Climate Change, Hydrology and the Cryosphere

Course goals

Content

Climate change strongly impacts the cryosphere, with glaciers and snowpacks around the world are receding and permafrost is thawing as a response. These changes to the cryosphere greatly impact the (mountain) water cycle. Glaciers, in particular, are iconic indicators of change and play an important role in buffering water supplies in many regions around the world. Changes in the cryosphere (glaciers, snow and permafrost) are closely related to the water cycle, and it is essential to understand these changes and their implications for society.

In this course focus is on understanding the role that cryosphere plays in the global climate system in terms of its contribution to sea level rise, its water supplying role and potential tipping points related to the cryosphere.

The course will address the basic physics of glaciers, snow and permafrost, and this will be complemented by examples of recent methodological approaches to study the cryosphere and mountain hydrology such as numerical modelling techniques, remote sensing and artificial intelligence.

Climate model downscaling approaches specifically related to the cryosphere will be discussed including its uncertainties and the impacts of cryospheric change on mountain hydrology at different spatial scales will be systematically considered.

The course consists of a set of lectures, computer exercises and a glacier case study.
The lectures will focus on:

• The role of the cryosphere in the climate system
• Climate change impacts on the cryosphere
• Physics of glaciers, snow and permafrost
• Glacier modelling and AI
• Climate model downscaling
• Snow modelling
• Remote sensing of snow and ice
• Mountain hydrology
• Tipping points in the cryosphere

There will three computerexcericises using the R programming language focusing on:

• Climate model downscaling
• Snow modelling
• Glacier modelling

Finally, the course will also include a glacier case study, where you will do a mini-research into a selected glacier and assess its properties and recent changes using publicly available tools.