Glacial Melt on the Ganges River

The objective was to carry out scientific research on the Satopanth Bamak Glacier. Experiments included ground penetrating radar survey of the rock debris that blankets the glacier, measurement of the change in surface elevation since the last visit to determine melt rate, collection of data from instruments installed during a previous expedition, movement of temperature sensors from one location to another to increase the spatial resolution of the dataset, and moving four of their twelve rain gauges from the Himalayan foothills onto the glacier to measure on-glacier precipitation. The most time consuming activity was using GPR to measure the thickness of debris, which involved moving the equipment by hand along a total of twelve transects at two metre intervals across the glacier.