral ASTER and panchromatic Landsat imagery with 15 m spatial resolution in 1999/2001 and 2010/2012. Changes in recession rates of glacier snouts between 1987–2001 and 2001–2010 were investigated using aerial photography and ASTER imagery for a sub-sample of 44 glaciers. In total, glacier area decreased by 4.7 ± 2.1% or 19.2 ± 8.7 km2 from 407.3 ± 5.4 km2 to 388.1 ± 5.2 km2. Glaciers located in the central and western MCR lost 13.4 ± 7.3 km2 (4.7 ± 2.5%) in total or 8.5 km2 (5.0 ± 2.4%) and 4.9 km2 (4.1 ± 2.7%) respectively. Glaciers on Mt. Elbrus, although located at higher elevations, lost 5.8 ± 1.4 km2 (4.9 ± 1.2%) of their total area. The recession rates of valley glacier termini increased between 1987–2000/01 and 2000/01–2010 (2000 for the western MCR and 2001 for the central MCR and Mt.~Elbrus) from 3.8 ± 0.8, 3.2 ± 0.9 and 8.3 ± 0.8 m yr−1 to 11.9 ± 1.1, 8.7 ± 1.1 and 14.1 ± 1.1 m yr−1 in the central and western MCR and on Mt. Elbrus respectively. The highest rate of increase in glacier termini retreat was registered on the southern slope of the central MCR where it has tripled. A positive trend in summer temperatures forced glacier recession, and strong positive temperature anomalies in 1998, 2006, and 2010 contributed to the enhanced loss of ice. An increase in accumulation season precipitation observed in the northern MCR since the mid-1980s has not compensated for the effects of summer warming while the negative precipitation anomalies, observed on the southern slope of the central MCR in the 1990s, resulted in stronger glacier wastage.

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Short summary
The paper investigates changes in the area of 498 glaciers in the main Caucasus ridge and on Mt. Elbrus (the highest summit in geographical Europe), Russia/Georgia in the late 20th and 21st centuries using ASTER and Landsat imagery with 15 m resolution from 1999-2001 and 2010-2012 and aerial photography from 1987-2001. The glacier area decreased by 4.7±2.1% or 19.2±8.7 km2 from 1999-2001 to 2010/12. The recession rates of glacier terminus more than doubled between 1987-2000/01 and 2000/01–2010.