Quality of life in high mountain asia depends partly on an ability to understand and monitor the dynamics of the glaciers and seasonal snow, and to project plausible future scenarios for different…

This federal contract award was granted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) for a value of $238,670.00. The contract is for a series of workshops focused on understanding and monitoring the dynamics of glaciers and seasonal snow in High Mountain Asia, as well as projecting future scenarios related to climate change and natural disasters in the region. The workshops will involve scientists from both the U.S. and China, and will aim to develop a "glacier melt tool" to support research and mitigation efforts. This contract is not a set-aside and is part of a larger program between NASA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) to collaborate on climate science and remote sensing in High Mountain Asia. UCSB, as a leading research university with expertise in climate research and partnerships with international institutions, is well-positioned to execute this contract.

Quality of life in high mountain asia depends partly on an ability to understand and monitor the dynamics of the glaciers and seasonal snow, and to project plausible future scenarios for different predictions of future concentrations of greenhouse gases and aerosols. Because of rugged terrain, political instability, and the meager measurement infrastructure, remotely sensed measurements must play a crucial role. The proposal is to hold two follow-on workshops to the initial one in january 2015 in kathmandu, which the NASA earth science division and the chinese academy of sciences (CAS) institute of remote sensing and digital earth (radi) CO-organized with the assistance of the international centre for integrated mountain development (icimod). Scientists in both the U.S. And china use satellite and field data provided by both, and carry out field work throughout high mountain asia. CAS has operated a glacier field station in the tien shan since the 1958 international geophysical year. Several U.S. Scientists have worked in the region and published findings that analyze chinese data. A face-to-face workshop allows US to fully characterize the data available, learn about ongoing work on snow, glaciers, and hazards in high mountain asia, and best specify how a glacier melt tool will advance science worldwide. At the kathmandu workshop, participants identified a set of priority themes and began to define specific collaborations that take advantage of strengths and resources of NASA and CAS that include satellite and airborne sensing, field measurements, and modeling. To further these collaborations, we established three working groups-- process research and modeling, data sharing and exchange, and validation to begin work on a "glacier melt tool" to support monitoring, process understanding, and future projections of glaciers and snow in high mountain asia. The two subsequent workshops one in the U.S. And the next in beijing will provide more specific guidance about research needed to understand changing climate and implications of human impacts on glaciers and using earth observations, how the changing cryosphere in high mountain asia alters the risks of hazards, and how societal impacts on communities in the region might be mitigated. The recent earthquake in the region illustrates how the combination of tremors, snow and ICE, and avalanches has devastated villages, and raises the hope indeed the expectation that scientific and technological resources of NASA and CAS could help restore nepalese communities and lessen the consequences of future events. The september 9-11, 2015 workshop at mammoth mountain, california will consist of a few keynote talks, invited presentations that build on the work presented in kathmandu in january, posters that illustrate relevant recent work by the attendees and their students, and break-out meetings of the working groups. Invitations to attend will be extended to the participants in the january workshop along with a few others who were not able to attend that one. Because of lower costs associated with a meeting in the U.S. Instead of nepal, we will encourage attendance by some advanced graduate students also. We will cap attendance at 65 participants, with travel support for 31. The third meeting in beijing, to be scheduled in early 2016, will enable US to finalize all recommendations and formulate goals. At that meeting, we will conclude preparation of publishable papers that lay out strategies for future research. The chinese academy of sciences will host that meeting. This proposal includes travel support for 25 U.S. Attendees who are not civil servants.