Knowledge about glacier mass changes in high Asia significantly improved due to TUD-IFK research

Glaciers in High Asia are subject of research at the Institute for Cartography at TU Dresden (IfK) for more than 10 years. One major and worldwide almost unique focus is the estimation of glacier mass budgets using multi-temporal digital terrain models based on declassified reconnaissance imagery from the 1960s and 1970s. It could be shown with this data that the glaciers in the Himalaya and the Tien Shan have the highest rates of mass loss since the 1970s. While the mass loss probably increased in the Himalaya since ~2000, no significant changes in the loss rate or even a slight decrease in mass loss could be found for the Tien Shan. Furthermore, we could show that glaciers in the Eastern Pamir and the Karakoram were in balance not only in the recent decade but also since the 1970s. The IfK-team, motivated and supported by Manfred Buchroithner contributed therefore significantly to the knowledge about glacier mass changes in High Asia.