Postdoctoral Fellowship: EAR-PF: Investigation of High Mountain Asia Glacial Lake Variations Under a Warming Climate

Dr. Sonam Futi Sherpa has been awarded an NSF Earth Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out research and professional development activities under the mentorship and supervision of Prof. Laurence C.

Smith at Brown University. High Mountain Asia’s glacial lakes, filled with melt from glaciers store large volumes of water. The rapid increase in the size of glacial lakes shows the impact of rising temperatures from global climate change.

These glacial lakes and glacier melts are a source of water for people living downstream. But a breaking (outburst) of glacial lakes causes Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs). GLOFs are a natural hazard observed in mountain regions such as the Andes, the Alps, the Himalayas, and others.

HMA is experiencing contrasting glacier melt alongside different evolution of glacial lakes. Although the increased number and size of glacial lakes have been reported before, how trends and patterns of glacial lakes and GLOFs events are changing under warming climate and monsoons need further investigation. Dr.

Sherpa will use the recently launched SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) mission to observe glacial lake size and occurrences of GLOFs. She will build methods and scientific approaches to understanding water availability and hazard. During her project, she plans to mentor undergraduates from historically excluded groups in the field of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and computing.

She will communicate her results through workshops, science journals, and social media, including Brown’s existing diversity, equity, and inclusion platforms. Her study will generate a large volume of open data related to changing water cycle. Policymakers, the public, and scientific communities will be able to access these datasets.

These open data allow results to be reproduced and methods to be implemented in new regions. Her work helps in climate-water-related policymaking and scientific advancement.

High Mountain Asia (HMA), experiences contrasting glacier mass loss patterns alongside varying evolution of glacial lakes. Although increased number and extent (area, volume) of glacial lakes have been reported previously by several studies, how trends and patterns of glacial lakes and Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) events are changing under warming climate and monsoon require further investigation.

Dr. Sonam Futi Sherpa will utilize cutting-edge technologies, such as Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) from Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission and other SAR satellites data to estimate high-resolution spatio-temporal evolution of glacial lakes. She will further utilize the outputs of climate modeling techniques to investigate association between melting of glaciers and the expansion of glacial lakes, under a warming climate.

Her work contributes to a fundamental understanding of patterns and trends of glacial lake volume evolution that are currently neglected in models addressing the hydrological responses of glaciers to climate change for water management. Furthermore, her work allows quantification of hazards coming from GLOFs for risk management. The methodological and scientific framework developed and used in her study could be utilized in any global or local system including the Andes, Himalayas, Alps, Greenland, pan-Arctic, or other glaciated parts of the globe.

Dr. Sherpa’s research addresses the National Science Foundation’s Division of Earth Sciences (EAR) priority science questions “How is Earth’s water cycle changing?” and “How can Earth science research reduce the risk and toll of geohazards? She plans to work on the promotion and mentorship of undergraduates from historically excluded groups in STEM and computing.

She will disseminate the results of her research to audiences from: 1) the scientific community (through scientific conferences and peer-reviewed journals); 2) undergraduate and graduate students through computational and science communication workshops and 3) public outreach through social media and existing Brown University diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) outreach programs.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.