| Session Details | |
| Section | AS - Atmospheric Sciences |
| Session Title | Atmospheric Pollution and Its Effects on Cryospheric Changes Over the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau |
| Main Convener | Prof. Shichang Kang (Chinese Academy of Sciences, China) |
| Co-convener(s) | Dr. Arnico Panday (International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Nepal) Dr. Orjan Gustafsson (Stockholm University, Sweden) Dr. Maheswar Rupakheti (Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), Germany) Dr. Qianggong Zhang (Chinese Academy of Sciences, China) |
| Session Description | Cryosphere has been undergoing rapid changes and mostly in accelerated reduction in the past few decades over the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau (the HTP). Recent evidences showed that atmospheric pollutions from South and East Asia can reach the HTP and play key roles in affecting cryospheric changes and causing risks to fragile ecosystems as well as socioeconomic development systems. Atmospheric pollution, especially those referred to as light-absorbing aerosols (e.g., black carbon, brown carbon), can warm the atmosphere and also after being deposited into glaciers and snow cover, those recognized as light-absorbing impurities, can significantly reduce surface albedo and thereby promoting snowmelt. Those health-related substances including inorganic elements and organic compounds, can be released into downward ecosystems along with meltwater, representing as secondary pollution. This interdisciplinary session attempts to bridge the atmospheric and cryospheric communities, to solicit observational and modeling studies investigating sources and transport of atmospheric pollution into the HTP, assessing their impacts on glacier melt and snow cover variation, as well as changes of other cryospheric elements over the HTP. In addition, the fate of atmospheric pollution, during their transport in the atmosphere and preservation within cryosphere over the HTP, are also welcomed. This session stresses the importance of atmospheric pollution on the cryospheric changes, especially in the HTP region, with a perspective of multi-sphere interactions. |