Himalaya glaciers are the source of drinking water for two billion people in the Indian subcontinent. The GLWF 2023 mission will look for evidence on the impact of black carbon transport on accelerated glacier melting.

Global warming is affecting the Himalayan glaciers as well. If the trend continues, the most pessimistic scenarios forecast their disappearance within the next hundred years. Their disappearance will trigger the demise of civilization on the Indian sub-continent, as all great rivers’ headwaters are in the Himalayas. The annual monsoon season, which is the result of complex atmospheric events, heating of the Indian Ocean and the Andaman Sea, Indian sub-continent, strong jet streams above the Himalayas, the Chinese Sea influence and the summer heating of the Tibetan High Plateau bring an extensive precipitation of snow to the mountain range, but also polluted air with a high share of black carbon. These particulates cover snow and ice areas and accelerate melting.

The planet Earth is getting warmer.
Black Carbon adds more than 1 W/m² to the greenhouse effect.
Black Carbon is the second-largest contributor to global warming after CO₂.
7 million people worldwide die every year due to air pollution.
Sea level is rising fast.