The aim of the symposium

The polar regions play a crucial role in global climate change. They are sensitive indicators of change and their snow and ice features are good integrators of change. They store long-term climatic records in their ice sheets, such as the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. They also affect the global climate directly through interactions between their atmospheres, ice cover, and oceans, and through feedback processes. Practically all climate models predict an amplification of the global greenhouse effect at high latitudes, but models as well as observations have produced results that are not easily interpreted.