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Gardner: The track we’re looking at today passed very

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close to the summit of Everest. It was only about 640 meters from the summit.

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Now one of the unique things about ICESat-2 is it’s actually able to see down into

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the valleys of these very steep topography areas where the glaciers

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are. And so there’s other instruments, like radar, that aren’t able to see the glaciers

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all the way down in the valleys. And so ICESat-2 is going to let us measure

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the changes in mountain glaciers so we can assess how they’re responding to changes in

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climate and what potential they have to contribute to sea level rise in the future

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but also changes in water resources. Glaciers in this region

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have been experiencing rapid rates of thinning. And that thinning is

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in response to changes in climate. Not only are these glaciers thinning, but as they

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thin, there’s less force pulling them downward. And that less force pulling them

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downward is causing them to actually slow down. So in High Mountain Asia

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we actually have glaciers that are thinning and slowing down as they respond to climate.

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