2011-08-28, Salzburg, International Conference on the Occasion of the 125 Anniversary of Sonnblick Observatory

Climate Change in High Mountain Regions

From Understanding of the Past to Modelling of the Future
28th August - 1st September 2011
Salzburg, AUSTRIA

The conference aims to bring together climatologist around the world with focus on high mountain regions both
to describe the status of research and to formulate important issues for the near future.

General
High mountain regions around the world are known to react especially sensitive on climate change. Beside the general interest in the climate of mountain regions its understanding is essential for climate impacts as e.g. changes of glaciers and permafrost and related geo-risks. Although climate research gained much success within the last years in understanding of high mountains climate, the complex geographical structure of mountain regions, however, still limits their climatological understanding and consequently their modelling. Recent efforts provided in particular high quality observational data and process understanding from observations at high mountain observatories.

Main topics:
Reconstructions of mountain climate
Climate of the instrumental period from high quality observations
Climate forcings and feedbacks for mountain regions (radiative and others)
Influence of mountain regions on climate
Regional climate model runs for mountain regions
Snow and ice in the climate of high mountain regions
The role of high mountain observatories for climate change studies
Conference folder

Press release
120 scientists from all over the world met in Salzburg last week for an international conference, Climate Change in High Mountain Regions: From Understanding of the Past to Modelling of the Future, on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of Austrias Sonnblick Observatory.

Research in diverse fields from the Alps and other mountain regions worldwide presented at the conference emphasizes both the particular sensitivity of mountain regions to climate change and the key role mountain observatories play in understanding forcings and feedback in the global climate system. Studies from high altitude sites and environmental observatories such as Sonnblick clearly show the effect of CO2, other gases, and aerosols on the radiation budget and related warming of the atmosphere. Shrinking glaciers and disappearing snow cover are obvious consequences of global change that are highly relevant for mountain hydrology and downstream river catchments due to changes in annual cycling and the amount of river flow. This is particularly true in Asian and South American mountain regions upon which so many depend. The relevance of such findings to areas well beyond mountain regions shows how important both natural and anthropogenic climate forcings and their interactions in mountain regions are, and how crucial increased research is to understanding these phenomena. The conference participants agree that mountain regions need specific attention in climate research and should be addressed in more research programs. In particular, improved access to observational meteorological data is needed. Among the ways to increase access to data that were discussed at the conference is a new initiative the participants support: the High Elevation Instrumental Data Inventory (HEIDI).

Watch the welcome video from Greg Greenwood.

You can find information on the Sonnblick Observatory at - http://www.sonnblick.net and under this link.