MOTIVATION FOR AICI

It is now recognised that changes in one compartment of the Earth System can strongly affect the state of other compartments. Feedbacks can amplify or miti-gate trends. As the Earth and its climate change, particularly in response to phenomena such as greenhouse gas increases, and stratospheric ozone depletion, it becomes increasingly important to understand the interactions between different parts of the system. This has been the basis for the new structure of IGBP, which studies the three main compartments (land, ocean, and atmosphere) and the exchanges and interactions between them. The cryosphere - ice, snow and permafrost - occurs in all three of these compartments. It forms a large proportion of the surface separating the land and ocean from the atmosphere: a seasonal maximum of 40% of land is covered by snow or ice, while several percent of the ocean is sea-ice covered.

Studies in recent years have revealed evidence that important chemical exchanges also occur between ice and the atmosphere, and it makes sense to study these processes and their consequences generically. AICI aims to do this, forming a bridge between scientists working on ice-covered surfaces in both polar regions and in the mid-latitudes, atmospheric scientists interested in processes occurring on ice particles, laboratory scientists studying the properties of ice, and modelers who need to parameterise processes that involve ice. AICI has been endorsed by the IGBP projects IGAC and SOLAS.