Mountain climate shows high spatial variability due to complexities in terrain, steep (yet temporally variable) vertical gradients in climate elements, and inhomogeneities induced by transitions with elevation to the cryosphere and between vegetation zones. The resulting patterns of climate and climate change are often highly complex and very demanding in terms of monitoring, modeling, and analysis.

This session is devoted to a better understanding of climate processes and their modification induced by global environmental change in mountain and high elevation areas around the globe. We invite contributions that investigate climate processes and climate change in mountainous areas, based on monitoring (in situ and remotely-sensed observations) and/or modeling activities. Particularly welcome are contributions that merge various sources of information (modeling, monitoring) and reach across disciplinary borders (atmospheric, hydrological, cryospheric and ecological sciences) to cover new ground in the understanding of mountain climate and mountain climate change.
Further by invitation of the Mountain Research Initiative, presentations that focus on past and projected changes in high-elevation climate, including elevation-dependent effects (e.g. warming, precipitation change), their impacts on the water cycle (in particular from the changing cryosphere), and the social and ecological implications for downstream areas are welcome. Presentations about novel data sets, multidisciplinary data analysis and observational and modelling approaches focused on mountainous regions are especially welcome.