Cryosphere Geophysics: Understanding a Changing Climate with Subsurface Imaging
The earth's cold regions present perhaps the most diverse set of geophysical problems of any earth system. We must understand the influence of water in all its phases on the dynamics and thermodynamics of snow, ice and frozen soil masses whose geophysical properties can change dramatically on time scales from hours to millennia. This workshop will exchange concepts and ideas on the development and application of geophysical exploration methods to problems in the changing Cryosphere relating to snow, sea ice, permafrost, glaciers and ice sheets. We will focus mainly on how various methods of subsurface imaging can help monitor changes in the Cryosphere and thus elucidate the consequences of a changing climate. These changes may include the mass balance of ice sheets and glaciers, active layer depth and extent, the state and depth of terrestrial and offshore permafrost, and the mass budget and state of sea ice and the seasonal snow cover. The workshop will also highlight advances in geophysical methods, especially as may be relevant to resource development, environmental hazard monitoring and assessment, and bridging the gap between development and practical application of geophysical technology.
We invite papers that investigate all aspects of cold regions subsurface imaging and extraction of in situ petrophysical properties.