About the Project
This fully funded PhD project is part of the QUARTILES Doctoral Landscape Award, a BBSRC and NERC-funded research and training programme designed to equip PhD students with the skills, expertise, outlook, and real-world experience needed to become the next generation of scientific leaders capable of addressing pressing environmental grand challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and sustainability.
Runoff from the Himalayan glaciers serves as a vital freshwater resource for one of the most populated regions globally. Majority of these glaciers are heavily debris-covered with associated supraglacial ponds (SGPs) whose hydrological buffering roles remain unconstrained1. Glaciers in Indian Himalayan region (IHR) are losing mass at an alarming rate due to a warming climate. This ice loss is visible in form of rapidly extending and evolving SGPs and proglacial lakes in the region. SGPs are characteristic surface features on relatively slow-moving, debris-covered glaciers, growing by the coalescence of smaller ponds. SGPs are known for significant meltwater storage, buffering the runoff regimes, and an understanding of this buffering process is crucial to improving projections of water security. These SGPs also play an important role in increasing the ablation of debris-covered glaciers through a positive feedback mechanism. SGPs are highly recurrent and persistent with high interannual variability2 and small ponds have the potential to expand rapidly3 increasing the risks of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs).
Nearly all the SGP research has been carried out on a few selected Nepalese glaciers. The IHR can help furthering such research because of its geographic extent which allows investigation across all three predominant glacier-climate regimes in this region, i.e., monsoon-dominated, westerly-dominated, and precipitation-transition zone. Interestingly, a regional-scale analyses of SGPs in IHR is missing and through this project, we plan to target this research gap. We aim to perform these analyses for selected glacierised basins within all the three climate regimes of IHR, for which sufficient glacio-hydrological, climatic, and remote sensing datasets are available. We start with a hypothesis that the formation rate and dynamics of SGPs vary across the IHR, and climate, topography, and extent of debris cover play significant part in causing this variation.
The workflow will start by identifying glacierised basins with sufficient data (glacio-hydrological/climatic/remote sensing) coverage as the target regions in the key precipitation zones. The data mining will be accompanied by developing semi-automated approaches (multispectral/object-based) to map SGPs on a variety of remotely-sensed (RS) datasets (e.g., Landsat, Sentinel 1/2, PlanetScope, ASTER, etc.), extendable to any glacierised region globally. These approaches will help achieve the following objectives:
- Multitemporal mapping and inventory of SGPs for the study regions.
- Characterising SGPs based on several physical determinants (e.g., dimensions, rate of change, albedo, etc.) and studying the variations across the IHR.
- Linking the spatiotemporal evolution of SGPs with the climate evolution.
The candidate will undertake a training programme developing a suite of transferrable skills in RS and glaciology, including geospatial and time series data analyses, and will be best suited to students with a background in the geosciences or related disciplines. IHR glaciers have some of the highest ice loss rates and GLOF vulnerability, and Glac-Pond will advance our understanding of the spatial distribution and evolution of SGPs/ice cliffs, providing the first detailed, quantitative investigation of SGPs across the three glacier-climate regimes of IHR. The main outputs/datasets comprise: (i) a multitemporal RS data archive and mapping algorithms, (ii) multitemporal SGP outlines, and (iii) physical and evolutionary characteristics of SGPs with respect to climate change. The project aims at meeting the UK’s international policy commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. There have been significant investments in RS platforms over the past decade. Using these datasets for SGP research, is now timely, offers a high return on the large financial investment, and can also help understand the evolving ablation behaviour of Himalayan glaciers. Throughout the project, science communication will be undertaken through the UoA/QUB press offices.
Informal enquiries are encouraged. For further project information please contact the lead project supervisor by selecting the first listed name at the top of this advert and sending your enquiry.
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Candidate Background:
Familiarity with GIS and remote sensing and/or some training in glaciology and computer programming is desirable.
Promoting equality, diversity and inclusion is core to the QUARTILES Doctoral Landscape Award. We actively encourage applications from diverse career paths and backgrounds and across all sections of the community, regardless of age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation and transgender status, amongst other protected characteristics.
We also invite applications from those returning from a career break, industry or other roles. We typically require a minimum 2:1 in your first degree (or equivalent), but exceptions can be made where applicants can demonstrate excellence in alternative ways, including, but not limited to, performance in masters courses, professional placements, internships or employment – this will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and is dependent upon approval from the relevant host institution. We offer flexible study arrangements such as part-time study (minimum 50%), however this does depend on the nature of the project/research so will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
If you have any questions about your eligibility, please email us at quartiles-admissions@abdn.ac.uk
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APPLICATION PROCEDURE:
- Please visit this page for full application information: How to Apply – QUARTILES DLA
- Please send your completed QUARTILES application form, along with academic transcripts and certificates to quartiles-admissions@abdn.ac.uk
- Please provide two academic references (we are unable to directly request references from your referees. If you would like to include references to support your application, please ensure they are provided directly to us. Some project supervisors may choose to contact your referees – please also include their contact details on your CV.
- Please ensure you submit all the required information and documentation.
- If you require any additional assistance in submitting your application or have any queries about the application process, please don’t hesitate to contact us at quartiles-admissions@abdn.ac.uk
Funding Notes
This 45 Month opportunity is open to Home/UK students only (This includes EU students who hold settled or pre-settled status).
QUARTILES studentships include a tax-free UKRI doctoral stipend (estimated at £19,795 for the 2025/2026 academic year), plus a training grant of £9,000 to support data collection activities throughout the PhD.
References
(1)Irvine‐Fynn et al. (2017)Geophysical Research Letters,44(23),11-894.
(2)Miles et al. (2017)J. Glaciol.,63,88–105.
(3)Sakai et al. (2009)J. Glaciol.,55, 909–917.
