From February 19 to 21, 2012, a group of scientists from China, India, Nepal, Japan and Pakistan gathered at Guangzhou, China, to review glacial mass balance on the Third Pole and plan for further development in glacial mass balance monitoring. They were called upon by CAS academician Prof. YAO Tandong to participate in the Glacier Mass Balance Working Group Workshop for the Third Pole Environment (TPE) jointly chaired by Prof. Yao, Dr. Pradeep Mool of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and Shresth Tayal of the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).

Participants of the workshop assessed the latest research results in glacier mass balance on the Third Pole, proposing 25 glaciers as candidate to construct flagship stations. Data-sharing platform within the TPE was also among the major concerns of the participants. The workshop finally harvested a general consensus and several basic guidelines for data-sharing among the participants. The workshop report was thoroughly discussed and later drafted jointly by all participants.

The effort to target 25 flagship stations for long-term glacial mass balance monitoring was acknowledged in the news section in the April issue of Nature. As the Nature story puts it, ‘the campaign will bridge a major knowledge gap in mountain research, especially at a time when high-elevation observatory stations elsewhere are at risk of being closed down due to lack of funding”.(see http://www.nature.com/news/glaciologists-to-target-third-pole-1.10382).