The Himalayan region, known as the “Third Pole”, is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, threatening water security, livelihoods, ecosystems and increasing disaster risk. Yet high-altitude areas remain poorly monitored because weather stations are mostly located at lower elevations and often fail due to harsh conditions and limited maintenance capacity.
Without reliable long-term observations at high elevations, it is difficult to understand changes in snow and ice dynamics, accurately model hydrological responses, predict floods, droughts and cryosphere-related hazards or design effective climate adaptation strategies.
High-altitude Monasteries for Data Acquisition, Tracking and Awareness (HiM-DATA) responds to this challenge through an open-access, community-owned citizen science initiative that partners with Himalayan monasteries to host and support Automated Weather Stations (AWS). By building on the long-term presence, local stewardship and accessibility of monasteries in mountain regions, the initiative aims to improve the continuity of high-altitude observations in places where conventional monitoring systems are often difficult to sustain.
