THE HIMALAYAN UNIVERSE

Source: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/330/6006/902 Science 12 November 2010: Vol. 330. no. 6006, p. 902 DOI: 10.1126/science.330.6006.902 News of the Week Remote Sensing: Earth-Observation Summit Endorses Global Data Sharing Richard Stone BEIJING —Last August, heavy monsoon rains submerged nearly one-fifth of Pakistan, inflicting $43 billion worth of damage. The floodwaters destroyed homes and businesses, washed away bridges and roads, ruined crops, and claimed about 1800 lives. As bad as it was, the toll could have grown in the weeks that followed if not for a novel Earth-observation system featured at a meeting here last week. Waterlogged. This SERVIR-Himalaya analysis shows flooding along the Indus River in Pakistan's Sindh Province last August. CREDIT: ICIMOD, NASA [Larger version of this image] In July...

Climate Change Impact in Jomsom of Mustang District It is an old news, but in an attempt to compile all the stories on climate change impacts in the Himalayas, the news article form Everest Journal.com is provided below:   Fright of climate change and its effects is making life of alpine people a nightmare. People of Mustang have also been experiencing terrible nightmares due to the effects of climate change in their livelihood and economy lately. Fluctuation of temperature and irregular pattern of rain and snowfall has severely affected the lives of Mustang. Mustang’s popular apple farming is on the edge of extermination due to no rainfall and no snowfall in the valley for an entire year. Due to increase in temperature, house flies and mosquitoes are plentiful nowadays while some years before they were rarely found. Locals are facing shortage of water because of rapid evaporation and water sources drying up drastically. Not only the Jomsom and lower Mustang, but even VDCs of ...

Washington, DC - NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development have expanded their successful collaboration with international partners to launch an innovative, web-based environmental management system for the Himalaya region. The partners inaugurated this state-of-the-art regional monitoring system, known as SERVIR-Himalaya, at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development in Kathmandu, Nepal on Oct. 5. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and USAID's Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade Michael Yates attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony in Nepal. SERVIR features web-based access to satellite imagery, decision-support tools and interactive visualization capabilities, and puts previously inaccessible information into the hands of scientists, environmental managers, and decision-makers. The Earth observation information is used to address threats related to climate change, biodiversity, and extreme ...