The special issue “Modelling inland waters in a changing climate” is inviting contributions related to the following aspects of research on inland waters.
- Modelling – lake–atmosphere interactions and coupling (parameterization of lakes in numerical models of the atmosphere, the impact of lakes on atmospheric processes, greenhouse gases transfers); processes in freshwater bodies (including studies related to biochemistry and water quality issues, in frozen and not frozen conditions).
- Parameters – external parameters (raw data sets and generation of external-parameter fields required to use lake parameterization schemes in atmospheric models, e.g. fields of lake depth and lake fraction).
- Data assimilation – snow and ice on lakes, reservoirs and other water bodies (data assimilation of observations and parameterization of snow and ice layers over water surfaces in numerical weather prediction and climate models, interaction air–snow–ice–water); assimilation of observational data on lake surface state (space-borne and in situ observations of lake surface state, assimilation of observational data into atmospheric models using lake parameterization schemes).
- Model validation and intercomparison – validation of numerical weather prediction and climate models that incorporate lake parameterization and lake data assimilation schemes; single-column studies; intercomparison of lake models, e.g. within the framework of the Lake Model Intercomparison Project.
- Remote sensing – remote sensing can offer valuable data for studying lake changes and their interaction with their environment and the impact and feedback of climate change; altimeters provide dense time series of water surface elevation measurements, and multispectral optical, thermal and radar sensors can be used to measure lake area, water quality, temperature and ice cover; time series of satellite products are available for studies on lake changes from local to global scale, e.g. within the framework of the ESA CCI LAKES.
- ISIMIP initiative – the aim of the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP) is to better understand climate impacts across sectors using a multi-impact model framework; the second phase of this international effort (ISIMIP2b) is designed to provide robust information about the impacts of 1.5°C and 2°C global warming, as highlighted by the IPCC’s special report on this topic; scientists contributing simulations and analyses to ISIMIP will find a forum to share their results in this special issue.
