High Mountain Asia (HMA) shows a remarkable warming tendency and divergent trend of regional precipitation with enhanced meteorological extremes. The rapid thawing of the HMA cryosphere may alter the magnitude and frequency of nature hazards. We reviewed the influence of climate change on various types of nature hazards in HMA region, including their phenomena, mechanisms and impacts. It reveals that: 1) the occurrences of extreme rainfall, heavy snowfall, and drifting snow hazards are escalating; accelerated ice and snow melting have advanced the onset and increased the magnitude of snowmelt floods; 2) due to elevating trigger factors, such as glacier debuttressing and the rapid shift of thermal and hydrological regime of bedrock/snow/ice interface or subsurface, the mass flow hazards including bedrock landslide, snow avalanche, ice-rock avalanches or glacier detachment, and debris flow will become more severe; 3) increased active-layer detachment and retrogressive thaw slumps slope failures, thaw settlement and thermokarst lake will damage many important engineering structures and infrastructure in permafrost region; 4) multi-hazards cascading hazard in HMA, such as the glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) and avalanche-induced mass flow may greatly enlarge the destructive power of the primary hazard by amplifying its volume, mobility, and impact force; and 5) enhanced slope instability and sediment supply in the highland areas could impose remote catastrophic impacts upon lowland regions, and threat hydropower security and future water shortage. In future, ongoing thawing of HMA will profoundly weaken the multiple-phase material of bedrock, ice, water, and soil, and enhance activities of nature hazards. Compounding and cascading hazards of high magnitude will prevail in HMA. As the glacier runoff overpasses the peak water, low flow or droughts in lowland areas downstream of glacierized mountain regions will became more frequent and severe. Addressing escalating hazards in the HMA region requires tackling scientific challenges, including understanding multiscale evolution and formation mechanism of HMA hazard-prone systems, coupling thermo-hydro-mechanical processes in multi-phase flows, predicting catastrophes arising from extreme weather and climate events, and comprehending how highland hazards propagate to lowlands due to climate change.

Over the past decades, the cryosphere has changed significantly in High Mountain Asia (HMA), leading to multiple natural hazards such as rock-ice avalanches, glacier collapse, debris flows, landslides, and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). Monitoring cryosphere change and evaluating its hydrological effects are essential for studying climate change, the hydrological cycle, water resource management, and natural disaster mitigation and prevention. However, knowledge gaps, data uncertainties, and other substantial challenges limit comprehensive research in climate-cryosphere-hydrology-hazard systems. To address this, we provide an up-to-date, comprehensive, multidisciplinary review of remote sensing techniques in cryosphere studies, demonstrating primary methodologies for delineating glaciers and measuring geodetic glacier mass balance change, glacier thickness, glacier motion or ice velocity, snow extent and water equivalent, frozen ground or frozen soil, lake ice, and glacier-related hazards. The principal results and data achievements are summarized, including URL links for available products and related data platforms. We then describe the main challenges for cryosphere monitoring using satellite-based datasets. Among these challenges, the most significant limitations in accurate data inversion from remotely sensed data are attributed to the high uncertainties and inconsistent estimations due to rough terrain, the various techniques employed, data variability across the same regions (e.g., glacier mass balance change, snow depth retrieval, and the active layer thickness of frozen ground), and poor-quality optical images due to cloudy weather. The paucity of ground observations and validations with few long-term, continuous datasets also limits the utilization of satellite-based cryosphere studies and large-scale hydrological models. Lastly, we address potential breakthroughs in future studies, i.e., (1) outlining debris-covered glacier margins explicitly involving glacier areas in rough mountain shadows, (2) developing highly accurate snow depth retrieval methods by establishing a microwave emission model of snowpack in mountainous regions, (3) advancing techniques for subsurface complex freeze-thaw process observations from space, (4) filling knowledge gaps on scattering mechanisms varying with surface features (e.g., lake ice thickness and varying snow features on lake ice), and (5) improving and cross-verifying the data retrieval accuracy by combining different remote sensing techniques and physical models using machine learning methods and assimilation of multiple high-temporal-resolution datasets from multiple platforms. This comprehensive, multidisciplinary review highlights cryospheric studies incorporating spaceborne observations and hydrological models from diversified techniques/methodologies (e.g., multi-spectral optical data with thermal bands, SAR, InSAR, passive microwave, and altimetry), providing a valuable reference for what scientists have achieved in cryosphere change research and its hydrological effects on the Third Pole.

Permafrost in High Mountain Asia (HMA) is becoming increasingly vulnerable to thaw due to climate change. However, the lack of either in situ ground surface or borehole temperature data beyond the Tibetan Plateau prevents comprehensive assessments of its impact on the regional hydrologic cycle and local cascading hazards. Although past studies have generated estimates of permafrost extent in Central Asia, many are limited to the Tibetan Plateau, excluding the more remote reaches of the Tien Shan, Pamirs, and Himalayas. By leveraging surface temperatures from both the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Atmospheric Infra-Red Sounder (AIRS), this study advances further understanding of remotely sensed permafrost occurrence at high altitudes, which are prone to error due to frequent cloud cover. We demonstrate that the fusion of MODIS and AIRS products can accurately estimate long-term thermal regimes of the subsurface, with reported correlation coefficients of 0.773 and 0.560, RMSEs of 0.890 degree celsius and 0.680 degree celsius, and biases of 0.003 degree celsius and 0.462 degree celsius, respectively, for the ground surface and the depth of zero annual amplitude, during a reference period of 2003-2016. Furthermore, we provide a range of possible permafrost extents based on established equations for calculating the temperature at the top of the permafrost to demonstrate temperature sensitivity to soil moisture and snow cover. The MODIS-AIRS product is recommended to be a robust source of ground temperature estimates, which may be sufficient for inferring mountain permafrost presence in HMA. Incorporating the influence of soil moisture and snow depth, although limited by biased estimates, also produces estimates of permafrost regional areas comparable to previously reported permafrost indices. A total permafrost area of 1.69 (+/- 0.32) million km(2) is estimated for the entire HMA, across 15 mountain subregions.

Most studies attribute the glacier mass balance within High Mountain Asia (HMA) to climate change, ignoring the influence of its complex terrain. Knowledge of the influence of this complex terrain is crucial for understanding the spatial variability in its mass balance. However, there is a lack of any systematic assessment of this influence across HMA. Therefore, in this study, we used the glacier outlines and raster data (SRTM DEM, slope and aspect) to calculate the topographic shading of all 97,965 glaciers within HMA during the ablation period, which is regarded as a major index of the influence of complex terrain on the mass balance. The results showed that 27.19% of HMA glacier area was subjected to topographic shading, and regional differences were significant with respect to both their altitudinal and spatial distributions. The topographic shading contributed to the protection of the smallest glaciers from solar illumination. Furthermore, we found a significant correlation between the topographic shading and mass balance in these small north-facing glaciers. However, these small glaciers were most prevalent in the north-facing orientation, especially in West Kunlun, East Kunlun, Inner Tibet Plateau and Qilian Shan, where shading was found to increase with decreases in the glacier area. This indicates that complex terrain can affect the spatial distribution of the mass balance by altering the solar illumination pattern.

Advanced knowledge of glacier ice volume is vital for water resource assessment. Previous studies have focused on the estimation of ice volume, but the quantitative understanding of the spatial variability of ice volume across High Mountain regions is currently lacking. Here, we used global-scale ice thickness, debris cover and equilibrium line data to analyse ice-volume differences at various scales across High Mountain Asia (HMA). The results showed that 6.3% of the HMA glaciers are covered by debris, with debris area and volume accounting for 9% and 13.8% of the total glacier area and volume, respectively. An average debris-cover volume ratio of 13% was observed. The spatial distribution of ice volume across the HMA varies considerably from region to region. The ice volume is predominately distributed on north-facing slopes and accounts for approximately 38% of the total. It is very common in Altay and Sayan, East Tian Shan, West Kunlun, East Kunlun and Qilian Shan. Meanwhile, ice volumes in the Himalayas and Hengduan Shan are mainly distributed on the southeast aspect. Relative weight functions showed that glacier area, maximum length and average thickness are closely related to ice volume, with average relative weights of 63.7%, 22.5% and 9.8%, respectively. This study is important for the evolution of glacier volume and water resource assessment.

The quantification of snow cover changes and of the related water resources in mountain areas has a key role for understanding the impact on several sectors such as ecosystem services, tourism and energy production. By using NASA-Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) images from 2000 to 2018, this study analyzes changes in snow cover in the High Mountain Asia region and compares them with global mountain areas. Globally, snow cover extent and duration are declining with significant trends in around 78% of mountain areas, and the High Mountain Asia region follows similar trends in around 86% of the areas. As an example, Shaluli Shan area in China shows significant negative trends for both snow cover extent and duration, with -11.4% (confidence interval: -17.7%, -5.5%) and -47.3 days (confidence interval: -70.4 days, -24.4 days) at elevations >5500 m a.s.l. respectively. In spring, an earlier snowmelt of -13.5 days (confidence interval: -24.3 days, -2.0 days) in 4000-5500 m a.s.l. is detected. On the other side, Tien Shan area shows an earlier snow onset of -28.8 days (confidence interval: -44.3 days, -8.2 days) between 2500 and 4000 m a.s.l., governed by decreasing temperature and increasing snowfall. In the current analysis, the Tibetan Plateau shows no significant changes. Regarding water resources, by using Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data it was found that around 50% of areas in the High Mountain Asia region and 30% at global level are suffering from significant negative temporal trends of total water storage (including groundwater, soil moisture, surface water, snow, and ice) in the period 2002-2015. In the High Mountain Asia region, this negative trend involves around 54% of the areas during spring period, while at a global level this percentage lies between 25% and 30% for all seasons. Positive trends for water storage are detected in a maximum 10% of the areas in High Mountain Asia region and in around 20% of the areas at global level. Overall snow mass changes determine a significant contribution to the total water storage changes up to 30% of the areas in winter and spring time over 2002-2015.

Mineral aerosols scatter and absorb incident solar radiation in the atmosphere, and play an important role in the regional climate of High Mountain Asia (the domain includes the Himalayas, Tibetan Plateau, Pamir, Hindu-kush, Karakorum and Tienshan Mountains). Dust deposition on snow/ice can also change the surface albedo, resulting in perturbations in the surface radiation balance. However, most studies that have made quantitative assessments of the climatic effect of mineral aerosols over the High Mountain Asia region did not consider the impact of dust on snow/ice at the surface. In this study, a regional climate model coupled with an aerosol-snow/ice feedback module was used to investigate the emission, distribution, and deposition of dust and the climatic effects of aerosols over High Mountain Asia. Two sets of simulations driven by a reanalysis boundary condition were performed, i.e., with and without dust-climate feedback. Results indicated that the model captured the spatial and temporal features of the climatology and aerosol optical depth (ADD). High dust emission fluxes were simulated in the interior of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and the Yarlung Tsangpo Valley in March-April-May (MAM), with a decreasing trend during 1990-2009. Dry deposition was controlled by the topography, and its spatial and seasonal features agreed well with the dust emission fluxes. The maximum wet deposition occurred in the western (southern and central) TP in MAM (JJA). A positive surface radiative forcing was induced by dust, including aerosol-snow/ice feedback, resulting in 2-m temperature increases of 0.1-0.5 degrees C over the western TP and Kunlun Mountains in MAM. Mineral dust also caused a decrease of 5-25 mm in the snow water equivalent (SWE) over the western TP, Himalayas, and Pamir Mountains in DJF and MAM. The long-term regional mean radiative forcing via dust deposition on snow showed an rising trend during 1990-2009, which suggested the contribution of aerosols surface radiative effects induced by snow darkening was increased since 1990. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.