Atmospheric Science
Air quality and climate across the altitude gradient
South Asia's air-quality sensor network is dense on the plains and almost absent in the high Himalaya. The atmosphere above 2,000 m — where transboundary aerosols travel and black carbon deposits on glaciers — is effectively unmeasured. HICS is building Nepal's first vertical gradient network, from the valley floor toward 4,000 m, logging temperature, humidity, pressure, and particulate matter continuously and publishing it openly.
Aerosols, monsoon, and glacier deposition
Research questions span PM2.5 diurnal and seasonal patterns, transboundary aerosol transport across the Himalayan front, and black-carbon deposition that darkens glacier surfaces and accelerates melt. None of these can be answered without measurements at altitude — which is exactly where the existing network ends.
Green/amber: HICS stations. Red: representative OpenAQ lowland stations. The high Himalaya is empty.
Kathmandu vs Dolpo
KTM-001 (Kathmandu, 1,350 m) against DLP-001 (Crystal Mountain School, Dolpo, 4,000 m). The WHO PM2.5 24-hour guideline is 15 µg/m³.
24-hour temperature across a 2,650 m altitude gradient.
Demonstration data · updates every 15 minutes
Particulate matter with the WHO guideline marked.
Demonstration data · updates every 15 minutes
Atmospheric pressure is more than a weather metric here: it sets the atmospheric depth that governs cosmic-ray muon flux. The same onboard pressure sensors that characterise Nepal's air also calibrate the muon detector's altitude response — see the Muon Physics programme.
KTM-001 is active and logging. DLP-001 is being installed during construction in Dho Tarap. Charts above show demonstration data until hardware telemetry is continuous; all published readings are clearly labelled.
