Organiser: IACS
Co-sponsors: IAMAS, IAPSO
Lead Convenors: Scott Elliot (United States of America), Andrew Roberts (United States of America)
Co-Convenors: Laxmi Sushama (Canada), Ralf Döscher (Sweden), Annette Rinke (Germany)

Scope:  This session will focus on model development and results that seek to explain physical-biogeochemical-ecological-human interconnectivity within the arctic environment.  Model developments and results presented at this session will typically relate to the use or evaluation of coupled regional arctic sea ice-ocean-atmosphere climate models with coupled 'system' components, such as sophisticated biogeochemistry, hydrology, marine and terrestrial ecosystems, atmospheric chemistry and aerosols, ice-sheets and human-system components.

Keywords: Arctic, regional models, ice-ocean-atmosphere climate models, earth system modelling

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the Convenors

Options: Accepted abstracts will be presented as either oral or posters as determined by the convenors.
Please note also 'J-P02 Future State of the Arctic and Potential Impact"

Organiser: IACS
Co-sponsors: IAMAS
Lead Convenors: Alejandro Casteller (Argentina), Jordy Hendrikx (New Zealand)

Scope: Snow is both a hazard and a resource. Snow avalanches threaten mountain communities as well as some industrial activities worldwide, but snow also provides a valuable resource for snow tourism and is critical for water availability in many alpine river catchments. This session is devoted to the latest results on snow cover processes, snow melt, snow storms, avalanche formation, and case studies of catastrophic snow avalanche cycles and their corresponding meteorological and snowpack conditions. A particular focus will be on studies from the Southern Hemisphere. In regard to case studies emphasis is placed on both the examination of recent catastrophic snow and avalanche events and the examination of major avalanche path histories and their changing avalanche regimes. The session aims at improving our understanding of snow, snow storms and catastrophic snow avalanche cycles and their corresponding meteorological and snowpack conditions in order to improve both avalanche forecasting and risk management. We particularly encourage studies from the Southern Hemisphere, but welcome contributions from around the world.

Keywords: snow avalanches, snow cover, snow storms, natural hazards

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the convenors

Options: Accepted abstracts will be presented as either oral or posters as determined by the convenors.

Organiser: IACS
Co-sponsors: IAMAS, IAHS(ICSIH)
Lead Convenors: Michael Lehning (Switzerland), Marc Parlange (Switzerland), Pierre Etchevers (France), Eric Brun (France)
Co-Convenors: Samuel Morin (France)

Scope:  Mass balance of Alpine glaciers, snow water storage in the mountains providing water to arid areas and local microclimate are only a few examples why snow – atmosphere interactions in mountains need to be understood. Snow deposition in mountains is governed by precipitation gradients across mountain ranges, preferential deposition caused by local flow – precipitation interactions and redistribution of snow via saltation and suspension. Snow ablation depends heavily on the local energy balance with spatially varying radiation and turbulent fluxes. In complex terrain, shortwave radiation varies because of shadowing and reflections, longwave radiation varies because of varying emissions from snow, rock, soil or vegetation and turbulent fluxes vary because of differences in surface properties as well as varying wind speeds. Inversely, the presence or partial presence of a snow cover alters the forcing of the land surface on the atmosphere. In order to answer the question “how much snow is there on the mountain, where, when and why” and to make assessments of current and future snow cover, these interactions need to be understood quantitatively. This session invites contributions on the subject from atmospheric scientists, hydrologists and snow scientists.

Keywords: snow, atmosphere, energy balance, mass balance,  mountain regions

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the Convenors.

Options: Accepted abstracts will be presented as either oral or posters as determined by the convenors. Tentative list of invited speakers

Organiser: IACS
Co-sponsors: IAPSO
Lead Convenors: Roland Warner (Australia), Mike Dinniman (United States of America)
Co-Convenors: Andrew Mackintosh (New Zealand) Lars Smedsrud (Norway), Anna Wåhlin (Sweden)

Scope: Floating glacial ice, in ice shelves and glacier tongues, forms an important linkage between polar ice sheets and the ocean. Thermal interaction with subglacial ocean circulation couples ice shelves and glacier tongues to the global climate system, making this part of the ice sheet margin sensitive to climate change. The rapid disintegration of several Antarctic ice shelves over recent decades has been attributed to combinations of atmospheric and oceanic influences, internal ice shelf dynamics and fracture and rift development. Much of the continental ice is discharged through these regimes and the balance of forces within ice shelves imposes boundary conditions on flow in ice streams and outlet glaciers. Uncertainty about these evolving boundary conditions at the ice margin on interior flow leads to uncertainty about contributions to future sea-level. Contributions are sought addressing all aspects of ice shelves and glacier tongues and their interaction with the climate system, including observations and modelling of: the structure, dynamics and evolution of ice shelves; their linkages with the broader climate system; sub-shelf ocean circulation and ice shelf-ocean interactions; rifting and iceberg calving, and the influence of changing ice shelves on grounding lines and ice stream dynamics. In particular, overviews of the current state of knowledge are welcomed.

Keywords: floating ice, ice shelves, glacier tongues, ice shelf-ocean interaction, grounding line, ice streams, rifting, calving, icebergs, basal melting, basal freezing, frazil ice, marine ice, ice dynamics, modelling, climate change.

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the Convenors.

Options: Accepted abstracts will be presented as either oral or posters as determined by the convenors.

Organiser: IACS
Lead Convenors: Wolfgang Rack (New Zealand),  Jan Lieser (Australia)
Co-Convenors:  Rob Massom (Australia), Helmut Rott (Austria)

Scope:  Remote sensing techniques applied from satellites, airborne platforms, and surface platforms are a primary method of obtaining knowledge of geophysical characteristics and processes of the cryosphere, especially in remote areas and over very large spatial scales. They can be used to obtain information both from and beneath the surface.  Because of technical limitations and the large range in temporal and spatial scales of cryospheric phenomena, a combination of applied techniques is often necessary to better observe and describe underlying glaciological processes. This session will discuss new advances in remote sensing techniques for detecting ice and snow dynamics as well as deriving mass balance estimates in polar and non-polar areas. Contributions which include some form of validation of remotely sensed data are especially welcome, as well as are applications from new platforms like autonomous or remotely controlled aircraft, and autonomous underwater vehicles.

Keywords: remote sensing, cryosphere, satellite, airborne, UAV, AUV, validation, cryospheric processes

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the Convenors

Options: Accepted abstracts will be presented as either oral or posters as determined by the convenors.

Organiser: IACS
Lead Convenor: Mark Curran (Australia)
Co-Convenors:  Kumiko Azuma (Japan), Tas van Ommen (Australia)

Scope: Ice cores from mountain glaciers and polar ice sheets provide detailed and wide-ranging information about past climate and environmental conditions on timescales from decades to hundreds of millennia.  They also provide one of the few sources of data, from air bubbles trapped in the ice, of the composition of past atmospheres.  They are hence key tools for global change research. For example, ice cores demonstrate the close connection between climate and greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations and provide an estimate of the sensitivity of climate to GHGs.  They also indicate that abrupt climate transitions have occurred in the past.  Contributions to this session are invited on recent ice core climate records from all regions of Earth and at all time scales.  Records showing the links between Southern Hemisphere and Northern Hemisphere climate changes are particularly welcome.  Contributions providing calibration of ice core records, and new forms of proxy record are also solicited.

Keywords: ice cores, palaeo-climate, Antarctica, Greenland, greenhouse gas concentrations, climate sensitivity

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the Convenors

Options: Accepted abstracts will be presented as either oral or posters as determined by the convenors.

Organiser: IACS
Co-sponsors: IAMAS
Lead Convenors: Henning Löwe (Switzerland), Johanna Spiegel (Switzerland)
Co-Convenors: Ilka Weikusat (Germany)

Scope: Ice as the most abundant mineral on the Earth's surface plays a crucial role in our climate system. The physics of snow and ice, which is essential to quantify various aspects of the cryosphere reliably on seasonal or climatological time scales, is ultimately determined by ice crystal morphology.  The  shape and size distributions usually undergo drastic changes during different stages of the typical lifetime of  ice crystals: growth in the atmosphere, deposition on land or sea and the subsequent evolution in snow cover, firn, glacier or sea ice. Deformation and recrystallization mechanisms in polycrystalline ice on the ground cause further changes in morphology and microstructure of ice. At any stage the underlying crystal structure and in particular its variability determine many physical properties of clouds, snowpacks and ice cores. Thereby, one stage of crystal evolution will serve as the initial condition for the next stage which leads to questions like: How long will inherited, morphological characteristics survive? What are the common aspects of methods which investigate crystal morphologies on the ground and in the atmosphere? This symposium aims to cross the boundaries between atmosphere and ground by focusing on common, underlying questions of structural properties of natural ice crystals. We invite experimental and theoretical contributions which focus on morphological aspects of ice crystals, their variability, experimental methods to determine them, and the their dynamic evolution under the influence of dominant physical mechanisms.

Keywords: snow, ice, micro-structure, crystal growth, tomography, holography

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the Convenors

Options: Accepted abstracts will be presented as either oral or posters as determined by the Convenors.

Organiser: IACS
Lead Convenor:  Nicolas Cullen (New Zealand)
Co-Convenors: Graham Cogley (Canada), Peter Jansson (Sweden), Ian Allison (Australia)

Scope: Losses from the world’s smaller glaciers and ice caps contribute more to current sea-level rise than the two polar ice sheets, and it has been suggested that that they will continue to do so through the 21st century. Accurate estimates of the recent history, present state and future evolution of these glaciers are nevertheless sparsely distributed, and improved understanding of their mass balance, volume balance, shrinkage rates and terminus fluctuations is needed as a matter of growing urgency. The contexts in which the need is urgent include both local and regional concerns as well as the global picture. Recent attention has focused on glaciers as resources for water for irrigation and human consumption, power generation, tourism and recreation, and as hazards for residents of mountainous regions. In some cases exaggerated claims on future glacier change have led to controversy, and it is important to develop a truer perspective on the role of glaciers in human societies and economies. The session on Glacier and Ice Cap Fluctuations will offer an opportunity to address such needs. Papers on any aspect of glacier change will be welcomed, but studies presenting improvements in methodology and the estimation of uncertainty, details of glacierized regions that have received little attention hitherto, and linkages with related disciplines are especially encouraged.

Keywords: glaciers, ice caps, glacier change and fluctuation, climate change, sea level rise.

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the Convenors

Options: Accepted abstracts will be presented as either oral or posters as determined by the convenors.

Organiser: IAPSO
Co-sponsors: IACS, IAG
Principal Convenors: John Church (Australia), Simon Holgate (United Kingdom)
Co-convenors: Georg Kaser (Austria), C. K. Shum (United States of America), Philip Woodworth (United Kingdom)

Scope: Global and regional sea-level change has become a high profile scientific issue with great societal importance. Warming oceans, melting glaciers and potentially much larger contributions from the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets are all likely to lead to a substantial rise in sea level during the 21st century and beyond. Sea level changes across a broad range of time- and space-scales. Understanding both the temporal and spatial variability of sea-level change urgently needs input from a wide range of disciplines, including studies of the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere (glaciers, ice caps, frozen grounds, and ice sheets), terrestrial water storage and discharge, and the elastic and visco-elastic response of the solid earth to changes in surface loading and Pleistocene deglaciation.

This Symposium aims to bring together the diverse disciplines involved in sea-level research in a way that will provide opportunities for cross-fertilisation of ideas and dissemination of the most up to date results in this rapidly changing field. This Symposium will consider all contributions to improving understanding of the past and future projections of sea-level change. This includes satellite observations such as altimetry, GPS, gravity and synthetic aperture radar, in situ instrumental and palaeo observations, theoretical understanding and numerical modelling. The Symposium will focus on: (i)· Remotely sensed, in situ and palaeo observations of global and regional sealevel change; (ii) ·Evidence and understanding of cryospheric change, particularly fast, dynamic ice processes; (iii) Observations and modelling of changes in ocean mass and ocean thermal expansion; (iv) Changes in terrestrial water storage and discharge, including human-made dams/reservoirs; (v) Understanding global averaged sea-level change and the regional distribution of sea-level change; and (vi)·Dynamical modelling of sea level variability at global and regional scales, including the prediction of extreme sea levels. This symposium will continue as the IAPSO-lead Joint Symposium JP3.

Keywords: sea-level change, warming ocean, melting glacier, Greenland, Antarctic, ice sheet, atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, observations, modelling, prediction of extreme sea level.

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the convenors.

Options: Only invited papers will be scheduled for oral presentations within the union symposia. All other accepted abstracts will either be presented as posters or, if the author prefer, moved as oral to the IAPSO-lead Joint Symposium JP3.

Organiser: IAHS
Co-sponsors: IACS, IAG, IAMAS, IAPSO
Principal Convenor: Pierre Hubert (France)
Co-convenors: Andrea Flossman (France), Manfred Lange (Cyprus), John Pomeroy (Canada), Paul Tregoning (Australia), Susan Wijffels (Australia)

Scope: Based on the observation of the continuous movement of water, the idea of a hydrological cycle appeared in the most remote antiquity, but the corresponding scientific concept was coined only three centuries below by Pierre Perrault and Edmund Halley, based on their measurements and water balance computations. Today the hydrological cycle is well known and taught as soon as in primary schools. But do we really understand this extraordinarily complex system, which operates over huge time and space scales, involves the flow of liquid, solid and vapour phases of water and whose processes shape the face of the Earth by impacting biology, geochemistry, geophysics, climatology and redistributing matter and energy? We still have a lot to learn about the hydrological cycle. To take only a few examples: what is the uncertainty regarding the Earth’s water inventory, water phase and fluxes?  Do we really know what a cloud is and how it behaves?  Can we predict streamflow from physical first principles? Do we really know the paths of water on the continents, between precipitation and the continental reservoirs of surface, ground, snow and glacier water and the oceans? This symposium will be devoted to these gaps which jeopardize many scientific and practical activities such as water resources prediction and assessment and to the ways to overcome them. All contributions from geoscientists developed in an interdisciplinary spirit will be welcome.

Keywords: Hydrological cycle, water cycle, hydrosphere, atmosphere, cryosphere.

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the convenors.

Options: All contributed abstracts will be presented as posters. Only invited papers will be scheduled for oral presentations.

Organiser: IAGA
Co-sponsors: IACS, IAG, IAMAS, IAPSO, IASPEI
Principal Convenors: Eigil Friis-Christensen (Denmark)
Co-Convenors: Ian Allison (Australia), Hugo Beltrami (Canada), Steven Nerem (United States of America), Gerassimos Papadopoulos (Greece), Denise Smythe-Wright (United Kingdom)

Scope: Climate change is a topic, which is on the top of the agenda, not only within the science community but also in the society at large. IUGG is a scientific organization, which covers many of the aspects of climate change including the causes, anthropogenic and natural, as well as the consequences. The purpose of this symposium is to demonstrate by invited speakers from various disciplines the complexity of the issue and the need for interdisciplinary initiatives in order to understand the science and the way it has an impacts on our society. IUGG is the primary scientific organizations to offer both the scientific expertise of the Associations and the overall perspective.

Keywords: climate dynamics, natural causes of climate change, anthropogenic causes of climate change.

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the convenors.

Options: All contributed abstracts will be presented as posters. Only invited papers will be scheduled for oral presentations.

Organiser: IUGG
Co-sponsors: IACS, IAG, IAGA, IAHS, IAMAS, IAPSO, IASPEI, and IAVCEI
Principal Convenors: Harsh Gupta (India) and László Szarka (Hungary)

Scope: With the passage of time, the importance of "Geophysics" as a discipline is increasing. A large number of young persons are joining the Geophysics stream. IUGG is conscious of the aspirations of young geophysicists. This Union Symposium would have speakers, preferably 35 years old or younger, from the 8 Associations of IUGG and a few other invited young persons to share their experience, expectations, successes and concerns in development of Geophysics.

This symposium is under active development.

Organiser: IAG
Co-sponsor: IACS
Lead Convenor: Reinhard Dietrich (Germany)
Co-Convenor: Matt King (United Kingdom)

Scope: Geodetic techniques provide a variety of excellent possibilities to contribute to fundamental scientific questions related to the cryosphere. Main topics of research are the mass balance of ice sheets, the contribution of the continental ice to sea level rise as well as the dynamics of glaciers, ice shelves and sub-glacial lakes.

During this symposium, the latest results based on satellite missions like GRACE, ICESat, ENVISAT, ALOS and others shall be presented. In addition, other interesting geodetic applications of airborne methods and ground-based observation techniques related to glaciological research are welcome. Studies reporting geodetic constraints on ice sheet history, such as via measurement of glacial isostatic adjustment, are also encouraged.

Keywords: cryosphere, mass balance, ice sheets, ice shelves, sub-glacial lakes, glacial isostatic adjustment, GRACE, ICESat, ENVISAT, ALOS

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the Convenors

Options: Contributed papers are optionally oral or poster presentations

Organiser: IAG
Co-sponsors: IACS, IAGA, IAHS, IAMAS, IAPSO, IASPEI, IAVCEI, IOC, GOOS, GCOS, GEO/GEOSS
Lead Convenor: Markus Rothacher (Switzerland)
Co-convenors: Ruth Neilan (United States of America), Mioara Mandea (France), Keith Alverson (France), Massimo Cocco (Italy)

Scope: Earth observations are the fundamental basis for most IUGG scientific research, activities, and applications. Integrating these observations is of increasing importance to better understand our planet Earth and the challenges we face now and in the coming decades. These observations are of vital importance for virtually all associations working under the auspices of IUGG and inter-association, even inter-Union activities are being further developed or initiated.  Entities like the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), the Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS), and the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), along with the Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS), demonstrate the need for highly collaborative international observations that target key questions, and the systems necessary to integrate them for multi-disciplinary applications and decision-making. The importance of developing global observing strategies is recognized by GEO, the Group on Earth Observations, with its main aim to develop the GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems), which is supported on the government level by about more than 80 countries. This symposium shall give an overview of the major international developments towards integrating Earth observations, Inter-Union activities of the International Council for Science (ICSU), and developments within the IUGG associations.

Keywords: earth observations, monitoring systems

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the Convenors

Options: Contributed papers are optionally oral or poster presentations

Organisers: IAHS (ICSIH, ICLAS, ICRS, ICGW, ICSW, PUB), IAMAS, IACS
Lead Convenor: Danny Marks (United States of America)
Co-Convenors: Michael Lehning (Switzerland), David Collins (United Kingdom), Mark Seyfried (United States of America), Regine Hock (Sweden), John Pomeroy (Canada), Marc Parlange (Switzerland)

Scope: Changes in storage of water as seasonal snowpack, frozen ground, and perennial snow and glacier ice, and release of meltwater are major components of hydrological systems in the high mountain regions of the world. In such areas, the annual cycle of meltwater production from snow and ice is critical, influencing streamflow regime, soil moisture, and both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Meltwater availability is crucial in cold mountain environments and in areas downstream, for agriculture and hydropower, particularly where the areas surrounding mountains are otherwise arid and susceptible to drought. Mountain snowpack, permafrost, glaciers and meltwater runoff will continue to be influenced strongly by climate change into the future. Detailed understanding of and the ability accurately to model inter-relationships between climate, snowpack, ground ice and glacier dynamics coupled with intra-basin hydrological processes are necessary in order to test hypotheses concerning contemporary and future interactions between high mountain climate, snow, ice, runoff, biogeochemistry and water quality. This symposium addresses a broad range of topics important for better understanding of snow and ice hydrology in mountain regions and for reducing uncertainty and increasing physical realism in modelling and prediction under climate change. Contributions on the following topics are particularly welcome: measurement and monitoring techniques for snow and ice in cold mountainous regions; physical properties of snow, permafrost and ice – parameterisation of microscale properties for macroscale prediction; using remote sensing for improvement of prediction of runoff from snow and ice in data-sparse mountain areas; forecasting meltwater runoff from ungauged high mountain basins; assessment of risk and prediction of glacier lake outburst floods in mountain areas, and impacts of mountain snow and ice hydrology on water resources in drier downstream areas in a changing climate.

Organisers: IAHS (ICSIH), IACS
Lead Convenor: Bryn Hubbard (United Kingdom)
Co-convenors: Steffan Vogel (United States of America), Robert Bingham (United Kingdom), Helen Fricker (United States of America) 

Subglacial water represents one of the most important yet poorly-understood aspects of glaciology. It exerts a key control over the dynamic behaviour of glaciers and ice sheets, contributes to unique ecological habitats, and acts as a potent geomorphic agent. For example, a growing number of remote sensing and ground-based observations across Antarctica and Greenland are highlighting the existence of subglacial water in a variety of forms, ranging from vast subglacial lakes (providing distinctive habitats for potentially unique life forms) to mm-thick water flows at the ice-substrate interface. These hydrological phenomena have great potential to impact on ice dynamics – from the scale of valley glaciers to large ice sheets - feeding back into the response of ice masses to climate change and their consequent contributions to changes in sea level. The precise nature of this control is far from well-constrained, despite the sensitivity of numerical models to (what are currently at best approximated basal sliding terms).

Characterizing the role of basal meltwater quantitatively therefore remains an important outstanding glaciological problem, as does structuring and scaling that knowledge for use in models of ice mass motion. However, it is difficult to access the base of ice masses, and it is perhaps even more challenging to characterize spatio-temporal variations in the water that may be present there. These challenges continually drive the application of innovative methods and new technologies in the investigation of subglacial water.

We solicit scientific contributions that include, but are not limited to, measurements and/or modelling of: (i) water flows at the ice-mass bed and through subglacial sediments; (ii) feedbacks between ice-mass hydrology and ice dynamics, and the impact of that relationship on ice-mass response to climate change; (iii) theoretical-, field-, or laboratory-based parameterization of basal hydrological processes, including the application of innovative technologies; (iv) formation, geometry and potential linkages between subglacial lakes; (v) subglacial lake drainage and meltwater outbursts from ice-mass margins; and (vi) geomorphological evidence of subglacial water flows from contemporary ice-sheet margins and across formerly glaciated regions.

Organisers: IAMAS (ICDM, ICMA), IAPSO, IAHS, IAGA, IACS
Lead Convenor: William Lahoz (Norway)
Co-convenors: Craig Bishop (United States of America), Mu Mu (China), Michele Rienecker (United States of America), Jeffrey Walker (Australia), Tomoko Matsuo (United States of America), Ian Fenty (United States of America)
           
Scope: The session will provide a forum for presentation and discussion of the latest research in data assimilation and ensemble forecasting. The effectiveness of data assimilation and ensemble forecasting is inextricably linked to our ability to estimate the distribution of truth given limited information. Given imperfect and sparse observations together with an imperfect forecasting system, data assimilation focuses on estimating the distribution of current and past states while ensemble forecasting strives for the distribution of future states. Data assimilation schemes need an estimate of the distribution of truth given a short term forecast – a key objective of ensemble forecasting. The intertwining of the aims of data assimilation and ensemble forecasting makes it likely that data assimilation experts can help ensemble forecasting experts and vice-versa. We are calling for presentations of outstanding research in data assimilation and ensemble forecasting. Particular data assimilation topics include:

• Advanced assimilation methods, including hybrid variational and ensemble-based approaches, weak constraint 4D-VAR and model error estimation;
• Improved use of observations: observing system experiments and observing system simulation experiments, adaptive observing methods, calculation of observation sensitivities;
• Assimilation of data from new satellite instruments, such as COSMIC, CloudSat, IASI, SMOS, Aquarius and ADM-Aeolus;
• Space Weather, including applications to the heliosphere, the magnetosphere, and the ionosphere-thermosphere system;
• Polar assimilation: exploiting the considerable data collected during the IPY and subsequently via the Arctic Observing Network.

Contributions on ensemble forecasting for short, medium, seasonal and climate time scales are all welcome. Specific sub-topics include:

• improved methods for initializing ensemble forecasts,
• estimation and representation of model error, and
• ensemble post-processing to optimize the value of probabilistic forecasts to decision makers.

Keywords:  observations, satellite data, advanced methods, decision makers

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the convenors

Options: Accepted abstracts will be presented as either oral or posters as determined by the convenors.

Organsiers:  IAMAS (ICPM), IAPSO, IACS
Lead Convenor: Siobhan O’Farrell (Australia)
Co-convenors: Jason Box (United States of America), David Reusch (United States of America), Michael Town (France)

Scope: This last decade has seen record sea ice-extent minima in the Arctic while the Antarctic has shown no change in sea ice extent.  At the same time, the Greenland ice sheet, Antarctic Peninsula ice shelves and West Antarctic outlet glaciers and surface temperatures all exhibit increasing evidence of change. The combined effects of anthropogenic forcing and natural variability modes are thus yielding different responses in the atmospheric, oceanic, and cryospheric components of the two polar climate systems.
This session will investigate the contrasting climate responses in atmosphere, ocean and cryosphere, through several key questions:
(1) Where can we detect the anthropogenic signal in the polar climate system (e.g., temperature, sea level pressure, sea ice extent, ocean currents, ocean water mass properties, etc.)? 
(2) Can we identify how the large-scale natural variability also driving the climate system affects these same climate variables, whether the changes exceed natural variability “noise” levels in the system, and does reality mirror model-projected change?

We solicit papers from the atmospheric, oceanic and cryospheric communities, from observational, theoretical and modelling perspectives, addressing these questions and the role of natural variability and/or anthropogenic signals in individual climate components, or across the climate system.

Keywords:  climate response, climate detection, cryosphere, modes of variability, climate variables, ocean water mass changes.

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the convenors

Options: Accepted abstracts will be presented as either oral or posters as determined by the convenors.

Organisers:  IAMAS (ICPAE), IACS
Lead Convenor: Dimitri Titov (Germany)
Co-convenors:  Ralf Greve (Japan), Athéna Coustenis (France)

Scope: Papers are invited on the physics and chemistry of the lower, middle and upper atmosphere, ionosphere and surface ice of the inner planets and comets. Comparative studies of the atmospheres of Venus, Earth and Mars, as well as the ices on Earth and Mars, are also invited, with emphasis on the differences and similarities in their climates. Results from recent missions to Mars, Venus and the terrestrial planets in general are of particular interest. Reports on improvements in general circulation models of the thermosphere and lower atmospheres of the planets, coupled atmosphere/cryosphere models and descriptions of future planetary missions are also invited, as well as advances in laboratory experiments.

Keywords: Physics, chemistry, planetary atmospheres

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the convenors

Options: Accepted abstracts will be presented as either oral or posters as determined by the convenors.

Organisers: IAMAS (ICCL, ICDM), IAPSO , IACS
Lead Convenor: Natalia Andronova (United States of America)
Co-convenors: Neil Holbrook (Australia), John Nielsen-Gammon (United States of America), Adam Scaife (United Kingdom), Toshio Yamagata (Japan), Petra Heil (Australia)

Scope: Effective adaptation to climate change requires specific probabilistic forecasts of the future state of global and regional climate years to decades in advance.  While much can be learned from studies of the predictability of weather, the future state of the climate system involves the coupled evolution of the atmosphere, oceans, surface water, ice sheets and glaciers, and society (emissions and land use), all of which have widely varying levels of observability and model fidelity, and the entire system is further subject to time-varying external solar and volcanic forcing.  Sensitivity of the climate system to external forcing greatly depends on a wide variety of feedbacks that govern interactions within the climate system. Quantifying the climate feedbacks operating on different spatial and temporal scales has been a great challenge for the climate community, making it difficult to provide clear and adequate scientific information to policymakers. The different temporal and spatial scales of interactions within the whole climate system bring great uncertainties into the analysis of climate sensitivity and feedbacks.  This translates into uncertainties of climate prediction, particularly on regional scales, and requires a close conversation between climate modelers, observatories and stakeholders.

Papers are invited on all aspects of climate sensitivity, predictability and feedbacks from annual to centennial time scales, including: the predictability and sensitivity to initial conditions of individual components of the climate system; nonlinear interactions among components and their effects on predictability; the nature of observations which have or would have the greatest impact on climate predictability; the extent to which climate predictability is sensitive to societal responses to climate change; the spatial and temporal scale dependence of climate predictability; the importance (and probabilistic specification) of time-varying external forcing; and the proper framing of probabilistic climate forecasts to meet societal needs.

Keywords: Probablilistic forecasts, feedbacks, time scales

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the convenors

Options: Accepted abstracts will be presented as either oral or posters as determined by the convenors.

Organisers: IAMAS (ICCL,ICDM), IAPSO, IACS, IAHS,GEWEX, CLIVAR
Lead Convenors: Jianping Li (China), John McBride (Australia)
Co-convenors: Bin Wang (United States of America), Jun Matsumoto (Japan), Harry Hendon (Australia), E. Hugo Berbery (United States of America), Richard Grotjahn (United States of America), Michael Montgomery (United States of America), Roger K. Smith (Germany), Masato Sugi (Japan), Georg Kaser (Austria), David S. Nolan (United States of America)
                       
Scope: This is a wide-ranging symposium covering many aspects of tropical weather and climate, but focusing primarily on monsoons and tropical cyclones, which affect the lives of billions of people. It is of great importance to understand the dynamics of monsoons and tropical cyclones, to predict them and project future changes in their nature associated with global warming. This symposium invites contributions regarding observational, diagnostic, theoretical and modeling studies of the nature, variability and mechanisms of monsoons, tropical cyclones and other tropical phenomena.  Presentations about the impact of climate change on tropical circulations are particularly welcome.

The symposium will be focused on the following themes:

• Theme 1.  Monsoon nature and mechanisms of monsoon variability. Monsoons are fundamental regulators of the earth’s energy budget and water cycle, impacting people across Southern Asia and other tropical and subtropical regions around the globe.  This part of the symposium focuses on the nature and mechanisms of monsoon variability at intraseasonal, interannual to millennial timescales; linkages between monsoon and the principal modes of climate variability; air-sea-land interaction within the global monsoon system; monsoon simulation, predictability, prediction and projection. Presentations are also invited on the latest results from monsoon experiments such as the AMY, SCSMEX, MAHASRI, GAME, NAME, MESA and AMMA, etc.
• Theme 2. Tropical cyclones. Tropical cyclones are the most destructive weather systems on the planet. We do not yet fully understand the processes that determine their development and movement to the extent that their properties can be forecasted with precision over a time scale of several days. Research papers are solicited on all aspects of tropical cyclones, especially those concerned with the fundamental dynamical and thermodynamical processes involved as well as the genesis, intensification, movement, and impacts.
• Theme 3.  Tropical circulations. This part of the symposium concerns the diverse range of tropical circulations, including equatorial waves, organized tropical convection, and tropical intraseasonal and inter-annual variability. The symposium will cover the Madden-Julian Oscillation, El Nino Southern Oscillation, the Walker and Hadley Circulations, and their interaction with monsoons and tropical cyclones.  Contributions on the diverse linkages between the tropics, subtropics and midlatitudes are also invited.  We seek to advance and connect understanding in these areas by bringing together diagnostic, theoretical, idealised and realistic simulation, prediction and model intercomparison approaches.

Keywords: Monsoon, Tropical cyclones, tropical circulations, ENSO

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the convenors

Options: Accepted abstracts will be presented as either oral or posters as determined by the convenors.

Organisers:  IAMAS (ICCL), IAPSO, IACS
Lead Convenor: Michael MacCracken (United States of America)
Co-convenors:  Valérie Masson-Delmotte (France), Alan Robock (United States of America)

Scope: Earth system history makes clear that the climate can span a wide range of states, from widespread glaciation to global warmth with very little ice at all, essentially from what might be called to being dominated by the world’s ice to dominated by the atmosphere’s greenhouse gas concentrations. This symposium, which will have a number of components, is intended to span the spectrum, inviting papers on periods from when the climate was very cold to when it has been hot and including the warming Earth that human activities are now inducing. Papers relating to model development and verification, including determining climate sensitivity, should be submitted to J-M08. Papers relating to the nature of cold to hot climates, transitions from one state to the other, and particularly the transition from the Holocene to the present and into the future should be submitted to this Symposium. Studies and analyses based on observational records (e.g., ice core records) and modelling are both invited, and especially studies that draw from both. The causes of both stability and change are of interest, including the ranges of natural variability and the coupling of changes in climate to the weather, oscillations, and extremes that result.

The components of the Symposium are envisioned to be:

• Pre-Pleistocene warm and cold climates—Insights into the long-term functioning of the climate system
• Glacial cycling during the Pleistocene—A period of large climate swings and feedbacks;
• The Holocene: Its stability and variations—and their causes; and
• The Industrial Era and beyond, covering the response of the climate system to human activities (including particularly reports on model simulations being done for IPCC’s AR5 report)

Keywords: Geological time scales, climate variations, proxy data

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the convenors

Options: Accepted abstracts will be presented as either oral or posters as determined by the convenors.

Organiser: IAPSO
Co-sponsor: IACS
Lead Convenor: Isabelle Ansorge (South Africa)
Co-Convenors: Roman Tarakanov (Russia), Karen Heywood (United Kingdom), Steve Rintoul (Australia), Eberhard Fahrbach (Germany)

Scope: The oceanic thermohaline circulation is a vital link in the global transport of heat from the tropics to higher latitudes. The physical structure of this circulation belt and its efficiency in regulating climate is substantially influenced by the nature of water mass exchange between ocean basins. The Southern Ocean plays a critical role in the global ocean circulation, determining the efficiency of its carbon cycle and modulating present-day climate. Dominating the flow of the Southern Ocean is the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), which, extending unbroken around Antarctica, is the primary means by which heat and salt are transferred between ocean basins. Recent ocean models have indicated that a southern shift and intensification in the prevailing westerly wind field driving the ACC and associated gyres may result in an increase in the upwelling of deep water masses. Such changes could potentially influence the volume and stability of the cryosphere and may have important consequences on the uptake of anthropogenic CO2.
This session will encompass all aspects of the physical sciences of the Southern Ocean.  It provides an opportunity to showcase both observational and modelled results on the linkages between the ocean circulation and biological/biogeochemical processes. Emphasis will be placed on the role, forcing and dynamics of the ACC and the Weddell and Ross gyres in a changing climate; their variability and sensitivity to inter-ocean transport of heat and freshwater anomalies, the role of sea ice formation and its processes, the interaction of the Southern Ocean with the Antarctic ice sheet, exchange of water mass properties and the Southern Ocean’s influence on global carbon and nutrient budgets. Furthermore, this session encourages presentations analyzing the interaction between atmosphere and ocean variability, and in particular fluctuations linked to global scale processes such the Antarctic-ENSO teleconnection and the Southern Annular Mode.

Keywords: Southern Ocean, ice sheet, thermohaline, ocean circulation, carbon cycle, Antactic Circumpolar Current, CO2 uptake, biogeochemical processes, Weddell gyre, Ross gyre, ENSO, Southern Annular Mode

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the Convenors

Organiser: IAPSO
Co-sponsor: IACS and IAMAS
Lead Convenor: Bruno Tremblay (Canada)
Co-Convenors: Göran Björk (Sweden), Claude Duguay (Canada), John Turner (United Kingdom), John Cassano (United States of America)

Scope: The Arctic has witnessed large changes in recent years. Of these changes probably the best documented is the decline of its sea ice cover particularly apparent at the end of the summer melt season. Other changes include the river runoff, surface air temperature, sea level pressure, storminess, etc. In the future, GCMs also simulate sharp decline in the sea ice cover leading to a practically ice free Arctic in the late summer and early fall. This new state of the system may lead to drastically different ocean-atmosphere heat and moisture fluxes and associated circulation changes in the atmosphere and ocean. In this session we welcome contributions that address resent observed changes in the Arctic climate system and strive to characterize a possible new state of the atmosphere/ice/ocean system including the potential effect on the biosphere.
Note also "J-C01 Arctic System Modelling"

Keywords: Arctic Ocean, Ice cover, Arctic climate system, decline of sea ice, ice-free Arctic

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the Convenors.

This Inter-Association Symposium is a continuation of the Union Symposium U08 having the same title and scope.

Organiser: IAPSO
Co-sponsors: IACS, IAG
Lead Convenors: John Church (Australia), Simon Holgate (United Kingdom)
Co-Convenors: Georg Kaser (Austria), C. K. Shum (United States of America), Philip Woodworth (United Kingdom), Wolfgang Bosch (Germany)

Scope: Global and regional sea-level change has become a high profile scientific issue with great societal importance. Warming oceans, melting glaciers and potentially much larger contributions from the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets are all likely to lead to a substantial rise in sea level during the 21st century and beyond. Sea-level changes across a broad range of time- and space-scales. Understanding both the temporal and spatial variability of sea-level change urgently needs input from a wide range of disciplines, including studies of the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere (glaciers, ice caps, frozen grounds, and ice sheets), terrestrial water storage and discharge, and the elastic and visco-elastic response of the solid earth to changes in surface loading and Pleistocene deglaciation.

This Symposium aims to bring together the diverse disciplines involved in sea-level research in a way that will provide opportunities for cross-fertilisation of ideas and dissemination of the most up to date results in this rapidly changing field. All contributions to improving understanding of the past and future projections of sea-level change will be considered including satellite observations such as altimetry, GPS, gravity and synthetic aperture radar, in situ instrumental and palaeo observations, theoretical understanding and numerical modelling. The Symposium will focus on: (i) Remotely sensed, in situ and palaeo observations of global and regional sea-level change; (ii) Evidence and understanding of cryospheric change, particularly fast, dynamic ice processes; (iii) Observations and modelling of changes in ocean mass and ocean thermal expansion; (iv) Changes in terrestrial water storage and discharge, including human made dams/reservoirs; (v) Understanding global averaged sea-level change and the regional distribution of sea-level change; and (vi)·Dynamical modelling of sea level variability at global and regional scales, including the prediction of extreme sea levels.
Abstract submissions are encouraged for talks and posters in any of the above areas.

Keywords: sea-level change, warming ocean, melting glacier, Greenland, Antarctic, ice sheet, atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, observations, modelling, prediction of extreme sea level.

Review: All contributed abstracts will be reviewed by the Convenors.

Organiser: IASPEI
Co-Sponsors: IACS, IAG, IAGA
Lead Convenor: Ian Allison (Australia)
Co-convenors: Marino Russi (Italy), Doug Wiens (United States of America), Aude Chambodut (France), Reinhard Dietrich (Germany)

Scope: New instrumental and data analysis techniques, and increased scientific activity during the International Polar Year 2007-2008 (IPY) have led to major recent advances in our understanding of the geophysics of both the Antarctic and Arctic regions.  This symposium will focus on the current status of geophysical and geodetic research in both polar regions.  It may include results, for example, from the large airborne geophysical surveys undertaken in Antarctica during IPY, and new and ongoing monitoring efforts.  Although still limited, the seismic instrumental coverage of the Antarctic continent and in Greenland has been lately improved and ocean bottom seismograph deployment projects are under way. Papers on network improvements and data acquisition in these difficult environments are welcome. Recent studies with new data on both seismic sources and lithospheric structure and deformation and related discontinuities are very much encouraged.

The session will also be an opportunity to present the latest studies on temporal and spatial variations of Earth's magnetic field that focus on the polar perspective. Papers, on topics including network improvements, data acquisition and modeling results in these remote areas are welcome. Recent studies on both magnetic phenomena generated externally to the Earth, as well as magnetic phenomena generated in the Earth's interior, are encouraged. The symposium aims to also provide a forum that could lead to a better co-ordination of national and international efforts in the Arctic and Antarctic.