Aufeis thickness and volume estimations from stereo satellite imagery and terrestrial photographs: Evidence from Central Ladakh, India.

Aufeis - a phenomenon associated with permafrost and the cold arid region of Ladakh - serves as a critical water resource for local communities. In several tributaries of the Indus River, aufeis accumulation is enhanced in ice reservoirs (commonly known as "artificial glaciers") to store winter baseflow for crop irrigation during the water-scarce period in spring. This study investigates aufeis thickness and volume across four study sites in the Trans-Himalaya of Central Ladakh: the ice reservoirs of Phuktse and Igoo and the catchments of Gya and Sasoma, where natural aufeis fields occur.

Understanding the hydrochemical functioning of glacierized catchments of the Upper Indus Basin in Ladakh, Indian Himalayas.

Recent studies have endorsed that surface water chemical composition in the Himalayas is impacted by climate change-induced accelerated melting of glaciers. Chemical weathering dynamics in the Ladakh region is poorly understood, due to unavailability of in situ dataset. The aim of the present study is to investigate how the two distinct catchments (Lato and Stok) drive the meltwater chemistry of the Indus River and its tributary, in the Western Himalayas.