Information - CR80 Mass and energy balance of snow and ice
Event Information
The theme of this session is the mass and energy balance of snow and ice bodies including debris-covered glaciers, both in high-latitude and high-altitude regions. Feedbacks between snow covers, glaciers and ice sheets and atmospheric processes, their role within the climate system, as well as their significance as resources of fresh water define the scientific background for this session. Considerable advances have been achieved in recent years, however many areas remain problematic and present challenges for the 21st century, for example:
• Modelling the spatial and temporal variation in snow accumulation across glaciers
• Calculation of the turbulent fluxes, the variation in surface aerodynamic roughness on glaciers and the applicability of atmospheric boundary layer theory under katabatic flows
• Energy transfer through debris covers and modelling melt rates of buried ice bodies
• Mass and energy balance modelling using remote or limited data input, including the issues of extrapolation and parameterisation of meteorological and surface input data and the downscaling of regional climatic model output to the scale of individual glaciers
• Energy and mass balance of cold or polythermal glaciers due to melt/refreeze processes
• Coupling of energy/mass balance and glacier flow models
• Problems of meteorological measurement and instrument accuracy on glaciers
Recent rapid climatic change and the alarming shrinkage of mountain glaciers add urgency to these and related scientific challenges. Contributions from field studies, remote sensing analyses and numerical modelling are welcomed within this session.
Preliminary List of Solicited Speakers
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