Monitoring Imja Glacier Lake

Himalayan glacier monitoring project with Field Server

Location of FS ( Google Earth kmz File )  - Google Earth Site

AIT and Partners Set up Field-Server in the Himalayas and the rest of the team members on having successfully setup a Field Server (FS) - Internet Field Observation Robot, at Imja Glacier Lake, which is located at an altitude of 5,000 m in the Mount Everest region of the Himalayas in Nepal. The lake was identified as being one of the potentially most dangerous glacial lakes which could cause large scale damage and destruction to people's lives and infrastructure and the FS will form part of a Glacial Lake Outburst Flood Monitoring and Early Warning System (GLOF).

Mr. Aadit Shresta, who is one of AIT's Project Researchers working on the FS sensor network project, was joined by other team members from the National Research and Education Network (Nepal); International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) based in Nepal; Keio University (Japan); National Agricultural Research Center (NARC) in Japan; and the University of Tokyo. The setup of the FS was undertaken under extremely difficult and adverse weather conditions. The activities are also supported by other agencies and companies.

The team extended WiFi (wireless LAN) from the Namche village to the lake which is more than 27 kms away. The FS started capturing images and several types of meteorological data that has been transferred real- time to a server located in Japan at http://fsds.dc.affrc.go.jp/data4/Himalayan/

However, the FS in Imja Lake stopped sending data after 10 days of operation. We are planning to fix the problem April 2008 after the weather condition became appropriate for maintenance work. The FS in Namche Bazar is working continuously, and you can see the near real time images and weather condition from the link above.

Dr. Honda's team at AIT is currently working on the integration of the sensor network and GIS. There are also plans to have similar field servers setup in other parts of the region for various applications such as disaster, food safety and security etc.

For more detail:  HONDA Kiyoshi

Field Server at Imja Glacier Lake	Field Server at Imja Glacier Lake
Image from Field Server at Imja Glacier Lake 15 Nov 2007 1009GMT	Image from Field Server at Namche Bazar 10 Dec 2007 0048GMT