Anya Schlich-Davies

Project: Himalayan glacier response to future atmospheric forcing

The impact of climate change on glaciers is of great international concern, both because they are a totemic indicator of global warming, but also because in parts of the world such as the Himalaya, glaciers feed some of the great regional rivers. I am using in situ climate data and regional climate models to downscale and validate current coarse climate simulations for the Everest region of the Nepal Himalaya, with a focus on the Khumbu glacier. The aim is to improve predictions of future glacier change in the region. Catchment scale precipitation and temperature datasets will be used in order to refine climate inputs, enabling 3D glacier energy, mass balance and runoff models to be created. Catchment specific variables, particularly supraglacial debris cover, will be included in these simulations. The uncertainty associated with these models will be tested and quantified, and field observations will be used for validation.