THEME

Glaciers, including ice sheets, ice caps and mountain glaciers, are making large contributions to rising sea level, and their mass losses are expected to accelerate in a warming climate. New technologies have broadened our ability to detect and monitor glacier and ice sheet changes, though large uncertainties about the current state of the cryosphere remain. Moreover, predictive models are at present unable to capture many key processes of glacier mass balance and dynamics, many of which are non-linear. How are glaciers and ice sheets responding to recent changes in climate, and what changes can we expect in the future? This meeting seeks to address these problems by bringing together experts in glacier, climate and ocean studies, using in-situ observations, remote sensing and modeling.

TOPICS

1. Observations of glacier change, including mass and dynamic changes of mountain glaciers, ice caps, ice sheets, and ice shelves, glacier inventories, in-situ observations and remote sensing techniques
2. Glacier mass balance - climate interaction, including glacier meteorology, surface energy exchange, snow accumulation processes, mass-balance indices and the relation between glacier mass balances and atmospheric indices
3. Ice dynamics, focusing on observations, theoretical advances and modeling of the flow of ice including ice streams and surges
4. Glacier-ocean interactions, including ice shelf and tidewater glacier dynamics, observations and modeling of calving
5. Role of subglacial processes in glacier changes, including glacier hydrology, sedimentation and volcanic interactions
6. Ice sheet modeling, including advances in the physical understanding of ice-sheet processes, incorporation of non-linear ice-sheet response to environmental forcing, and assimilation of remote sensing and ground observations into ice sheet models
7. Future projections, including coupling glacier models to global and regional climate models, downscaling methods, evaluation and intercomparison of models
8. Impacts of glacier changes, including the contribution of glacier wastage on sea-level rise, water resources in different climate, glacier engineering, glacier outburst floods, ocean circulation, terrestrial and marine bio-geochemical cycles and ecosystems, as well as isostatic changes
9. Proxies and modeling of past glacier changes, including indicators from ice cores and other archives that reveal glacier responses to climate change.

ABSTRACT AND PAPER PUBLICATION

Participants wishing to present a paper at the workshop are required to submit an abstract. There will be oral as well as poster presentations. A pre-print of submitted abstracts will be provided for all participants at the symposium. The Council of the International Glaciological Society has decided to publish a thematic issue of the Annals of Glaciology on topics consistent with the Symposium themes. Participants are encouraged to submit manuscripts for this volume.

SYMPOSIUM ORGANIZATION

Magnús Már Magnússon (International Glaciological Society)

SCIENCE STEERING AND EDITORIAL COMMITTEE

Gwenn Flowers, Chief Editor (Simon Fraser U., Burnaby, Canada).
Associate editors will be determined later.

LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Regine Hock (Chair), Anthony Arendt, Ed Bueler, Chris Larsen, Shad O’Neel, Erin Pettit, Martin Truffer, Gabriel Wolken

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES

A half-day mid-week excursion will be organized to explore some of Fairbanks natural and cultural surroundings. Details will be forthcoming.

POST-SYMPOSIUM EXCURSION

A 3-day excursion will be organized to Valdez including visit of Gulkana and Worthington Glaciers. Details will be forthcoming.

VENUE

The meeting will be held at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. The surroundings offer plenty of scope for glaciological, geological and geographical excursions with the Alaska Range including Denali National Park only a 2 hour drive away.

FURTHER INFORMATION

If you wish to attend the symposium please return the attached form as soon as possible. The Second Circular will give further information about accommodation, the general scientific program, additional activities, preparation of abstracts and final papers. Copies of the Second Circular will be sent to those who return the attached reply form. Members of the International Glaciological Society will automatically receive one. Information will be updated on the conference website, http://www.igsoc.org/symposia/2012/Fairbanks/ and http://www.gi.alaska.edu/snowice/glaciers/ as it becomes available.