11 May 2007: ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) instrument aboard NASA’s Terra satellite has aquired an image which shows the termini of the glaciers in the Bhutan-Himalaya. Glacial lakes have been rapidly forming on the surface of the debris-covered glaciers in this region during the last few decades.
According to Jeffrey Kargel, a USGS scientist, glaciers in the Himalaya are wasting at alarming and accelerating rates, as indicated by comparisons of satellite and historic data, and as shown by the widespread, rapid growth of lakes on the glacier surfaces. According to a 2001 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, scientists estimate that surface temperatures could rise by 1.4deg Celsius to 5.8deg Celsius by the end of the century. The researchers have found a strong correlation between increasing temperatures and glacier retreat.
ASTER is one of the five state-of-the-art instrument sensor systems on-board Terra a satellite launched in December 1999. ASTER monitors cloud cover, glaciers, land temperature, land use, natural disasters, sea ice, snow cover and vegetation patterns at a spatial resolution of 90 to 15 meters. ASTER is the only high spatial resolution instrument on Terra that is important for change detection, calibration and/or validation, and land surface studies.
