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George Mason University’s civil engineers are assessing the climate change challenges facing some of the world’s highest mountain ranges, creating better ways to measure the melting ice in high elevations where temperatures are rising faster than the average, putting pressure on the livelihoods of fragile cultures and ecosystems.
Funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and led by Associate Professor Viviana Maggioni, the researchers teamed up with Chile’s Universidad de la Frontera. Together, their analysis encompasses the mountain regions of Asia, which include the world's highest mountains and support drinking water and food production for nearly three billion people. Their efforts also stretch across the globe to the Andes of South America: the highest mountain range on Earth outside of Asia.
“It is essential to understand how these high mountain areas are responding to climate change, since their melting permafrost has major impacts on surrounding regions and the people living nearby,” said Maggioni.
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To access and analyze these remote and geographically diverse locations, the researchers use advanced data assimilation algorithms, multiple satellite-based sensors, and NASA’s Glacial Melt Toolbox: a cutting-edge collection of remote sensing, digital elevation, and mapping technologies that help measure and forecast changes in ice, water, snow, and other natural phenomena.
The research aims to identify regional hotspots in the high mountain areas of Asia and the Andes where the permafrost is melting rapidly. Those hotspots are where local communities and natural cycles are most threatened, especially as climate change and the warming continue.
“The melting and permafrost loss in these areas has not been widely studied before,” Maggioni said. “This is alarming, since water availability and security are at risk.”