Report on the 58^th Annual Eastern Snow Conference and joint Snow and Ice sessions with the Canadian Geophysical Union Hydrology Section and CGU-HS Committee on River Ice Processes in the Environment

The study of snow and ice is quite diverse, spanning an examination of sea ice, frozen ground, snow ecology, glaciology, climatology, snow hydrology, water management, remote sensing, hydraulic engineering, frozen precipitation and many other fields. The Eastern Snow Conference is a venerable organisation of world-wide membership based in Canada and the United States that is concerned with the origin, precipitation, accumulation, character, melt and runoff of snow. The ESC holds an annual conference, alternating between the USA and Canada and from which it produces a Proceedings and a special issue of Hydrological Processes. In 1999, the Canadian Snow Committee of the Canadian Geophysical Union Hydrology Section (CGU-HS) invited the Eastern Snow Conference for a joint meeting. The Eastern Snow Conference was delighted to hold its 58^th Annual Conference jointly with the CGU this year in Ottawa. Here with the CGU-HS and Committee on River Ice Processes in the Environment, and aided by co-sponsorship from the International Glaciological Society, we have provided the joint meeting; ‘Snow & Ice: Principles, Processes, Management and Use’. This year marks two decades since the publication of the Handbook of Snow, Principles, Processes, Management and Use edited by Don Gray and Dave Male, and it seemed appropriate to gauge the progress in snow and ice science since the first printing of that comprehensive text with a meeting of a similar theme.

The Ottawa meeting may be judged an example of success from synergy, in that the joint Snow & Ice meeting exceeded the simple sum of normal ESC, CGU-HS snow/ice and CRIPE meetings. This year’s Eastern Snow Conference sessions contained 73 oral presentations and 34 poster presentations, filling three days. ESC papers were drawn from across eastern and western Canada and USA (including Alaska), Japan, England, Wales, Norway and Switzerland. For the first time, the ESC and CGU-HS held concurrent sessions in order to accommodate the number of oral presentations. For the first time, the ESC hosted over 100 presentations. Amongst the various groups presenting snow and ice papers in Ottawa (ESC, HS, CRIPE, the CGU Climate System History & Dynamics session and the CGU President’s Plenary Session) there were over 150 presentations – likely to have made Ottawa 2001 the largest broadly-based snow and ice science meeting anywhere this year.

The joint meeting opened Tuesday morning with a joint session between ESC, HS and CRIPE on ‘Cold Season Hydrology: from Freezeup to Breakup’ chaired by Raymond Bourdages and Mike Ferrick. The session contained papers describing river flow surges during breakup, hydrological models for snowmelt and breakup, ice thermodynamics, streamflow and ice-cover climatology and the use of remote sensing. Tuesday afternoon began with ‘Snow and Ice Hydrology’ chaired by Phil Marsh and containing papers on glacier hydrology and hydrochemistry. The second session that afternoon, ‘Snow and Ice Hydrometeorology’ chaired by Mary Albert dealt with snow water equivalent, its estimation, extent and depletion. Wednesday morning hosted concurrent sessions. ‘Frozen Ground’ and ‘Snow and Ice Hydrology’ were chaired by Chris Burn and Toni Lewkowicz with a range of papers from ground temperature estimation, to permafrost degradation, frozen soil energy balance, snowmelt/infiltration over frozen soils and snowpack state as influence by physiography. The ‘Cryosphere’ session chaired by Dorothy Hall and Dave Barber included papers on detecting and understanding ablation of snow water equivalent on sea ice and sea ice itself, using MODIS to detect snow properties, imaging of snowpacks, snow data products and blowing snow modelling. Wednesday afternoon the ‘Arctic Glaciers Workshop’ chaired by Julian Dowdeswell examined these systems from ice mass dynamics, to hydrology, ablation, remote sensing, ice flow and runoff chemistry. ‘Snow and Ice Hydrometeorology’ resumed Thursday morning, chaired by Kate Brubaker and Ross Brown with papers on Arctic meteorology, snowfall distribution and measurement, snow/ice mass balance, distribution, energy balance and ablation, and snow climatology. Thursday afternoon resumed concurrent sessions with ‘Snow and Ice Processes’ chaired by Janet Hardy and Scott Munro with papers on snow structure and gas diffusion, melt processes, flash, electrical and freezing processes related to ice-covered insulators, glacial ice dynamics and glacial weathering. A session from the ICSI Snow-Vegetation Interactions Working Group ‘Snow Vegetation Interactions’ chaired by John Pomeroy included papers on snow science and forest planning, remote sensing of snow in forests, and modelling snowmelt energy in terrain of varying vegetation. These oral papers were complemented by an excellent set of poster papers presented Wednesday and Thursday in sessions chaired by Andrew Klein and Dorothy Hall and covering the topics previously mentioned as well as snow ecology and human perceptions of snow. The authors and session chairs are thanked for keeping the sessions running smoothly and lively.

The 31 (at least) student papers showed the health and vigour of this meeting. A number of students prepared papers to a set format that were evaluated before the Conference by a judging panel chaired by Andrew Klein. The submissions were strong and all are to be congratulated on their progress and commitment to snow and ice. The winner of the ESC Weisnet Medal was Changiz Tavakoli of the Département des Sciences Appliquées, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC), Chicoutimi, Québec for the paper ‘Dynamic Modelling of Flashover Process on Ice-covered Insulator Surface’ with co-authors I Fofana and M Farzaneh. Congratulations to Changiz and his co-authors for superior research.

Two participants at the meeting deserve special mention. Professor Julian Dowdeswell, Director of the Bristol Glaciology Centre, University of Bristol, UK was not only the ESC Invited Speaker, but Chair of the Arctic Glaciers Working Session and moderator of the discussion at the conclusion of that session. He delivered the talk; Arctic Ice Masses: Past and Present Form and Flow, which included thought provoking new research from the Circumpolar Arctic to stimulate the Working Session. Professor Peter Adams, MP, a snow hydrologist, glaciologist and former ESC President, kindly but directly contributed some salient comments about the future of polar research in Canada to the Arctic Glacier Workshop and then provided an extremely insightful Banquet Speech on the prospects for our sciences and what must be done to promote them from the perspective of Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

Finally, what progress has there been made in the 20 years since the Handbook of Snow? Those who attended the meeting must judge for themselves but here is one observer’s perspective. 20 years ago the physical basis for most major snow and ice processes was outlined but the interaction of these processes with the environment was not well understood, the sensitivity of coupled processes to dynamic boundary conditions was not well appreciated, nor were processes examined beyond the point scale. Though there are still advances in understanding the basics, these processes are now routinely ‘parameterised’, ‘distributed’, ‘upscaled’ and incorporated in sophisticated hydrological, glaciological and climatological models. Many current operational observational techniques were only used for specialist research and the satellite tools now available (Radarsat, Modis, etc) were in the infancy of their design, but have progressed over two decades to supplant the traditional snow survey or glacier mass balance measurements in some instances. The catalyst to larger scale research that these remote measurements have provided was very evident in Ottawa. While the potential chemical and ecological significance of snow was recognised and included at the time of the Handbook of Snow, it was not yet the emphasis of large-scale research and multi-disciplinary interest that it is now. The importance of snow and ice feedbacks to the climate system had just been explored 20 years ago, but now have become the focus for a global cryospheric science and the basis for critical questions posed to our community. Some subjects such as snow on sea ice, and greenhouse gas transport through snow are new contributions to our meetings. This progress has occurred during a period when the major national research institutions that primarily supported and conducted the study of snow and ice have been redirected and/or diminished and our universities often put under increasing workloads with reduced resources. The progress of science in such circumstances is a tribute to those individuals who have persevered, economised and continued to achieve irrespective of policy directives or have found new opportunities in the same. From the wide range of subjects being studied at a high standard, and the dynamic approach of the scientists and practitioners one can conclude that many of the hopes of the authors and editors of the Handbook of Snow have been fulfilled, in that the science of snow and ice has entered a relatively robust, exciting and mature period and is recognised as a major contributor to geophysics and the earth sciences in general. As societal interest in the results of this science increases, we may indeed be on the brink of a period of unanticipated growth that can contribute to further discoveries and exciting meetings such as we have just had.

To all, thank you for your contributions to our joint meeting. To the outgoing president of CGU (a former ESC president) Terry Prowse, to the outgoing president of CGU-HS (a snow hydrologist) Hok Woo, and to the programme chairs of CGU-HS, Dan Moore, and of CRIPE, Raymond Bourdages, a great thanks from the Eastern Snow Conference for making this joint meeting a success.

Professor John Pomeroy, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK.

58^th Annual Eastern Snow Conference Programme Chair