Essential study of Karakoram glacier velocity products extracted using various techniques

The present study focuses on using remote sensing techniques to estimate the Karakoram glacier velocity that emulates glacier's reaction to climate warming. Proposed study is essential and critical due to the vast spatial and temporal variability of the Karakoram Glaciers, fieldwork difficulties, and the lack of in situ data in the Karakoram. It focuses on assessing the robustness in extracting the velocity products of the Rimo Glacier, Karakoram using DInSAR, Intensity tracking, and Normalized Cross-Correlation. The results indicate that the average velocity of the Rimo glacier estimated from DInSAR and correlation techniques are around 22.4 cm/day and 5.2 cm/day respectively which is similar to earlier studies. Intensity tracking based average velocity is found to be around 18 cm/day. Results obtained are also compared with field-based measurements for corroboration. Continuous monitoring of the velocity of Karakoram glaciers is necessary to understand the complex and evolving trends of surging in the future.

Automated summary

The present study focuses on estimating the Karakoram glacier velocity using remote sensing techniques and assessing the robustness of extracting the velocity products of the Rimo Glacier. Results show that the average velocity of the Rimo glacier estimated from different techniques is consistent with earlier studies, and continuous monitoring of the velocity of Karakoram glaciers is necessary for understanding future surging trends.