On the potential use of glacier and permafrost observations for verification of climate models

Abstract

While the capability of global and regional climate models in reproducing current climate has significantly improved over the past few years, the confidence in model results for remote regions, or those where complex orography is a dominant feature, is still relatively low. This is, in part, linked to the lack of observational data for model verification and intercomparison purposes.Glacier and permafrost observations are directly related to past and present energy flux patterns at the Earth-atmosphere interface and could be used as a proxy for air temperature and precipitation, particularly of value in remote mountain regions and boreal and Arctic zones where instrumental climate records are sparse or non-existent. It is particularly important to verify climate-model performance in these regions, as this is where most general circulation models (GCMs) predict the greatest changes in air temperatures in a warmer global climate.Existing datasets from glacier and permafrost monitoring sites in remote and high altitudes are described in this paper; the data could be used in model-verification studies, as a means to improving model performance in these regions.