| Session Details | |
| Section | HS - Hydrological Sciences |
| Session Title | The Third Pole Environment under Global Changes |
| Main Convener | Prof. Yaoming Ma (Chinese Academy of Sciences, China) |
| Co-convener(s) | Dr. Petrus van Oevelen (GEWEX, United States) Prof. Zhongbo Su (International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, Netherlands) Prof. Fan Zhang (Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China) |
| Session Description | The Tibetan Plateau and surrounding mountains represent one of the largest ice masses of the Earth. The region, referred to by scientists as the Third Pole, covering 5 million km2 with an average elevation of >4000 m. The headwater areas of the major rivers in Southeast Asia are located in the Third Pole, where intensive exchanges of water and energy fluxes between the Asian monsoon, the regional cryosphere and the plateau surface take place. Like the Arctic and Antarctica, the Third Pole is one of the most sensitive areas responding to global climate change due to its high altitude and the presence of permafrost and glaciers. A series of observation, remote sensing and numerical modeling research on TPE have been initiated and implemented by scientists from various nations. We propose a session dedicated to TPE studies to addresses ‘water – ice – air – vegetation – rock (soil) – human’ interactions, and thus serve for the maintenance of regional environment sustainability. Co-sponsored by TPE Program (www.tpe.ac.cn/en/), this session welcomes contributions on a wide range of relevant topics, such as issues to improve the understanding of the interactions of the Asian monsoon, glaciers and the Tibetan plateau in terms of water and energy budgets in order to assess and understand the causes of changes in cryosphere and hydrosphere in relation to changes of plateau atmosphere in the Asian monsoon system, and to predict possible changes in water resources in the Third Pole Environment. Contributions dealing with the observation and modelling of hydrometeorological processes in Arctic and Antarctica as well as other high elevation areas are also welcome. |