Location of the study area, Khumbu Himal


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Part 1
  
The Khumbu Himal is located in the east of Nepal, just south of the border with China. It houses some of the highest mountains in the world, including Mt. Everest (Sagarmatha, Chomologma), which is the highest in absolute, with its 8 848 metres.

In this exercise we are going to study the area with different remote sensing and GIS data sets.
All the data you will need is compressed in the file 'glacier_worksheet1.zip'

1. Have you ever seen a glacier on an image or a photograph?

2. What does a glacier look like?

3. Have you ever seen a glacier in real life?

4. Have you ever been on a glacier?

5. What dangers can occur while being on a glacier?

6. Where do glaciers appear?

7. Which preconditions need to be fulfilled for a glacier to appear?

8. Presently, are glaciers in general shrinking or expanding?

The first step is to locate the Khumbu Himal in Nepal. In order to do this, you must open LEOWorks.
Click File>Open to select the folder where your data is stored, and select the image himalaya.tif. This image is already orthorectified and shows the geo-coordinates. It shows a mosaic of several satellite images. Its spatial resolution is about 456 m.

Now select the GIS button and File>Open Theme and select Nepal_boundary.shp. This shapefile shows the extension of the territory of Nepal. In the Select the Transformation Method window, select Arbitrary and Load mode: Map Based. Click OK.
To make the borders more visible: On the GIS Tool window, click on Edit>Properties and change the colour to yellow – click OK and change the (Line) Thickness to 3 – Apply and OK.
If you encounter problems, consult the corresponding chapter in the LEOWorks Tutorial.

9. Can you locate any geographic features (settlements, peaks, valleys, rivers) with the help of an atlas?

10. Can you locate the Khumbu Himal (area of mount Everest)?

 
 
 Investigation Area
  
Now add another theme called 'Khumbu_Himal.shp'. (as above)
Change the properties if necessary. This theme shows a rough extension of the area under investigation.

Zoom into the area a little, and try to locate the main geographic features with your atlas.

1. Can you locate glaciers on the image?

2. What are they called?

3. Locate the Imja Glacier and the glacial lake Imja.



 
 
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Last update: 16 April 2013


Monitoring of glaciers in the Himalayas

 •  Introduction (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_Global_EN/SEM3TN0SAKF_0.html)
 •  Glaciers (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_Global_EN/SEM93O0SAKF_0.html)
 •  Investigation area (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_Global_EN/SEM69O0SAKF_0.html)
 •  Khumbu's glaciers (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_Global_EN/SEMJFO0SAKF_0.html)
 •  Imja glacier (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_Global_EN/SEMCHO0SAKF_0.html)

Exercises

 •  Development of glacial lakes in the Khumbu Himal (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_Global_EN/SEM1AP0SAKF_0.html)
 •  Glacier retreat at Honku glacier (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_Global_EN/SEM2EP0SAKF_0.html)

Links

 •  Further Reading (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_Global_EN/SEM9HP0SAKF_0.html)

Eduspace - Software

 •  LEOWorks 3 (http://esamultimedia.esa.int/multimedia/LEOWorks3.exe)

Eduspace - Download

 •  glacier_worksheet1.zip (http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/eduspace/glacier_worksheet1.zip)
 •  glacier_worksheet2.zip (http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/eduspace/glacier_worksheet2.zip)
 •  glacier_worksheet3.zip (http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/eduspace/glacier_worksheet3.zip)