Where and how much snow lies on the ground in the mountains greatly affects atmospheric and land surface processes as well as the winter tourism industry. While many communities work on a wide range of topics, including natural and managed snow and its spatial distribution in ski resorts, climate projections of snow conditions, snow, avalanches, glaciers, snow hydrology, weather forecasting or climate modelling, often similar issues have to be addressed:
(1) Obtaining reliable input or validation data for modelling over mountain areas, which involves techniques such as statistical or dynamical downscaling, post-processing of coarse-scale meteorological data, or the interpolation and assimilation of in-situ and remotely sensed observations;
(2) Representing unresolved small-scale processes in coarse-scale model grid cells, e.g. by using subgrid parameterizations;
(3) Performing trans-disciplinary research e.g. to address the climate change adaptation challenge and the socio-economic perspective of the mountain tourism economy when assessing the capabilities of snow management techniques.
This session aims at bringing together researchers from various fields to explore the common issues, share specific expertise across disciplines, and discuss possible solutions to current problems.