Variability and change in the Canadian cryosphere (snow and ice) - A Canadian contribution to 'State and Fate of the Cryosphere'

This project is focused on providing a Canadian contribution to the International Polar Year (IPY)-endorsed activity State and Fate of the Cryosphere supported by the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) project as a framework for observing and understanding the current state of the cryosphere, to determine how quickly the cryosphere is changing and why, and to develop future scenarios of the cryosphere for use in impacts studies and planning. The research activities involve investigating the current state and past change of the cryosphere (snow, lake and river ice, sea ice, frozen ground glaciers and ice caps) through analysis of satellite data/images, field measurements and historical data records. Projections of future climate change will be evaluated and enhanced by improving the representation of the cryosphere in Canadian climate models, and traditional knowledge will be linked with remotely-sensed information to enhance understanding of changes in the cryosphere and to engage northern communities in cryospheric monitoring. These objectives are achieved through the research activities of a network of 33 investigators with Canadian expertise in remote sensing of the cryosphere, climate analysis, and climate modeling. The project builds on Canadian strengths in remote sensing, climate analysis and modeling and will: (1) provide information on the current state of the Canadian cryosphere during IPY as a contribution to the IPY snapshot; (2) place current cryospheric conditions in the context of the historical record to document the magnitude of changes over the 50 years since the last International Polar Year (IGY 1957-1958); (3) characterize and explain the observed variability and changes in the context of the coupled climate-cryosphere system; and (4) improve the representation of the cryosphere in Canadian land surface and climate models to provide current and future climate simulations of the cryosphere for climate impact studies. In order to address the above science objectives, the project is organized as four Work Packages (WP): WP1, Enhanced cryospheric information contributing to the IPY snapshot; WP2, Cryosphere-climate variability; WP3, Improved representation of Arctic cryospheric processes in the Canadian Land Surface Scheme (CLASS); and WP4, Global and regional scale simulations of the cryosphere.