Home – Home – Jornals – Geography and Natural Resources 2022 number 4

Based on field expedition research and analysis of high-resolution polychronous satellite imagery data carried out in AlWaRes GIS environment, the latest data on the modern state of lake-glacial resources of Tsambagarav Ridge (Western Mongolia, Mongolian Altai), and their changes since the maximum of the Little Ice Age of the 17^th-19^th centuries were obtained. It was found that at the maximum transgressive stage of the Little Ice Age, with 3D topography of mountain-glacial basins taken into account, the glaciation of the ridge covered 99.1 km², and the total volume of glaciers reached 4.72 km³. The subsequent climate changes during the post-maximum phase of the Little Ice Age entailed a spatial transformation of the nival-glacial belt of the ridge, implying a progressive reduction in the size of the glaciation and the uplifting of its lower vertical limits. By August 2020, the total glaciation area of Tsambagarav Ridge decreased to 65.21 km² and ice reserves decreased to 2.98 km³. A statistical analysis of the mean annual air temperature of the northern regions of Western Mongolia over a half-century period showed a steady positive trend. A rise of annual air temperature was also accompanied by a decrease in temperature during the ablation period (June-August). In the modern deglaciation belt of the ridge, eight glacial lakes have appeared with a total water area of 0.34 km² and a water reserve of 1 260 000 t. Analysis of satellite imagery from 1966 to 2020 shows that most of them have formed in the last half a century and are confined to the pre-glacial margins of modern glaciers. Dependencies developed in the course of the study are used to calculate the indicators of intrastructural redistribution of water storage from glacial to limnic systems from the maximum of the Little Ice Age to 2020.