Description:

Even though half of the world’s population relies on water derived from mountainous watersheds, modeling of the current and future behavior is complicated by extreme heterogeneity in the relevant atmospheric and surface processes, and networks of observations to constrain these processes are sparse due to logistical and safety considerations. This has led to a siloing of scientific understanding based on the scales of achievable observations and modeling.

We therefore solicit presentations on surface and atmosphere processes that impact mountainous hydrology including, but not limited to precipitation, and the challenges of measuring it in complex terrain, evapotranspiration, aerosols, aerosol-precipitation interactions, radiation, evaporation, sublimation/deposition and surface snow processes. Presentations are encouraged that cover one or more of the following topics: (1) spanning scales from the mountain range to the ridge or slope scale, (2) focusing on process-model representations of these processes, (3) advancing the representation of such processes in Earth System Models, (4) addressing, either conceptually or practically, the fundamental challenge of extreme heterogeneity, and/or (5) exploring observational needs and existing and novel capabilities, both with in situ and remote sensing data.