Key research themes
1. How do glacier monitoring datasets characterize the global patterns and temporal evolution of glacier melt and retreat?
This research area focuses on synthesizing long-term, spatially explicit observational datasets to understand global glacier retreat trends and their implications for sea level rise and regional hydrology. It matters because glaciers are key indicators of climate change, directly affecting water resources, global sea levels, and natural hazards. The research leverages coordinated international glacier monitoring programs and integrates various measurement approaches (ground, airborne, satellite), with emphasis on length, area, volume, and mass balance changes over centennial to decadal scale.
2. How do debris cover and glacier surface characteristics affect regional glacier melt rates and mass balance?
This theme investigates the modulating effect of supraglacial debris on melt processes and mass balance in Himalayan glaciers. Given that debris-covered glaciers represent a significant portion of glacierized area in mountainous regions, understanding their unique melt dynamics—involving insulating debris layers, ice cliffs, spatial variability, and englacial melt—is critical for regional water resource prediction and interpreting heterogeneous glacier responses under climate warming.
3. What are the spatial-temporal controls and physical processes driving regional glacier retreat and dynamics, including ice detachment and submarine melting?
This theme explores the physical and atmospheric-oceanic forcings governing glacier retreat patterns, including rapid calving and detachment events, oceanographic influences, meteorological phenomena such as foehn winds, and the role of bed topography and basal conditions. Understanding these mechanisms is vital to improving predictions of glacier dynamics under climate change and their contribution to sea level rise, especially for marine-terminating and Arctic glaciers.