Cryospheric Sciences

Antarctic climate changes have been reconstructed from ice and sediment cores and numerical models (which also predict future changes). Major ice sheets first appeared 34 million years ago (Ma) and fluctuated throughout the Oligocene, with an overall cooling trend. Ice volume more than doubled at the Oligocene-Miocene boundary. Fluctuating Miocene temperatures peaked at 17–14 Ma, followed by dramatic cooling. Cooling continued through the Pliocene and Pleistocene, with another major glacial expansion at 3–2 Ma. Several interacting drivers control Antarctic climate. On timescales of 10,000–100,000 years, insolation varies with orbital cycles, causing periodic climate variations. Opening of Southern Ocean gateways produced a circumpolar current that thermally isolated Antarctica. Declining atmospheric CO 2 triggered Cenozoic glaciation. Antarctic glaciations affect global climate by lowering sea level, intensifying atmospheric circulation, and increasing planetary albedo. Ice sheets interact with ocean water, forming water masses that play a key role in global ocean circulation.

We are happy to announce the 4th edition of the FROZEN PASTS conference and cordially invite you to Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria.

Conference Venue: University of Innsbruck, Centre for Ancient Cultures, Langer Weg 11, A-6020 Innsbruck

Conference language: English
Registration Fee: 120 Euros

Chair: Harald Stadler, Albert Hafner, Albert Zink, Thomas Reitmaier, Hubert Steiner, Franco Nicolis

Public Lecture (in German): Thomas Reitmaier: The finds from Theodul-Pass and Porchabella/Switzerland

The call for papers will open on the 1st of October 2015 and the deadline for submission of the proposals will be the 31st of January 2016

Excursions
South Tyrol: Eurac, Ötzi-Museum
Trentino: Castello del Buonconsiglio, Exhibition Ortler
Canton of Grisons: cOld Ice - Special exhibition on glacial archaeology

CONTACT INFO:
Stefan Handle
Email: Stefan.Handle@uibk.ac.at
Tel.: 0043 (0) 512 507 37513

Thomas Bachnetzer
Email: Thomas.Bachnetzer@uibk.ac.at
Tel.: 0043 (0) 512 507 37512

Permafrost is one of the essential climate variables addressed by the Global Terrestrial Observing System (GCOS). Remote sensing data provide area-wide monitoring of e.g. surface temperatures or soil surface status (frozen or thawed state) in the Arctic and Subarctic, where ground data collection is difficult and restricted to local measurements at few monitoring sites. The task of the ESA Data User Element (DUE) Permafrost project is to build-up an Earth observation service for northern high-latitudinal permafrost applications with extensive involvement of the international permafrost research community (www.ipf.tuwien.ac.at/permafrost). The satellite-derived DUE Permafrost products are Land Surface Temperature, Surface Soil Moisture, Surface Frozen and Thawed State, Digital Elevation Model (locally as remote sensing product and circumpolar as non-remote sensing product) and Subsidence, and Land Cover. Land Surface Temperature, Surface Soil Moisture, and Surface Frozen and Thawed State will be provided for the circumpolar permafrost area north of 55° N with 25 km spatial resolution. In addition, regional products with higher spatial resolution were developed for five case study regions in different permafrost zones of the tundra and taiga (Laptev Sea [RU], Central Yakutia [RU], Western Siberia [RU], Alaska N-S transect, [US] Mackenzie River and Valley [CA]). This study shows the evaluation of two DUE Permafrost regional products, Land Surface Temperature and Surface Frozen and Thawed State, using freely available ground truth data from the Global Terrestrial Network of Permafrost (GTN-P) and monitoring data from the Russian-German Samoylov research station in the Lena River Delta (Central Siberia, RU). The GTN-P permafrost monitoring sites with their position in different permafrost zones are highly qualified for the validation of DUE Permafrost remote sensing products. Air and surface temperatures with high-temporal resolution from eleven GTN-P sites in Alaska and four sites in Siberia were used to match up LST products. Daily average GTN-P borehole- and air temperature data for three Alaskan and six Western Siberian sites were used to evaluate surface frozen and thawed. First results are promising and demonstrate the great benefit of freely available ground truth databases for remote sensing derived products.