Research

I received the 2023 National Science Foundation (NSF) Earth Sciences Postdoctoral fellowship entitled "Investigation of High Mountain Asia Glacial Lake Variations Under a Warming Climate". This award will allow me to advance my 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. This work also allows the quantification of hazards coming from Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) for risk management. In this project, I will utilize cutting-edge technologies, such as Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) from NASA/CNES/NASA/CNES/CSA Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) missions and other SAR satellite data to estimate the high-resolution spatio-temporal evolution of glacial lakes. This advances the understanding of the changing pro-glacial environment under a warming climate. 

The methodological and scientific framework developed and used in this 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. This 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? 

Fig. 1. Overview of the study area highlighted by gray outlines and its climate conditions. (a) Study area with GAMDAM glacier regions highlighted in different colors representing sub-regions of Himalaya as well as major GLOF reported locations. The inset shows the location of the study area in HMA, as well as the boundaries of countries and major drainage basins. High Asia Reanalysis Version-2 (HAR-V2) monthly mean precipitation and temperature for GAMDAM glacier areas shown in panel b-h). i) Time series of monsoon index and wavelet power spectrum (bottom) from 1949-2019 (Modified from Sherpa et al., (2023 Manuscript Under Review).