Black carbon and mineral dust in snow and ice pose risks on the Asian water tower

Abstract

As important light-absorbing impurities, black carbon (BC) and mineral dust (MD) deposited onto glacier and snow surface can substantially alter the response of cryosphere under climate change. As one of the most important cryosphere in the mid-low latitude regions, the Tibetan Plateau and its surroundings (TP, also known as the Third Pole) is considered to be the Asian Water Tower with widespread distributions of snow and glaciers. Based on recent studies, we reviewed the updated research progress of BC and MD from glaciers on the TP and its surroundings, including their concentrations, spatial distributions and potential sources, especially focusing on impacts of BC and MD on glacier melting. The results indicated that there exist large differences of BC and MD spatial distributions due to their different sources or transport pathways. The estimation indicated that BC and MD can enhance the snow and glacier melt by about 20% during ablation season and cause decreasing snow cover duration by 3–4 days. The melting Asian Water Tower are changing the water storage, further influence the water quality and resources to about one billion people in downstream regions. Additionally, we identified research gaps and suggested future research perspectives of BC and MD in snow and ice over the TP and its surroundings.