Increased Mass Loss of Glaciers in the Sawir Mountains of Central Asia between 1959 and 2021

Glacier mass balance can be regarded as a major direct index of climate variations. In this paper, a geodetic method was used to evaluate the mass balance of Sawir glaciers based on topographic map DEM (Digital Elevation Model), SRTM 30 m DEM, ASTER 30 m DEM, and Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar 10 m DEM between 1959-2021, in order to explore the response to climatic alterations. In the case of Muz Taw glacier, the first comprehensive dataset concerning mass-balance readings for the 2014-2021 period was provided based on the eight-year consecutive field measurements. The glaciological average mass balance reached -883.4 +/- 130 mm a(-1) during this period. The geodetic mass balance for all glaciers of the Sawir Mountain range was -0.43 +/- 0.12 m w. e. a(-1) between 1959 and 2000, and accelerated to -0.56 +/- 0.13 m w. e. a(-1) between 2000 and 2021. A comparison of field measurements and remote-sensing approaches for determining the Muz Taw glacier's mass balance between 2014-2021 proves the feasibility of the remote-sensing approach, which involves mass-balance monitoring based on DEMdata. In addition, our findings support the contention that air temperature is the dominant factor for accelerated glacier mass loss and surface elevation change.