Water Future of Third Pole

The names of Asia's highest mountain The Himalaya, Karakoram, Hindu Kush ranges crave adventure to those who live worldwide but for more than a billion people, these are the names of their most important water sources. Their snow and ice glaciers consists large volume of fresh water outside the Earth's polar ice sheets; this leads hydrologists to nickname this region the 'Third Pole'. Even one-seventh of the world's population depends on rivers flowing from these mountain ranges. This water is used for drinking and irrigating crops. The melting of Glacier and snow are affected in the region due to rapid changes in temperature. The change in water supply and the region's climate made the people to modify their land-use practices. India, Pakistan, China and other nations are likely to influence food and water security changes in future.
It has been estimated by scientists that by the year 2100, these glaciers could be up to 75 percent smaller in volume. A space- based eye is kept by NASA on these changes worldwide for the better understanding of the planet's water cycle future. NASA's satellite and other resources can produce substantial benefits to climate science and local decision makers in the region having extreme challenges in collecting observations on the ground. NASA'S High Mountain Asia Team (HiMAT) led by Anthony Arendt of the University of Washington in Seattle, who is in its third year made the most comprehensive survey ever made of the data of snow, ice and water in these mountains and how they are changing is now underway.
13 coordinated research groups are coordinated with the project, studying three decades of data on this region in three wide areas of weather and climate, ice and snow and downstream hazards and impacts. All these three areas are changing; starting with climate. The regional water cycle is affected by the warming air and altering in monsoon patterns.
Thus Water cycle changes can raise or lower the risk of local hazards such as landslides and flooding, and can have hazardous impacts on water allocation and crops that can be grown.
By: Saksham Gupta
Content: https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2887/the-water-future-of-earths-third-pole/