NCoE DEFROST

DEFROST is a part of the Top-level Research Initiative, which is a major Nordic collaborative venture for studies of climate, energy and the environment. The NCoE DEFROST is within the TRI sub-programme “Interaction between Climate Change and the Cryosphere” (ICCC), which aims to improve our understanding of stability, variations and dynamics of the cryosphere.

The recent years have seen a number of dramatic changes in the Arctic cryosphere. Some of these changes have exceeded the most aggressive projections, such as the record melt of sea ice in summer 2007, the major melt off around the edges of the Greenland Ice Sheet and extensive and previously unrecognized releases of greenhouse gases from terrestrial permafrost in the off-season and from the shallow sub-sea permafrost on the Siberian-Arctic shelf.

The climatic feedbacks from a changing cryosphere are complex. They vary over space and time, and are generally poorly understood. The NCoE DEFROST seeks to fill critical gaps in concepts and information, and to incorporate this understanding into models that reduce uncertainties.

The NCoE DEFROST will gather internationally recognized experts with the goal of understanding how changes in the cryosphere caused by climate change influence the ecosystem/geosphere processes which directly affect climate.

The centre seeks to bridge existing gaps between climate modelling, cryospheric science, and Arctic ecosystem science. The center will exploit Nordic, world leading capacity and provide a platform for wider international collaboration and high visibility of top-level Nordic research in both European and global contexts.