Satellites Miss Underwater Ice Loss in Himalayas

A new study in Nature Geoscience reveals that mass loss of lake-terminating glaciers in the greater Himalaya has been significantly underestimated by 6.5% due to satellite limitations in detecting underwater changes. This has major implications for future projections of glacier disappearance and water resources in the region. The study, conducted by an international team of researchers, found that proglacial lakes increased by 47% in number, 33% in area, and 42% in volume from 2000 to 2020. This expansion led to an estimated glacier mass loss of around 2.7 Gt, which was not considered in…