- The workshop starts Wednesday Sep 20 at 12.00, and ends Friday Sep 22 at 12.00.
- A PROMICE 10-year jubilee and reception is planned for the afternoon of Sep 22.
Purpose
- to present and discuss results on modeling of meltwater retention processes in snow and firn on ice sheets and glaciers;
- to plan and coordinate meltwater retention model development;
- to emphasize optical remote sensing snow parameter data comparison and data assimilation;
- to formulate a protocol for a meltwater retention model intercomparison project (RetMIP)
This is workshop two as part of Danish Council for Independent Research (DFF) Natural Sciences program (FNU) project 4002-00234: Understanding and predicting non-linear change in the permeability of Greenland firn and has a special session co-sponsored by the ESA Scientific Exploitation of Operational Missions (SEOM) Sentinel-3 for Science, Land Study 1: SNOW.
- Snow model development
- Meltwater retention model validation
- Meltwater retention model intercomparison project (RetMIP)
- Optical remote sensing to improve snow models
Session 1 welcomes, for example, model considerations of water availability vs. percolation rate vs. refreezing rate to explore the importance of heterogeneous percolation modelling in polar firn; fine-and-local scale/detailed modeling with possible suggestions to including bulk effects in larger-scale models; inclusion of piping (for instance, by “skipping layers” during percolation) in distributed or single-column models; inclusion of horizontal water motion in snow and firn, i.e. between grid cells.
Session 2 will focus on discussions of useful model validation metrics and aim to compile observational datasets that may be used to validate the above processes.
- survey and prioritize remotely sensed snow parameter data users’ requirements for global and regional snow information
- discuss how to enhance methods for estimating snow parameters, either from remote sensing or from modeling, and to evaluate advantages and disadvantages of the different approaches
- consult users about the utility/interest in other snow products suitable for studying climate-related issues.
- a protocol for a retention model intercomparison project (RetMIP) including instructions and datasets for validation.
- a list of requirements and minimum accuracy levels for models using optical remotely sensed snow parameter data
- a journal special issue like the 2016 special issue in Frontiers in Earth Science – Melt Water Retention Processes in Snow and Firn on Ice Sheets and Glaciers: Observations and Modeling, papers feeding into the IPCC Special Report on Climate change and the oceans and the cryosphere.