Global assessment of the future evolution of glaciers is currently done with the above-mentioned limitations (poor knowledge of precipitation, glacier surface processes poorly taken into account). We hypothesize that the rain/snow transition has a very large impact on the future glacier evolution, yet not addressed by state-of-theart glacier models (Johnson & Rupper, 2020). The iFROG project aims at testing this hypothesis, and overcoming current limitations, through
three specific actions summarized in the figure below :

Briefly :

Goals of Action 1 : To enhance observation of precipitation rates and the rain/snow transition at local and regional scales using remote sensing techniques at different time scales. This will offer a comprehensive dataset of precipitation that will serve as a base in action 2.

Goals of Action 2 : To better constrain atmospheric reanalyses (ERA5) using outputs of action 1 and to bias-correct and downscale Global Circulation Models outputs. These data sets will be used in action 3.

Goals of Action 3 : To provide more realistic future glaciological projections including feedbacks of precipitation phase on albedo and accumulation variability, and impacts of future rain/snow transition height using physical SMB models.

Updated on 6 April 2022