water Article Field Study of Mass Balance, and Hydrology of the West Khangri Nup Glacier (Khumbu, Everest) Daniele Bocchiola 1,2,* , Giovanni Martino Bombelli 1, Federica Camin 3,4 and Paolo Maria Ossi 5 1 Politecnico di Milano Dip. Ingegneria Civile e Ambientale, L. da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy;
[email protected] 2 Associazione EVK2CNR, San Bernardino 145, 24126 Bergamo, Italy 3 Food Quality and Nutrition Department, Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Edmund Mach, via Mach 1, 38010 San Michele all’Adige (TN), Italy;
[email protected] 4 Center Agriculture Food Environment (C3A), University of Trento, via Mach 1, 38010 San Michele all’Adige (TN), Italy 5 Politecnico di Milano, Dip. Energia, Ponzio 34-3, 20133 Milano, Italy;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +39-02-2399-6223 Received: 29 November 2019; Accepted: 30 January 2020; Published: 6 February 2020 Abstract: The depiction of glaciers’ dynamics in the high altitudes of Himalaya and the hydrological fluxes therein is often limited. Although sparse seasonal (snow/ice) melt data may be available, dense precipitation networks are not available everywhere, and especially in the highest area, and the assessment of accumulation processes and mass balance may be difficult. Hydrological fluxes are little measured in the high altitudes, and few studies are available covering flow modeling and flow partitioning. Here, we investigate the snow accumulation, ice melt, and mass balance of West Khangri Nup (WKN) glacier (0.23 km2, mean altitude 5494 m asl), which is a part of the Khumbu glacier in the Everest region, where information of precipitation and hydro-glaciological dynamics in the highest altitudes was made available recently in fulfillment of several research projects.