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Understanding Changes in High Mountain Asia

High Mountain Asia (HMA), extending from the Hindu Kush and Tien Shan in the west to the Eastern Himalaya, is the world’s largest reservoir of perennial glaciers and snow outside of the Earth’s polar ice sheets. The region supplies water to more than a billion people. Changes in the region’s glaciers, snow, permafrost and precipitation patterns have altered this water supply, while also transforming regional ecology, land utilization practices, and the hazards associated with landslides and glacial-lake-outburst floods.

There are currently large gaps in our knowledge of the HMA region. Datasets are sparse due to challenges in acquiring ground observations, and satellite data is often limited by poor weather and a lack of calibration data. To address these challenges NASA has assembled the High Mountain Asia Team (HiMAT). Our goal is to work collaboratively to understand the processes driving change in the region and to develop predictive tools that can provide decision support to policy makers.