IP3 Research Themes

Processes
Parameterisation
Prediction

IP3 scientists have organized their work into 3 themes, Processes, Parameterisation, and Prediction, as follows:

Understanding and describing the key climate processes related to the hydrometeorology of cold regions, including the land surface, regional climate, and cryosphere;
Parameterising land surface hydrology processes that control the coupled atmospheric-hydrological system in cold regions; and
Validating and improving small- to medium scale models for weather, water, and climate leading to better prediction and simulation of related atmospheric impacts on water resources and surface climates in cold regions.

IP3 field investigations collect data on snowpacks (based on land, glaciers, and lake-ice), open water (primarily small lakes), and runoff generation over frozen ground, glacierized areas, and permafrost. Network scientists are incorporating advances in numerical descriptions (parameterisations) of land surface evaporation, remote sensing, and glacier microclimate into hydrological and meteorological models for a variety of northern and alpine landscapes.

The ultimate goal is to make effective contributions to multi-scale assessments of the coupled climate, weather, and water resource system in cold regions. End points of such assessments include snow accumulation, snow coverage, surface albedo, runoff, lake/pond storage, soil moisture, ground ice, surface climate and atmospheric feedbacks from snowcover, water bodies, and frozen ground.

Annual Reports on IP3's scientific activities, broken out by theme, are available for Year 1 (2006-2007), Year 2 (2007-2008), and Year 3 (2008-2009).

For definition of the acronyms used in IP3's work, please see the Abbreviations page.

This page last updated 28 May, 2010