The equilibrium line is the boundary between the accumulation and melting zones of glaciers, which is related to factors such as climate and glacier surface morphology, and is an important glacier parameter On the equilibrium line, the accumulation and melting of matter reach equilibrium, and the material balance is zero. The height of the equilibrium line of Glacier No.1 is based on field observations using the flower stem snow pit method, and is calculated and analyzed. The fluctuation range of the equilibrium line height (ELA) from 1960 to 2020 is 3946 to 4240 meters.
Independently generated.
The observation of glacier mass balance adopts glaciological methods (flower stem/snow pit method). The specific steps include: 1) Setting up a material balance flower pole network observation network. Wooden or metal observation poles (flower poles) should be placed on the surface of glaciers and numbered. Ideally, flower poles should be evenly distributed on the glacier surface to form an observation network with single points as nodes. Flower stem drilling relies on steam drilling or artificial ice core drilling. The height of the flower stem exposed to the snow surface and its length inside the ice depend on the accumulation or melting of the deployment points and the observation period. 2) Regularly measure the height of flower stalks exposed on the surface of glaciers, and calculate the amount of glacier melting or accumulation based on its changes. For glacier accumulation areas, the method of excavating snow pits can also be used to determine the accumulation amount of glaciers. 3) Calculation of glacier mass balance. Based on the observations of the material balance flower stem points and snow pits during a specific period, the material balance of the observation points during the observation period can be calculated. Using interpolation methods, the material balance value and balance line height of the entire glacier during the observation period can be obtained through contour line and contour line methods. Due to the separation of Glacier No.1 into East and West branches in 1993, in order to maintain data consistency, the height of the separated glacier equilibrium line was obtained using the area weighting method.
Strictly follow the glacier observation and survey methods and standards of the World Glacier Monitoring Center (WGMS).
| # | number | name | type |
| 1 | 2023NCDC008 | Compilation and Integration of the Tianshan Glaciers Data Resource System | NCDC Open Fund Project |
This work is licensed under
CC BY 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License).
CSTR:11738.11.NCDC.TIANSHAN.DB7120.2026
10.12072/ncdc.tianshan.db7120.2026
