An Exigency for Ice Core Studies to Determine Spatio-temporal Vari­ability in Moisture Sources and Impact of Black Carbon - Mineral Aerosols on the Himalayan Glaciers

摘要

Himalayan glaciers‒the store house of fresh water outside the polar region contributes~45%of the total river flow by glacial melt in the Indus,Ganga and Brahmaputra watersheds which supports the livelihood of~500 million people[1].The sustainability of these rivers is being questioned because of the growing evidences of accelerated glacier retreat in the recent decades,which is expected to have cascading effects on the mountainous areas and their surrounding lowlands.