Average temperatures in the Arctic have risen at almost twice the rate as temperatures in the rest of the world over the past few decades. Additional evidence for Arctic warming is seen in the widespread melting of glaciers and sea ice and rising permafrost temperatures.

A number of mechanisms have been hypothesized to play a significant role in causing this climate change; such as, ice-albedo feedbacks, cloud-radiative feedbacks, enhanced greenhouse gas release through permafrost melt, and modifications to atmospheric pathways (among others). Numerous field experiments are being carried out to provide data to constrain and validate climate model simulations of the mechanisms that cause polar climate change.

This session provides a forum on the validation of key processes for climate occurring in the polar atmosphere in regional to large-scale atmospheric models. Papers are welcome on radiative, cloud, boundary layer, aerosol, and surface processes. Particularly encouraged are papers that apply process-oriented diagnostic techniques to validate climate feedbacks in polar regions.