'If we can explain how climate, hydrology, and tectonics operate there [the Himalayas], we hope we can develop a model that explains how they operate everywhere,' says Ana Barros of DEAS. Above, surrounded by peaks, Barros is accompanied by (from left) an official from Nepal's weather bureau; Sylvia Burges of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; and (far right) Bhim, a member of the Nepalese team that maintains the hydrometeorological network.
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Ana Barros chases the monsoonMeasuring rainfall in Himalayas will help to predict weather across worldOctober 4, 2001"The Himalayas are the largest mountain barrier on Earth, and probably one of the least understood," says Ana Barros, a Harvard associate professor of environmental engineering in the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences. "If we can explain how climate, hydrology, and tectonics operate there, we hope we can develop a model that explains how they operate everywhere." That's the goal of a four-year project, which is the most comprehensive and systematic study of its kind to date. The project is being sponsored by the National Science Foundation. It brings together geologists, glaciologists, climatologists, thermochronologists, and others from seven U.S. universities, Grenoble's Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, and three governmental agencies in Nepal to analyze and model the circular nature of climate as it relates to geomorphic processes -- a term that has endless layers of meaning for everything from global warming to whether you should bring an umbrella to work tomorrow. |
