Fifty years of Himalayan glacier mass-balance monitoring: Recommendations in honour of IYGP 2025
Azam, Mohd Farooq
Since the first glacier-wide mass-balance measurement on Gara Glacier (India) in 1974, researchers have monitored 38 glaciers across the Himalaya. These glaciers show a mean wastage of −0.62 ± 0.33 m w.e. a ‒1 , equivalent to a cumulative mass loss of −23.95 ± 1.44 m w.e. over 1974‒2023. The wastage strongly increased from −0.31 ± 0.34 m w.e. a ‒1 pre-2000 to −0.66 ± 0.33 m w.e. a ‒1 post-2000, indicating an acceleration of ∼9 cm w.e. per decade since 1974. Only seven glaciers (Chhota Shigri, Ho