Raju Aryal
Raju Aryal
Observatory Researcher
Contact information
Email: raryal@athabascau.ca
Dr. Raju Aryal joined Athabasca University in 2018 as an Academic Expert for the GEOG 365 course. In 2023, he transitioned into a new professional role as a Researcher at the Athabasca University Geophysical Observatory. He received his PhD in Environmental Studies from the University of Northern British Columbia in 2015, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the same institution from 2015 to 2016. His research interests broadly focus on climate change and its impacts on the cryosphere and water resources. His doctoral research examined the effects of climate change on glaciers in the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia using a glacier mass balance model. He has extensive field research experience in the Nepalese Himalayas in the areas of glaciology, meteorology, and hydrology. More recently, his research has expanded into the study of space weather, including night‑sky observations using specialized scanning cameras to capture aurora events. This work is complemented by measurements of magnetic and electric fields at the observatory, which help explain how charged particles from the Sun interact with Earth’s magnetosphere.
Research interests
- Meteorology
- Hydrology
- Glaciology
- Space Weather
- Climate Impact Assessment
- Weather Hazards
- Fire Weather
Educational credentials
- PhD, Environmental Studies — University of Northern BC, Canada (2015)
- M.Sc., Earth and Planetary Science — Nagoya University, Japan (2002)
- M.Sc., Meteorology — Tribhuvan University, Nepal (1998)