I am Sathiya, from the Indian Institute of Technology in India, and I am doing my PhD in atmospheric sciences and climate change. You will laugh when you hear the reason why I got into my research field. It was an awesome winter in 2010 when I was in Manali, Himachal, India for a student exchange program. It was my first time in the Himalayan region. One fine evening the weather turned wild, and there was a snowfall. I was excited and running around. This is what tempted me to read more about Himalayas. (“Himalayas” actually means “house of snow.”)
So I started my research without any knowledge of glaciology, or anything about snow or glaciers, but have now studied various reports about water security and receding glaciers in the Himalayas. And that is why I am here, to learn as much as I can about glaciology, the physics of glaciers, and more. I am most eager to learn about how the glaciers are melting, why they are melting, and the causes and mechanisms of the melting.
If the white snow melts, the area of darker barren earth will increase, which will in turn lead to more warming of the Earth. So I would like to work on understanding this feedback mechanism and the albedo (how much light is reflected off the Earth’s surface versus how much light hits the surface) over the Earth’s surface, particularly over the retreating glaciers of the Himalayas. In my research I intend to find out what has happened to the Himalayan glaciers in the past, so that I can build a model to project the future changes f these glaciers. I am confident that my model will work well for the case of the Himalayan glaciers.
If you are interested in this kind of research or doing work in the Himalayan glaciers, please feel free to get in touch and work with me. But if you have passion for research, I am sure you will find great adventure.
– Sathiya, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India