Summary
The Cryosphere and Climate Project (CliC) c~-ordinates climate activities related to all parts of the earth's cryosphere. This includes sea ice, snow, ice shelves, ice bergs, lake ice, and permafrost. This talk will give a brief overview of the CliC project, and how it fits within the other international climate related projects. Although CliC is not a funding body, it is able to provide some small support for workshops and conferences. The project research consolidates terrestrial (permafrost, frozen soils, lake and river ice, snow, glaciers, ice caps and ice sheets) and marine (sea-ice, ice-shelves) cryosphere. Through cooperation with professional societies, partners programmes, focused projects and campaigns, such as the International Polar Year 2007/2008, CliC strives to develop cryospheric observations, modelling and data assimilation, as contributions to climate prediction systems. Outcomes from CliC research will contribute to seasonal forecasting, estimates of sea-level prediction, water management, energy production and many other application areas. For sea ice, CliC is particularly interested in the question: "What will be the nature of changes in sea-ice distribution and mass balance in both polar regions in response to climate change and variability?' It is hoped that this presentation can lead to discussions of how ASPeCt might contribute to initiatives such as polar reanalysis, IPY coordination, data collection and climate related data sets, and improved representation of the cryosphere in models.