Topic 3: Regional climate change in the Arctic

AWI, GEOMAR, GFZ, HZG) What are the effects of climate change on the Arctic ocean, sea ice and permafrost regions? What are the interactions between cryosphere, land, ocean and atmosphere? Can our understanding of those climate relevant processes at high latitudes be improved by advancing new technologies and methods? The Arctic plays a key role within the Earth system. The high albedo of sea ice and of ice and snow on land determines to a considerable extent the Earth radiation budget. The huge continental ice sheets constitute the main pool for the sea level variations, and the massive and deep reaching permafrost layers contain a large reservoir of organic carbon, which could be mobilized and turned into a significant greenhouse gas source as the Arctic continues to warm at a much faster rate than the global mean.
We intend to advance technologies and methods for improving observations and multi-scale work and to get new constraints, evaluation and forcing data for regional models. Further information on Topic 3 is available in German.