Revolutionising dynamic debris-covered glacier models
The Hindu-Kush Himalaya is a region that is commonly known as the third-pole given the volume of glacier ice that is stored in the mountains – more than anywhere on earth outside the Arctic and Antarctica. These water towers also feed the world’s most densely populated countries; the Brahmaputra and Indus basins alone provide water for an estimated 60 million people. Yet predictions of glacier mass loss in high Asia are severely limited by data availability and assumptions made in the parameterisation of gl
This project, EverDrill, will revolutionise the way in which dynamic debris-covered glacier models are parameterised, by accessing and installing sensors in the interior and at the bed of a large Himalayan glacier for the first time. We will use pressurised hot-water to drill several boreholes into the Khumbu Glacier, Nepal. We will gather visual footage of the interior of each borehole and install a multi-sensor array at the bed at each location. At select boreholes we will install englacial temperature an