Earth’s Cryosphere, 2023, Vol. XXVII, No. 5, p. 25-33.
SNOW COVER AND GLACIERS
REVISING THE CATALOG OF THE KORYAK HIGHLAND GLACIERS USING ARCHIVAL CORONA IMAGES AND COMPARISON WITH SENTINEL-2 IMAGES AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF CHANGING CLIMATE
M.D. Ananicheva1,*, A.A. Aleinikov2, Yu.M. Kononov1
1 Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Staromonetnyi per. 29, Moscow, 119017 Russia
2 ScanEx Research Center, Berezhkovskaya Emb. 20, Bldg. 6, Moscow, 119017 Russia
*Corresponding author; e-mail: maranan@gmail.com
In recent decades, glaciers in Northern Siberia and the Far East have been influenced by climate change, especially small forms of glaciation. This process is also typical for the glaciers of the Koryak Highland. To assess the dynamics of glaciation in this region, data from CORONA (1972) and Sentinel-2 (2019) images, as well as the Catalog of Glaciers of the USSR (mid-1960s) were used. The catalog for the Koryak Highland was compiled based on data from topographic maps and aerial photographs. The number of glaciers included in this catalog is almost 2.5 times higher than the number of glaciers identified on satellite images. For the studied region, the new electronic catalog Glaciers of Russia records 890 glaciers with a total area of 296.29 km2. This region is abundant in rock glaciers, and apparently the Catalog of Glaciers of the USSR (and perhaps the new electronic inventory) mistook many rock glaciers for living glaciers at the time of its compilation. Therefore, the authors made a new estimate of glacier areas using CORONA images. The discrepancies between the areas of glaciers indicated in the catalog and identified on satellite images were determined for groups of glaciers.
Keywords: the Koryak Highland, glacier, glacier area, temperature, precipitation, temperature trend, precipitation trend, rock glacier, CORONA, Sentinel-2 images.
Recommended citation: Ananicheva M.D., Aleinikov A.A., Kononov Yu.M., 2023. Revising the Catalog of the Koryak Highland glaciers using archival CORONA images and comparison with Sentinel-2 images against the backdrop of changing climate. Earth’s Cryosphere XXVII (5), 25–33.