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Karakoram temperature and glacial melt driven by regional atmospheric circulation variability

Nature Climate Change volume 7, pages 664–670 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

Identifying mechanisms driving spatially heterogeneous glacial mass-balance patterns in the Himalaya, including the ‘Karakoram anomaly’, is crucial for understanding regional water resource trajectories. Streamflows dependent on glacial meltwater are strongly positively correlated with Karakoram summer air temperatures, which show recent anomalous cooling. We explain these temperature and streamflow anomalies through a circulation system—the Karakoram vortex—identified using a regional circulation metric that quantifies the relative position and intensity of the westerly jet. Winter temperature responses to this metric are homogeneous across South Asia, but the Karakoram summer response diverges from the rest of the Himalaya. We show that this is due to seasonal contraction of the Karakoram vortex through its interaction with the South Asian monsoon. We conclude that interannual variability in the Karakoram vortex, quantified by our circulation metric, explains the variability in energy-constrained ablation manifested in river flows across the Himalaya, with important implications for Himalayan glaciers’ futures.

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Figure 1: Geographic definition, resulting zonal wind climatologies and conceptual structures for the Karakoram zonal shear (KZS).
Figure 2: Horizontal structure of the Karakoram vortex.
Figure 3: Vertical structure of the Karakoram vortex.
Figure 4: KZI influence on Karakoram T2 m and Indus tributary streamflows.
Figure 5: Seasonal correlations between KZI and local T2 m observations along transects.

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Acknowledgements

Karakoram T2 m observations were obtained both directly from the Pakistan Meteorological Department and via the Global Change Impacts Studies Centre (Islamabad). Upper Indus tributary streamflow observations were obtained, via intermediaries including D. Hashmi, from the Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority. This study was made possible by financial support from the Leverhulme Trust via a Philip Leverhulme Prize (2011) awarded to H.J.F. Additional financial support during the developmental stages of this work was provided by the British Council Pakistan (PMI2/RCPK06 and INSPIRE/SP0015 grants), the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) as a Postdoctoral Fellowship award NE/D009588/1 (2006–2010) to H.J.F., and a US National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (ID:2006037346) award to N.F. (2006–2010). H.J.F. is supported by a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award (WM140025). X.-F.L., S.B. and H.J.F. are supported by the INTENSE project through the European Research Council (grant ERC-2013-CoG-617329). D.P. is supported by a UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) doctoral training award (EP/M506382/1).

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  1. Newcastle University, School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK

    Nathan Forsythe, Hayley J. Fowler, Xiao-Feng Li, Stephen Blenkinsop & David Pritchard

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Contributions

N.F. designed the study, processed and analysed the data, created most of the figures (Figs 1, 4, 5 and all Supplementary Figures except Supplementary Fig. 4), and wrote the paper. All other co-authors wrote and edited the paper and assisted in interpretations. H.J.F. provided overall leadership, interpretation and integration of results and methodological guidance. S.B. focused on readability for the broader Nature Climate Change audience and methodological guidance. X.-F.L. provided input on climatological mechanisms and created Figs 2, 3 and Supplementary Fig. 4. D.P. provided input on recent variability of Indus tributary streamflows.

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Correspondence to Nathan Forsythe.

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Forsythe, N., Fowler, H., Li, XF. et al. Karakoram temperature and glacial melt driven by regional atmospheric circulation variability. Nature Clim Change 7, 664–670 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3361

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