Working Groups

Current Working Groups

Working Group on Cryosphere Stewardship 2026-2029; Division I

International classification of snow avalanches 2026-2029; Division I

Continuity approaches for mass balance Intercomparison eXercise (ContinuIX) 2025 – 2029; Division II

Compilation and Standardization of Snow on Sea Ice Data 2025 – 2029; Divisions I and IV

Delineation of glaciers, ice sheets, and ice sheet basins 2024 – 2028; Divisions II and III

Dynamic processes in the Marginal Ice Zone 2024 – 2028; Division IV

Randolph Glacier Inventory (RGI) and its role in future glacier monitoring and GLIMS 2020 – 2023 (extended to 2025); Division II

Previous Working Groups

Regional Assessments of Glacier Mass Change (RAGMAC)
2019 – 2023 (extended to 2024); Division II

Debris covered glaciers
2018 – 2022 (extended to 2023); Division II

Randolph Glacier Inventory and infrastructure for glacier monitoring
2014 – 2018 (extended to 2019); Division II

Glacier ice thickness estimation
2014 – 2018 (extended to 2019); Division II

MicroSnow
2012 – 2016; Division I

Flow law for polycrystalline ice
2010 – 2014; Division V

Mass balance terminology and methods
2008 – 2012; Division II

Last updated on December 2nd, 2025 at 07:58 am | IACS Webmaster

What are Working Groups?

Any IACS Member can submit a proposal to the IACS Bureau to initiate a Working Group (WG). WGs address scientific problems of the cryosphere that are timely and well constrained.WGs shall have explicit aims, objectives, milestones and deliverables. They should be international in composition. They shall define the instruments, for example workshops and conferences, which they will use to achieve their aims and objectives. Working Groups will normally be limited to up to four years duration. They may be renewed for up to a further four years in exceptional circumstances. Working Groups report annually to the Bureau through the appropriate IACS Head of Division. The chair, co-chairs, and all of Working Group members must be IACS members. See the Terms of Reference (ToR) and the guidelines for proposing a new Working Group for further information.