What can GCW and in particular CryoNet do for agencies running cryospheric observations worldwide for the particular example of cryospheric observations

What can GCW and in particular CryoNet do for agencies running cryospheric observations worldwide for the particular example of

cryospheric observations in Antarctica



. Besides being the largest single permanently snow-ice covered body in the word (logistical / technical issues), Antarctica is also a very different geopolitical place.



. Besides being the largest single permanently snow-ice covered body in the word, Antarctica is also a very different geopolitical place.

. Since 1961, the Antarctic treaty juridically regulates / antiregulates access and activities in Antarctica.





. The EU started with the Coal and Steel Community. The Antarctic treaty with the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals... but finally we are here with research and the advancement of knowledge as a major issue

.





. The Madrid protocol signed 1991 includes a straight albeit possibly interpretable issue on information and data:

Article 3.3: Scientific observations and results from Antarctica shall be exchanged and made freely available

In practice

* General albeit loose consensus: data are freely available (no price tag, no co-authorship required, but acknowledgement needed) in all possible manners 2 years after obtained

* All meta data (data type, method, site, sampling, period...) immediately publicly availableAntarctic Master Directory: http://gcmd.gsfc.nasa.gov/KeywordSearch/Home.do?Portal=amd&MetadataType=0

* Two-year delay because most observation made / funded as a research projects: exclusive time to adequately produce project deliverables including publications.

This is the general policy at IPEV (French polar institute), and this is the policy commonly agreed by IPEV and PNRA (Italian polar institute) at Dome C

Some special cases (Dome C)

Corollary 1 : May GCW / CryoNet help access / make available the GTS over Antarctica ? Is this useful ?

Corollary 2: What about satellite data (essential over Antarctica) / elaborated data (models), both using in situ observation for calibration / validation

Type Exemple Dome C

Observations having national observatory status => distributed after quality control

GLACIOCLIM-SAMBA (FR) : surface mass balance monitoring : http://www-lgge.ujf-grenoble.fr/ServiceObs/SiteWebAntarc/glacioclim-samba.php

Operational meteorology Routine Meteorological Observation program (IT) => met obs on the GTS



In the case of Dome C as a reference site (but also more generally as a cryosphere studies involved country):

Name GCW/ Cryonet representative for Italy!

Suggested representatives (from informal Italian think-group):

Dr . CARLO BARONI , PISA University, actual president of the Italian glaciological Association

Dr. GIOVANNI MACELLONI, IFAC-CNR, Firenze, expert of microwave satellite measurements



Meteorology: Antarctica is 15 106 km2, only 2 permanent stations in the interior => mostly automatic weather stations (AWS)But most AWS data gathered and made freely available: Antarctic Meterological Research Center (AMRC, U. Wisconsin) = > support UW/NSF and others that make and distribute the data.



Promote / help build an Antarctic WGMS?

ITASE (International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expeditions, http://depts.washington.edu/itase/about/) => Use shallow ice cores + other glaciological methods to reconstruct past (10 – 1000 yr) information including Surface Mass Balance (SMB)

For met / climate model and satellite data calibration / validation, need long term monitoring with at least annual variability / resolution + spatial scales consistent with spatial resolution of models and satellite data

In-situ monitoring the Antarctic SMB: The GLACIOCLIM-SAMBA observatory

http://www-lgge.ujf-grenoble.fr/ServiceObs/SiteWebAntarc/background.html

LMDZ4 simulated precipitation increase (%, and absolute values)

Dôme C

Cap Prud’homme

According to CMIP models, ¾ of the Antarctic precipitation increase by the end of the century occurs at elevation less than 2250 m (½ grounded Antarctic surface)

- Observations in Adélie Land and Dome C

- Annual surveys / reports- Masterpiece: the 155 km transect from the coast towards Dome C, in the maximum topographical / land-sea contrast region

Evaluating climatology / models

Agosta et al., Clim. Dyn., 2011, doi: 10.1007/s00382-011-1103-4.

Space

Time

Evaluating satellite / gravimetry (which evaluates which?)

GLACIOCLIM / ERA

Ingo Sasgen GRACE (GFZ / Potsdam



What is precipitation in Antarctica?

- The main component of SMB, the main positive component of the ice sheet mass balance

- Differs widely between (IPCC) climate models

- Will increase in a warming climate (thus moderate sea-level rise) but by how much?

- Too small on the plateau, too windy at the peripheries, not currently observable in situ

- SPICE will marginaly help because too different from snow-fall elsewhere



What is precipitation in Antarctica?

=> Help / recommend develop / test / deploy new technologies?

Disdrometers, profiling, radar...



=> Implement Antarctic treaty on data availability / distribution

Collect / distribute SMB observations adequate (spatial / temporal scales and resolution) for met / clim model and satellite remote sensing calibration / validation

Support efforts to deploy, collect and distribute AWS and other met data incl. GTS

=> Major breakthrough needed with precipitation (ASPICE?)

Others:=> The atmosphere – snow interface? (catabatic winds, blowing snow, (ultra)stable ABL and inversion, mass and energy exchanges)=> Remote sensing?=> issues on ice dynamics?

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What can GCW and in particular CryoNet do for agencies running cryospheric observations worldwide for the particular example of cryospheric observations