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The Arctic Council's Project on Climate Change and the Arctic Cryosphere
| The SWIPA project was established by the Arctic Council in April 2008 as a follow-up to the 2004 Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA). Its goal is to assess current scientific information on changes in the Arctic cryosphere, including the impacts of climate change on the ice, snow, and permafrost characteristics of the Arctic, which have potentially far reaching implications for both the Arctic and the Earth as a whole.
The project is briefly described in a Brochure (right). A full description of the project components and organization, and its overall timeline can be found in the SWIPA Project Description document.
The work under SWIPA is organized into three major components (Arctic Sea Ice, Greenland Ice-sheet, Terrestrial Cryosphere), with the terrestrial component further divided into four modules (Snow, Permafrost, Glaciers and ice-sheets, Hydrology). Each component/module has one or more lead countries.
The SWIPA Integration Team is responsible for overall project coordination and will develop an Integrated Synthesis Report.
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Products
A first report on “The Greenland Ice Sheet in a Changing Climate” and two short films are being prepared under the Arctic Council as contributions to the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark in December 2009.
The final SWIPA reports will be presented to the Arctic Council in Spring 2011 and will serve as an Arctic contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UNIPCC), scheduled for completion in 2013/2014.
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Project Work Area
| Component/Module |
Next Meeting |
Login Area |
| Arctic Sea Ice Component |
29-30 October 2009, Boulder |
ARSI_Area |
| Greenland Ice-sheet Component |
not yet decided |
GRIS_Link |
| Terrestrial Cryosphere - Snow Module |
25-27 April 2009, Vienna |
SNOW_Link |
| Terrestrial Cryosphere - Permafrost Module |
13-15 May 2009, Delaware |
PERM_LINK |
| Terrestrial Cryosphere - Glaciers/Ice-Sheet Module |
12-17 September 2009, Boulder |
GLAC_Link |
| Terrestrial Cryosphere - Hydrology Module |
not yet decided |
HYDR_Link |
| Integration Team |
8-9 October 2009, Copenhagen |
INTG_Link |
| Socio-economics sub-group |
not yet decided |
SOEC_Link |
| General SWIPA internal documentation |
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SWIPA_Link |
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Contact:
AMAP Secretariat: Tel. +47 23 24 16 35; Fax. +47 22 67 67 06; e-mail amap@amap.no
SWIPA is coordinated by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), in cooperation with the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) and the WCRP-CliC Program
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