1. Cryospheric Community Contribution to Decadal Survey Compiled from Email correspondence (about 50 participants) WAIS Meeting Presentation

2. Science Challenges Driving Cryospheric Research: 2005-2010 1.Understand glaciers and ice sheets sufficiently to determine their contribution to present sea level rise. 2.Understand sea ice sufficiently to explain present observations of thinning and reduced sea ice extent 3.Measure how much water is stored as seasonal snow and its variability 4.Measure how much carbon is exchanged between the permafrost and the atmosphere 5.Understand which aspects of the changing polar atmosphere most influence changes in sea ice, snow extent, surface melting. 6.Understand how changes in the cryosphere affect human activity

3. Challenges for 2010-2015 1.Determine the long-term impacts of a changing cryosphere on other components of the earth system. 2.Incorporate recent observations of rapid ice sheet and sea ice change into predictive models of the cyrosphere response to changing climate. 3.Quantify internal and external feedbacks between terrestrial, oceanic ice and snow cover and global climate and climate variability.

4. RFI’s Submitted and which could be applicable to CyroResearch Advanced IceSat Insar Applications for Exploration of the Earth Global Water Resources Satellite (GWRS) Cold Land Processes (CLPP) Active Temp-Ozone Moister Microwave Spectrometer (ATOMMS) Combined Active and Passive Environmental Sounder (CAPES) Atmospheric Remote sensing and imaging emission spectrometer (ARIES) AIRS-2 Water and Oceans Wind Sensor (WOW) Global Environmental Microsensors (GEMS) Grace Follow-on Operational Ocean and Land Mission (OOLM) Suborbital Earth System Surveillance Hydrosphere mapper MDA Lowcost imager Polar Environmental Monitoring Molniya Orbit Imager WaTER GISMO

5. Objective to RFI Mapping 5-year Science Objective ObservationsInstrumentsRFI 1,2,3Elevation (ice sheets, sea ice, seasonal snow) Laser/Radar Altimeters, Ka-band InSAR Adv. Icesat; GWRM; Hydrosphere mapper; WaTER 1,2Ice motion (ice sheets, sea ice) C/L band InSAR, high resolution optical imagers InSAR Group; OOLM; Low cost MDA; 1,2,3,5Snow accumulationK/Ka band passive microwave, infrared, Capes; Airs2; CPP; ATOMMS; AIERES; WOWS; GWRM 1,2,3,5Surface MeltPassive Microwave; Scatterometers CPP; WOWS; GWRM 3Snow Water equivalentK/KaPassive Microwave, X/KU band SAR CPP; WOWS: GWRM 1,2Ice Sheet, snow- covered sea ice thickness, internal, basal structure UHF/VHF radar, Altimeters GISMO, Adv. IceSAT 1,3Snow and ice massGravimeterGrace Follow-on

6. Mapping Continued 2,3Season snow cover and sea ice extent Passive microwave; multispectral optical/IR GWRM, MDA Low Cost 2Sea ice type and concentration Passive MicrowaveGWRM 4Permafrost extent and type High resolution optical and IR MDA 1,2,3,4,5Polar communicationsEccentric OrbitsMolniya/Polesitter 12345Suborbital platformsGEMS; SESS

7. Prioritized Instruments Requirements Highest Priority (Mission X and Z concepts) Altimetry (Advanced IceSAT) – –ice sheet elevation, sea ice thickness SAR/InSAR C band primary and L Band secondary (InSAR Working Group) –Ice sheet and sea ice motion Instruments likely to be continued in some form on NPP/NPOESS Passive microwave imaging and sounding radiometers (19, 37, 85 Ghz with increasing resolution) –Sea ice concentration, extent, type –Seasonal snow pack and snow water equivalent –Atmospheric temperature and humidity Repeat multifrequency, high (10 m) and medium (250 – 1000 m) resolution Visible/IR (contribute to all observational requirements including polar atmosphere) Scatterometer Novel instrument design or techniques VHF/UHF sounding radar –Glacier and ice sheet thickness Gravimetry mission –Water mass balance in all forms Innovative orbit geometries (e.g. Molniya, Pole-sitter) Innovative observation platforms (UAVs, GEMS)

8. Outstanding Issues Identifying gaps in planned missions vs building a program from RFI’s Constellations vs single platform projects Role of International Partners DATA MANAGEMENT IS GENERALLY NEGLECTED IN ALL PROPOSALS CONSIDERED SO FAR Some Reference Documents IGOS Cryosphere Theme Report (Key and Drinkwater, in prep) ISMASS Report (Jacka and others, 2002?)