Concept information
Preferred term
CLICCRYOS
Definition
- Short Title: Cryos - State of the Cryosphere Project URL: http://stratus.ssec.wisc.edu/ipy-cryos/ Proposal URL: http://classic.ipy.org/development/eoi/proposal-details.php?id=105 The cryosphere, which includes sea-, lake-, and river-ice, snow cover, solid precipitation, glaciers, icebergs, ice sheets, ice caps, permafrost, and seasonally frozen ground, plays a crucial role in not only the polar climate system, but also in the global climate system. It is inseparable from the polar freshwater system, both on land, ice and in the sea. Understanding the state of the cryosphere, and its associated past, present and future variability and change in time and space, is essential to understanding the polar environment in terms of its physical and biogeochemical interactions with the ocean, atmosphere and terrestrial systems, and the impacts on and interactions with social, cultural and economic systems. This project is proposed and supported by the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) project to provide a framework for assessing the polar cryospheric system and the related physical and chemical processes, interactions and impacts within the Earth system. The IPY provides the opportunity for a coordinated circumpolar assessment of both polar regions by nations and their organizations, scientists, and residents that likely would not be otherwise undertaken. The "State and Fate of the Polar Cryosphere" will establish links with the main projects (clusters) involved in monitoring, assessing, and understanding the variability, uncertainty, and change in the global cryosphere. This includes projects that will study permafrost, glaciers and ice sheets, sea ice, snow cover, and precipitation, as well as those involved in developing observing systems and data and information systems. We are also linking with projects involved in socioeconomic and cultural issues and those that will provide education and outreach, including traditional knowledge. (See section 4.2 for a complete list of participants.) The project will play a leadership, management, and coordinating role in the development of a sustained long-term cryospheric polar observing system, which would be implemented in the future through GCOS, GOOS, GTOS, CEOS, and possibly GEOSS. We propose to coordinate activities and synthesize results to: 1. assess the current state of cryospheric parameters in the high latitude regions, providing a snapshot of the cryosphere and an evaluation of its current (IPY) state in the context of past states and projections of the future; 2. formulate the observational requirements of cryospheric variables for weather and climate monitoring and prediction and for other environmental assessments; 3. strengthen international cooperation in the development of cryospheric observing systems. The CliC International Project Office will support the coordination, and the CliC Data and Information System (DISC, http://clic.npolar.no/disc/) will provide the portal on the current state of the global cryosphere. The "State and Fate of the Polar Cryosphere" project will complement the newly developed Cryosphere Theme for the Integrated Global Observing Strategy (IGOS), which is being developed jointly by CliC and SCAR (Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research) (http://stratus.ssec.wisc.edu/IGOS-cryo). This project will also develop links to a number of diverse projects and activities that are examining the effects of a changing cryosphere on biological and human systems, e.g., the implications of changing polar snow cover characteristics on bird and mammal breeding. The aim is to document not only the changes that are happening to the global cryosphere, but to also highlight the diverse impacts of these changes. (en)
Broader concept
- A - C (en)
URI
https://gcmd.earthdata.nasa.gov/kms/concept/7fd87987-348b-48ad-9f99-33ae9955c106
{{label}}
{{#each values }} {{! loop through ConceptPropertyValue objects }}
{{#if prefLabel }}
{{/if}}
{{/each}}
{{#if notation }}{{ notation }} {{/if}}{{ prefLabel }}
{{#ifDifferentLabelLang lang }} ({{ lang }}){{/ifDifferentLabelLang}}
{{#if vocabName }}
{{ vocabName }}
{{/if}}