Brief communication: Mass balance of glaciers in the Eastern Hindu Kush from 1979 to 2002 using KH-9 panoramic and SPOT-5 stereo imagery

Glaciers exhibit region-specific mass loss patterns in response to ongoing climate change. In this study, we provide a geodetic mass balance assessment for glaciers within the Hindu Kush region spanning the period 1979–2002, utilizing KH-9 panoramic imagery and SPOT-5 stereo satellite imagery. Our analysis reveals a moderate mass loss of −0.13 ± 0.12 m w.e. a−1, a rate similar to post-2000 observations given their uncertainties. We found that debris-covered glaciers and clean-ice glaciers experienced a nearly similar mass loss at the respective rates of −0.14±0.16 m w.e a−1 and −0.13±0.17 m w.e a−1, which is close to the regional mass balance. However, we observe that most of the retreating glaciers are clean-ice with the highest retreat of 2.4 km. Additionally, we discuss and analyze the response of the surging glaciers, and observe a mass loss of −0.11±0.3 m w.e a−1 and −0.14±0.17 m w.e a−1 for surging and non-surging glaciers, respectively.