Torben Dunse Chairman Thorben Dunse Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo
Martin Sharp Vice-Chairman Prof. Martin Sharp Dept. of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences University of Alberta

The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) already concluded in 2004 that the Arctic is warming rapidly in an amplification of the global rise in temperature. Obviously this conclusion leads to an immediate concern for the huge ice masses stored in the Arctic, in the Greenland Ice Sheet and in the circumpolar ice caps and glaciers.

The ice caps and glaciers of the Arctic are currently reacting strongly to climate change, causing a significant contribution to sea level rise. The Greenland ice sheet has in recent years surprised the research community by exhibiting a large-scale synchronous accelerating mass loss on the time-scale of a few years, rather than centuries as previously assumed.

The IASC Network on Arctic Glaciology, formed out of the Working Group on Arctic Glaciology, aims to address these rapid changes in arctic ice masses by initiating scientific programs and facilitating international cooperation between glaciologists and climate modelers in order to develop the understanding of arctic land ice and its role in global climatic and environmental change.