Back to news
30 Jul 2015 | Atmosphere Initiative

Emerging platform for atmospheric scientists

1 min Read

70% Complete

Convective clouds change the distribution of air pollutants, washing out some with rainfall while transporting others high into the upper atmospheric zones.  At the same time, air pollutants also affect cloud droplet size and lifetime, altering the locations and amounts of rainfall.

Recognizing the potentially large impact of these processes on the people and livelihoods of the HKH region, ICIMOD, together with several international partners, hosted the first international workshop on Atmospheric Composition and the Asian Monsoon (ACAM) in Kathmandu, Nepal, in June 2013.

In the two years since the first ACAM Workshop, two of the partners, Stratosphere Processes and their Role in Climate (SPARC) and the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Project (IGAC), have incorporated ACAM as an emerging international activity within their programmes with the intention of nurturing global collaboration among atmospheric scientists.

The second ACAM Workshop held in Bangkok, Thailand, from 8-10 June 2015, was attended by more than 170 participants. ICIMOD managed the sponsorship of 28 scientists and students from its Regional Member Countries (RMCs), who gave oral or poster presentations of their research work.

“The two workshops have made ACAM a stronger platform today, including co-organization of training workshops for young scientists from the region, formation of working groups on data sharing, and campaign planning,” said Dr Vinayak Sinha, Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali.

Speaking at the opening session, ICIMOD’s Senior Atmospheric Scientist, Dr Arnico Panday, urged ACAM members not to limit themselves to scientific discussions but also to focus on the impact part the atmospheric issues. “We would like to see ACAM go beyond science to connect impacts of changed monsoon on sectors of health, agriculture, visibility, and impact on Himalayan snow and ice,” he said.

ICIMOD also contributed to the venue costs of the workshop, hosted an information booth, and held a side meeting on 7 and 8 June to discuss the upcoming workshop on ‘Multi-country Study of the Persistent Winter Fog over Indo-Gangetic Plains’.

Stay current

Stay up to date on what’s happening around the HKH with our most recent publications and find out how you can help by subscribing to our mailing list.

Sign Up

Related Contents

Continue exploring this topic

Piloting of the Biodiversity Monitoring Protocol for REDD+ conducted in Parsa Wildlife Reserve, Nepal

Though a few biodiversity monitoring manuals and guidelines from the Government of Nepal (GoN), National Trust for Nature Conservation (

3 Jun 2016 Water
Kailash Sacred Landscape Initiative Addresses Water Worries Across the Region

‘We prefer to wait for water at the springs over attending meetings’, said a woman of Digtoli village, around 41 ...

A New Way Forward for Brick Kilns in Nepal

  The destruction of brick kilns caused by the massive earthquake earlier this April damaged approximately 110 chimneys in the valley. ...

5 May 2017 Himalica
Chinese and Pakistani Bodies Sign MOU to Develop and Leverage Sea Buckthorn Industry in Pakistan

The AKRSP is the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) implementation partner for the Support to Rural Livelihoods and ...

17 Nov 2015 News
The Music in Ziro

  By 7am, we were in Ziro. Rubu got us on the road that crisscrossed the vast horizon of paddy fields. ...

Call for papers: Special issue of the Nomadic Peoples journal

The Nomadic Peoples journal invites paper submissions for a special issue on ‘Pastoral resilience and transformation in the Hindu ...

10 Jun 2015 News
Mobile application for reporting disaster events

ICIMOD and Kathmandu University, Nepal, launched ‘Disaster Reporting’, an android application that enables users to report disaster events along with ...

16 Jan 2015 Atmosphere Initiative
HKH scientists plan to investigate the problem of fog in the Indo-Gangetic Plain

Since the winter of 1998-99, researchers have documented widespread fog that occurred over a 1,500 km distance in north-eastern Pakistan, ...