Program
- Program
- Association Symposia
This scientific session explores the transformative power of remote sensing technologies, promoting our understanding of the changes in the cryosphere. It underscores the importance of sensing technologies using satellite imagery, aerial photography, drone surveillance, and relevant applications for studying the remote ice-covered regions of the world, including polar and high mountain regions. This session emphasizes the critical role of the cryosphere—including glaciers, ice sheets, sea ice, permafrost, and snow cover—in global climate regulation, sea level changes, hydrological and ecosystem balances. Contributions that integrate remote sensing and field-based observations to investigate spatial and temporal changes in cold regions are encouraged as well as novel use of remote sensing data to enhance our understanding of the cryosphere's feedback mechanisms to the climate system, its impact on global sea levels, and its effects on hydrological and ecological cycles. By integrating data from various remote sensing platforms and sensors, the session provides an extensive overview of current trends, methodological innovations, and future research directions in the field of cryospheric sciences. It will serve as an open platform for sharing insights into the methodologies, challenges, and significant findings in the field, fostering a deeper understanding of the cryosphere's role in Earth's environmental systems, and highlighting the indispensable role of remote sensing in addressing the challenges posed by climate change.
Global sea ice cover is currently undergoing dramatic changes with the decline in Arctic Sea ice and the exceptionally low Antarctic Sea ice cover in recent years, with implications for climate dynamics, mid-latitude linkages, marine navigation, weather forecasting and polar ecosystems. Considering these significant transformations, our session aims to explore advances in sea ice modelling and forecasting for the Arctic and Southern Oceans across time and space scales, from minutes to sub-seasonal to climate time scales implemented in regional to global scale models. We especially encourage presentations on new developments and novel techniques to overcome challenges in: (1) sea ice modelling, (2) data assimilation and data-model integration, and (3) operational forecasting and prediction in polar regions.
Quantifying, understanding, and predicting the processes that control snow distribution and ablation dynamics provide ample research challenges, especially in complex mountainous terrain. The spatial distribution of snowcover and its physical properties is highly variable at site to regional scales. Its dynamics are influenced by surrounding topography and vegetation that control accumulation and redistribution processes, as well as local micrometerological conditions that control snowcover energetics and ablation. Accurate measurement and modelling of snowcovers requires methods to assess variations in patterns and processes that act and interact at a range of spatial and temporal scales. Advances in these areas are needed and relevant to develop improved tools for scientists and managers concerned with floods, droughts, water supply, terrestrial and aquatic ecology, and the water-energy nexus in a changing climate. This session will bring together experimental and modeling experts to address recent research in snow hydrology. We especially encourage contributions related to topics such as:
- Novel measurement approaches for snowpack states and fluxes;
- Feedbacks between climatic and snow processes and patterns;
- Snow-vegetation interactions in complex terrain;
- Effects of climate variability and change, especially in the rain-snow transition zone;
- Interactive effects of changing snow regimes and land cover patterns;
- Dynamics of the water-energy nexus in snow-dominated watersheds;
- Representation of small-scale variability in large scale modeling applications;
- Advances in modeling, including operational applications.
Models are necessary to understand glacier interaction with the climate system, explore glacier processes, fill observational gaps, and make future projections. This session invites contributions on all aspects of glacier modeling on local, regional and global scales. This includes but is not limited to (a) modeling glacier-climate interaction, mass change, ice flow and thermodynamics, and glacio-hydrological processes, (b) reconstructing past and projecting future glacier changes, (c) inversion of glacier properties such as ice thickness, and (d) advances in use of machine learning and data assimilation in glacier modeling. Contributions on both model development and model applications are welcome.
The cryosphere mainly includes glaciers (ice sheets), permafrost, snow cover, sea ice, river ice, and lake ice. It plays a pivotal role in the Earth's climate system, which has significant impacts on global energy and water cycles, terrestrial and marine ecosystems, as well as sustainable economic and social development. The cryosphere has been experiencing rapid biogeochemical dynamics under climate warming. The transformation and migration of nutrients such as carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus in the cryosphere are closely related to global changes. For instance, permafrost and ice sheets with a large carbon storage will change the source and sink functions of greenhouse gases and provide feedbacks on global carbon cycling and climate. Meanwhile, the cryosphere is also a "reservoir" of various pollutants. Global warming leads to rapid shrinking of the cryosphere, and its long-term accumulation of pollutants will be "re-released" into the atmosphere or aquatic environment. The migration and transport of persistent organic pollutants, mercury and new emergent pollutants in the cryosphere have significant impacts on regional and global ecological environments. Exploring the mutual response and feedback mechanisms between the cryosphere, atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and environmental changes is the big question for predicting future climate change and its ecological and environmental effects. Therefore, we call for abstracts on the occurrence characteristics, spatiotemporal patterns, migration and transformation, environmental fate, and response and feedback mechanisms of carbon, nitrogen and typical pollutants in the cryosphere, to show the latest results and understanding of changes in the cryosphere environment and biogeochemical cycles at different scales.
High mountains across the globe have been undergoing significant changes over the past decades. Climate warming causes changes in the cryosphere at unprecedented rates, affecting geomorphic processes on different time scales, with strong impacts on landscapes and ecosystems. Cryospheric hazards are undergoing rapid changes and related situations are often beyond any historical precedence. Risks associated with all types of mass movement processes are altered further by socio-economic developments affecting exposure and vulnerability of people and infrastructure. This session invites contributions on process understanding and impacts of glacial lake outburst floods, ice and rock avalanches from steep glaciers and frozen slopes, glacier surges, destabilization of rock glaciers and other periglacial slope movements, including cascading processes. We welcome case reports, modelling and mapping of past, present and future hazards and risks, as well as works on aspects of disaster risk reduction and management, including strategies for adaptation to changing cryospheric hazards and risks.
Glacier melt is critical freshwater resource for river recharge in High Mountain Asia (HMA). Change in glacier melt induced by glacier recession has become more dramatic as ongoing climate warming during recent several decades. Meanwhile, accelerating retreat and ablation of glaciers provide space and water resource for glacial lakes and their expansion. The glacial lakes are receiving a growing attention due to Glacier Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF). These changes significantly impact the freshwater resource for populations and hydro-economies in HMA, which have been demonstrated by a large number of observations and simulations. However, our knowledge of glacier melt and glacial lake expansion processes and their impact on water resources is in highly uncertain due to the limited in-situ-measured data (glacier, hydrology and climate) and the high spatial variability of glacier changes. This session aims to invite contributions bringing together in-situ, remote sensing and modelling studies of glacier, glacier lake, and water resource changes and the impact of the changes on hydrology, hazards and related natural and socio-economic systems in HMA.
Complementary to field observations and remote sensing, numerical modelling has become established as an important tool for assessing the state and change over time of ice sheets on Earth. This includes the highly topical issue of predicting their contribution to future sea level rise under global warming conditions. Due to tremendous increases in computing power, the capabilities of ice sheet models have improved greatly since their advent in the 1970s. This session is intended to cover a wide range of topics related to ice sheet modelling, such as (but not limited to) (i) simulations at very high resolution, (ii) full-Stokes or higher-order flow modelling, (iii) adaptive meshing techniques for ice streams, outlet glaciers and grounding zones, (iv) data assimilation techniques and inverse modelling, (v) treatment of basal (sliding) and marginal (calving) processes, (vi) integration in or interaction with Earth system models, ice sheet-climate modelling, (vii) innovative computing techniques, including machine learning.
This symposium invites abstracts on
- disasters relating to wet snow, such as wet snow avalanches, snowmelt flood, rain on snow, and snowmelt landslides
- physics of wet snow, such as liquid water movement and wet snow metamorphism
- methods for measuring liquid water content of snow
- impacts of climate change on snow properties, such as snow moisture and albedo, and snow hydrology.
The Middle Atmosphere Symposium covers all aspects of middle atmospheric science, with emphasis on the interaction between dynamics, radiation and chemistry within the middle atmosphere itself and between the middle atmosphere and the troposphere. Observational, modelling, theoretical, and laboratory studies are all solicited. Research topics include (but are not limited to):
The characteristics of a snow cover undergo continuous evolution across diverse scales in response to meteorological driving factors. Most processes within the snow cover depend on the vertical and horizontal distribution of its physical properties, primarily governed by the microstructure of snow (e.g., density, specific surface area). In turn, snow metamorphism and compaction alter the microstructure, impacting the snow cover on broader scales. Snow processes are thus relevant for a wide range of applications, including weather forecasting, land surface, snow hydrology and climate modeling, as well as avalanche hazard forecasting and remote sensing of snow. A comprehensive characterization of snow therefore necessitates synergetic investigations encompassing a hierarchy of processes across scales. This includes explicit microstructure-based studies to sub-grid parameterizations for unresolved processes in coarse-scale phenomena, such as surface properties or spatial distribution. This session is dedicated to modelling and measuring snow processes and characteristics across various scales, encompassing both seasonal and perennial snowpacks. We welcome contributions spanning "small" scales, as observed in microstructure studies including micro-mechanics, to "intermediate" scales, pertinent to 1D snowpack models, and extending to "coarse" scales, commonly arising in spatially distributed modeling over mountainous or polar regions with snow and ice cover. Contributions may present field, laboratory, and numerical research pertaining to the physical and chemical evolution of snowpacks and its spatial variability, downscaling techniques for atmospheric driving data, representation of sub-grid processes, assimilation of in-situ and remotely sensed observations, as well as evaluation of model performance and associated uncertainties.
Glaciers and ice sheets are critical components of the Earth system, with modern melt impacting sea level rise, freshwater availability, natural hazards, tourism, outdoor recreation, and cultural connections to land. Quantifying modern glacier and ice sheet changes helps societies to better assess the current impacts of their changes, and better predict future changes. This session welcomes in-situ and remote sensing studies of glacier and ice sheets changes, including mass balance, front variation, hydrology, ice dynamics, ice thickness, and surface energy balance, and from local to global scales.
This session invites studies on recent insights into the evolution of snow to firn, including both polar and mountain regions, and the snow to firn evolution in a changing climate. The topic is relevant for dry polar firn and climate reconstruction from ice cores, as well as for increasingly wet firn and the subsequent changes in glacier and ice sheet mass balance.
As we enter the Anthropocene, the Earth’s cryosphere is rapidly undergoing changes at a global scale. This causes profound impacts on regional water and ecosystem security, habitability for humans, and socio-economic development, especially in high mountain, polar, and coastal regions. To address the effects of the loss of cryosphere and achieve regional sustainable development, natural, geophysical, and social scientists must work together to facilitate research on socio-environmental system resilience and develop practices for a world that will be less cold. This session provides a common ground for international expert insights and discussion of the societal impacts and resilience pathways of global cryosphere decline. We intend an interdisciplinary session with a broad and inclusive focus, clustered around the following themes: 1) cryosphere contribution to human society, i.e., cryosphere services, 2) cryosphere-related tipping points, disasters, and their cascading effects, and 3) adaptation measures and the development of resilience pathways in a changing cryosphere. We aim to strengthen the understanding of “cryosphere-social systems” – their processes, mechanisms, and resilience.
In December 2022, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to declare 2025 as the International Year of Glaciers' Preservation, and 21 March of each year as the World Day for Glaciers starting in 2025. The resolution invites UNESCO and WMO to coordinate and facilitate implementation of the International Year and observance of the World Day. This special session will mark the international year of glaciers’ preservation by introductory talks by UNESCO, WMO, IACS and by invited talks on the state and future of the world’s climate and its glaciers.