A special session themed by “Observation and modeling of hydrometeorological processes in high elevation area” was hosted recently in Austria during the 2012 European Geosciences Union General Assembly (April 22-27, 2012).

Called upon by ITP Profs. MA Yaoming and ZHANG Fan, together with Prof. Bob Su of University of Twente, Netherlands, and Dr. Peter J.van Oevelen of Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment project, the session gathered a group of scientists from various nations, including China, Germany, U.S.A., Netherlands, Spain, Italy, and Turkey. It witnessed 11 oral presentations and 16 poster presentations to in-depth communication.

The special session focused on recent research achievements in the observation and modeling of hydrometerological processes in the Tibetan Plateau and its surroundings, which is widely acknowledged as the Third Pole. Jointly sponsored by the EGU and Third Pole Environment (TPE) program, it is one of the TPE efforts in international academic exchanges and communications, thus to draw more attention and deepen human understanding of environmental changes in the Third Pole region.