Dr. Evan Stewart Miles

Function

Scientific staff member

Mountain Hydrology and Mass Movements

High Mountain Glaciers and Hydrology

Contact

evan.miles(at)wslto make life hard for spam bots.ch

+41 44 739 25 65+41 44 739 25 65

Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL
Zürcherstrasse 111
8903 Birmensdorf

Site

Birmensdorf Bi LG D 04

Research Background

2022-present: Research Scientist. Scientific assistant for SPI Flagship 'PAMIR: From ice to microorganisms and humans: Toward an interdisciplinary understanding of climate change impacts on the Third Pole', PIs Francesca Pellicciotti and Martin Hoelzle, WSL

2018-2021: Postdoctoral researcher. ERC project RAVEN: Rapid loss of debris-covered glaciers in High Mountain Asia, PI Francesca Pellicciotti, WSL

2017-2018: Research Fellow. NERC project 'EverDrill: Accessing the interior and bed of a Himalayan debris-covered glacier to forecast future mass loss'; PIs Duncan Quincey, Bryn Hubbard, and Ann Rowan, University of Leeds

2012-2016: PhD Candidate. Gates Cambridge Scholarship: 'Spatio-temporal variability and energy-balance implications of surface ponds on Himalayan debris-covered glaciers', Supervisors Ian Willis and Neil Arnold, Scott Polar Research Institute; University of Cambridge

2011-2012: Research assistant. Remote sensing and climate downscaling for global glacier chenge projections. Supervisors Garry Clarke and Valentina Radic, University of British Columbia

Research Interests

Glacier surface mass balance
Glacier hydrology
Glacierized catchment hydrology and meteorology
Big data remote sensing
Debris-covered glaciers

Google Scholar

FURTHER INFORMATION

Projects

RENOIR – Systematically deriving supraglacial debris thickness, properties, and changes

This project will systematically collect the measurements of physical properties needed to constrain the a new generation of debris thickness inversion methods, enabling high-accuracy global estimates of supraglacial debris thickness and its rate of change.

PAMIR

PAMIR is a multi-institutional, interdisciplinary scientific programme funded by the Swiss Polar Institute to understand the state, changes, and consequences of the cryosphere in the Pamir Mountains of Central Asia.

EMERGE - Extreme droughts in mountain regions

EMERGE will investigate the impacts of historic megadroughts on water fluxes and ecosystems in mountain regions, and use this knowledge to develop stress-test scenarios for a possible future megadrought in the Swiss Alps.

RAVEN - Rapid mass loss of debris-covered glaciers in High-Mountain Asia

One of the most important questions of climate change impact research today is how glaciers are responding to global warming. ERC-funded, RAVEN aims to determine the role that debris-covered glaciers play in the water cycle of High Mountain Asia and better incorporate processes unique to debris-cove

Mapping debris-covered glaciers and their features and characteristics

Supraglacial debris considerably alters the response of glaciers to changes in climate, yet debris-covered glaciers are notoriously difficult to delineate due to their fuzzy boundaries and spectral similarities to marginal moraines. Their surfaces are often characterized by supraglacial ponds and ex

Publications WSL

Scientific publication article peer reviewed

McCarthy, M.; Miles, E.; Kneib, M.; Buri, P.; Fugger, S.; Pellicciotti, F., 2022: Supraglacial debris thickness and supply rate in High-Mountain Asia. Communications Earth & Environment, 3, 1: 269 (11 pp.). doi: 10.1038/s43247-022-00588-2

McCarthy, M.; Meier, F.; Fatichi, S.; Stocker, B.D.; Shaw, T.E.; Miles, E.; Dussaillant, I.; Pellicciotti, F., 2022: Glacier contributions to river discharge during the current Chilean megadrought. Earth's Future, 10, 10: e2022EF002852 (15 pp.). doi: 10.1029/2022EF002852

Compagno, L.; Huss, M.; Miles, E.S.; McCarthy, M.J.; Zekollari, H.; Dehecq, A.; Pellicciotti, F.; Farinotti, D., 2022: Modelling supraglacial debris-cover evolution from the single-glacier to the regional scale: an application to High Mountain Asia. Cryosphere, 16, 5: 1697-1718. doi: 10.5194/tc-16-1697-2022

Fugger, S.; Fyffe, C.L.; Fatichi, S.; Miles, E.; McCarthy, M.; Shaw, T.E.; Ding, B.; Yang, W.; Wagnon, P.; Immerzeel, W.; Liu, Q.; Pellicciotti, F., 2022: Understanding monsoon controls on the energy and mass balance of glaciers in the Central and Eastern Himalaya. Cryosphere, 16, 5: 1631-1652. doi: 10.5194/tc-16-1631-2022

Orr, A.; Ahmad, B.; Alam, U.; Appadurai, A.; Bharucha, Z.P.; Biemans, H.; Bolch, T.; Chaulagain, N.P.; Dhaubanjar, S.; Dimri, A.P.; Dixon, H.; Fowler, H.J.; Gioli, G.; Halvorson, S.J.; Hussain, A.; Jeelani, G.; Kamal, S.; Khalid, I.S.; Liu, S.; ... Wescoat Jr., J.L., 2022: Knowledge priorities on climate change and water in the Upper Indus Basin: a horizon scanning exercise to identify the top 100 research questions in social and natural sciences. Earth's Future, 10, 4: e2021EF002619 (22 pp.). doi: 10.1029/2021EF002619

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Further scientific publications

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Magazine article and brochures

Bharucha, Z.P.; Ahmad, B.; Appadurai, A.N.; Bolch, T.; Dimri, A.P.; Dixon, H.; Fowler, H.; Halvorson, S.; Hussain, A.; Jeelani, G.; Mehra, M.K.; Miles, E.; Mustafa, D.; Nüsser, M.; Orr, A.; Pellicciotti, F.; Potter, E.; Romshoo, S.; Sarkar, S.K.; ... Wester, P., 2022: Climate and water in the Upper Indus Basin. An urgent new research agenda. 10 p.

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