SnowPI (Polar Snow, Permafrost and Inland Ice in a Changing World), a newly launched Horizon Europe research project, is putting snow at the centre of climate science. Uniting 14 partners from across Europe, with Lund University as the only Swedish partner, the project will shed light on how it shapes polar environments – and what that means for the rest of the world.
Improved climate adaptation strategies
Many snow processes remain insufficiently understood and constrained by observations to be adequately represented in climate models, particularly in remote polar regions. This knowledge gap is a major sources of uncertainty in climate projections, limiting our ability to accurately predict snow insultation changes, sea-level rise and other climate impacts, thereby reducing the capacity of policymakers to prepare effective climate adaptation strategies.
SnowPI aims to address this challenge by combining field observations, satellite data, advanced climate models and emerging technologies such as machine learning. The project will improve how snow processes are represented in climate models and provide new insights into their role within the global climate system.
New insights into snow–vegetation interactions improve international climate projections
Changes in snow cover affect not only glaciers and permafrost, but also plant establishment and growth, soil carbon balance, and future climate feedbacks. David Wårlind, a climate researcher at Lund University, leads one of SnowPI’s work packages focused on the ecosystem model LPJ-GUESS. The aim is to produce more realistic projections of how Arctic ecosystems will develop in a warmer climate.
“While several models in the project describe snow, glaciers, or permafrost separately, LPJ-GUESS is the model that captures the interactions between snow, vegetation, and soil,” says David Wårlind.
“By improving the representation of snow in LPJ-GUESS, we can better understand how changes in snow cover affect ecosystems and their feedbacks to the climate system. These improvements will also contribute to more reliable climate projections and will be integrated into the EC-Earth Earth system model, which is used internationally to support assessments by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),” says David Wårlind.
SnowPI will run from 2026 to 2030, and Lund University's budget within the project is 460 000 Euro.
More information
Snow PI webpage: SnowPI SnowPI - Understanding Polar Change
LPJ-GUESS webpage: LPJ-GUESS | Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science
Contact David Wårlind: David Wårlind - Lunds universitet