About this Research Topic
Glaciers in the Himalayan-Karakoram are sensitive to climatic changes and have retreated significantly in the last few decades, exposing the entire landscape and its infrastructure to extreme events and associated hazards. Rivers originating from this region have higher water and sediment yields in the ablation season due to large inputs from melting snow and glaciers. The quantification of discharge is especially critical for sustaining the downstream ecosystem, agricultural practices, hydroelectric power generation, and urban water supplies. Integrated investigations are unavailable at a regional scale over a longer period due to sporadic field observation and difficulty in acquiring and processing reliable meteorological, hydrological, seismological, and geospatial datasets. Therefore, an integrated approach for exploring the collection of multi/inter-disciplinary data (e.g., hydrological, meteorological, seismological, snow cover, suspended sediment transfer, stable isotopes for glacierized river basins, etc.) and processing them using modern tools (e.g., numerical modeling, machine learning, big data analysis, data fusion, multi-temporal and multi-sensor, etc.) in the Himalaya-Karakoram is required.
In light of the challenges and potential research gaps, we welcome integrated research related to meteorological observations (temperature lapse rates, precipitation gradients, snow depth, etc.), glacier dynamics (mass balance, velocity, area changes, energy balance, snow cover, etc.), glacier hydrology (discharge, sediment transfer, bedload, stable isotopes, hydrochemistry, etc.), glacier-seismicity linkages, and glacier-related hazards (GLOF, avalanches, debris flow, flash floods, etc.) to produce actionable knowledge in the Himalaya-Karakoram for better understanding the glaciological processes. Contributions may cover topics such as object recognition, change detection, time-series analysis using field-collected data, multiple sensors, and machine learning, among others.
In addition to the key themes below, articles may cover themes related to cryosphere and permafrost throughout the Himalaya-Karakoram region. The following thematic areas are of particular interest to this Research Topic:
• Meteorological observations in Himalaya-Karakoram;
• Glacier dynamics (mass balance, velocity, area changes, energy balance, snow cover, etc.);
• Glacier hydrology and modeling (discharge, sediment transfer, bedload, stable isotopes, hydrochemistry, etc.);
• And glacier-related hazards (GLOF, avalanches, debris flow, flash floods, etc.).
In light of the challenges and potential research gaps, we welcome integrated research related to meteorological observations (temperature lapse rates, precipitation gradients, snow depth, etc.), glacier dynamics (mass balance, velocity, area changes, energy balance, snow cover, etc.), glacier hydrology (discharge, sediment transfer, bedload, stable isotopes, hydrochemistry, etc.), glacier-seismicity linkages, and glacier-related hazards (GLOF, avalanches, debris flow, flash floods, etc.) to produce actionable knowledge in the Himalaya-Karakoram for better understanding the glaciological processes. Contributions may cover topics such as object recognition, change detection, time-series analysis using field-collected data, multiple sensors, and machine learning, among others.
In addition to the key themes below, articles may cover themes related to cryosphere and permafrost throughout the Himalaya-Karakoram region. The following thematic areas are of particular interest to this Research Topic:
• Meteorological observations in Himalaya-Karakoram;
• Glacier dynamics (mass balance, velocity, area changes, energy balance, snow cover, etc.);
• Glacier hydrology and modeling (discharge, sediment transfer, bedload, stable isotopes, hydrochemistry, etc.);
• And glacier-related hazards (GLOF, avalanches, debris flow, flash floods, etc.).
Keywords: glacier, Himalaya-Karakoram, hydrology, sediment, hazards
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
