Cryosphere

The overarching question driving the HiMAT-2 Cryosphere Subgroup is “How is High Mountain Asia’s cryosphere changing in response to climate change?” Within that question, we also consider:

• How have the glaciers, snow, and permafrost changed in the past and present?
• What processes are driving these changes and how can these processes be accounted for in models and projections?
• What spatial and temporal resolution of forcing data and complexity of model physics are required to accurately model past, present, and future changes?
• How do the various components of the cryosphere affect one another?

The Cryosphere Subgroup seeks to tackle these questions in a variety of interdisciplinary ways ranging from a fully coordinated subgroup effort to specific multi-team efforts. At the completion of HiMAT-2, the Cryosphere Subgroup plans to produce a review/synthesis of the current state of observations (e.g. Figure 1) and modeling with respect to glaciers, snow, permafrost, and the dynamic/integrated links between them with an eye towards the future. Along the way, a variety of multi-team efforts will be conducted that will foster the production of various datasets; advance our process-based understanding of key drivers at various spatial and temporal scales; use these new data and process-based understandings to improve, inform, and evaluate models; explore links across cryosphere components through data and models; and conduct model comparisons.

The table below shows the different PI Teams, members, and their primary focus related to the subgroup efforts.