Working Group Proposal to IACS

This is the proposal submitted to IACS to initiate a Working Group on Debris Covered Glaciers. The objectives within it are to:

1. coordinate knowledge exchange
- promote participation at annual working group meetings
- expand visibility of debris-covered glaciers though international conference sessions
- produce a special journal issue on debris-covered glaciers
- facilitate sharing of previously unpublished datasets, model code and model results on open data sharing platforms
- create and maintain a working group webpage for duration of the project detailing progress
- identify future research priorities and future goals to be included in a second phase of working group activities
2. perform a comparison of debris thickness estimation methods at various scales
3. perform a debris-covered glacier ablation model comparison at various levels of complexity and scales