Workshops

Cryosphere Field Work in the Langtang Valley, Nepal

A team from the Cryosphere Initiative at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) will head to the Langtang valley and the Yala glacier for a spring field expedition. The expedition is part of a long-term field data collection project carried out in collaboration with Utrecht University, the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology Nepal at Kathmandu University, and the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate.

Programmes

River Basins and Cryosphere, Cryosphere

Venue

Langtang valley, Nepal

Date & Time

15 April 2018 to 03 May 2018

Contact

Inka Koch (coordinating hydro-met fieldwork) & Gunjan Silwal (coordinating glacier mass balance fieldwork)

Activity details:

1. Glacier mass balance, Yala glacier:

Maintain stake network on the Yala glacier to measure biannual glacier mass balance.
Measure snow accumulation, including snow-pit observations with density measurements.
Download ground temperature data.

2. Hydro-met fieldwork, Langtang valley:

Maintain automatic weather stations (AWS), tipping buckets, and temperature loggers.
Maintain and improve seasonal snow observations.
Maintain and reinstall hydrological stations and measure discharge.
Measure biannual surface lowering of debris-covered glaciers with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
Obtain samples for black carbon and dust in seasonal snow.

The expedition team going up to the Automatic Weather Station on Yala glacier in May 2017.
Photo: Maxime Litt