Objectives

• To study the dynamics and the rate of change in glaciers to understand its impact on hydrology, ecology and climate
• To assess the climate change using ice as an archive of information on past climate and its future implications
• To study the biogeochemical aspects of Himalayan ice and compare it with the polar environment.

A beginning….

• In July 2012, a team of three scientists from NCAOR visited a few glaciers in Himachal (at ~3800 m altitude) for identifying the most suitable glaciers for long-term mass balance studies that are not being undertaken by other institutions. The identified glaciers are Chhota Shigri and Hamata in Chandra Basin, Patsio in Bhaga Basin and Mamtusa and Miyad in Miyar basin.
• Subsequently, in September 2012,  two other scientists from NCAOR visited two high altitude glaciers of Ladakh (at 5600 m altitude) to sample and study the recent accumulation layers by deep pitting (1-1.5 m). The analysis of these samples will help us to understand the preservation of environmental/ climatic signals and will help us to identify possible glaciers for an ice core based climate reconstruction study

Background: As part of the Indian government’s initiatives for better understanding  of glacier –climate inter-relationship and quantify the Himalayan glacier responses towards the climate change, National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR), Goa, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences has established a high altitude research station in Himalaya called HIMANSH. HIMANSH is a dedicated Research Station established at Sutri Dhaka, Chandra Basin, Lahaul-Spiti valley of Himachal Pradesh which has an altitude of 4080m amsl. The station was unveiled on Sunday 9^th October 2016 and since then the station has made for functioning round the year however for 2016 it have plan to closed during winter (15^th November to April 2017).

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Call for Scientific Project Proposals under Himalayan Cryospheric Observations and Modelling (HiCOM) 2017-2020 (FY)

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