The sessions witnessed four notable presentations by the invited speakers: V.B. Aizen, T. Koike, G. Gleixner, and R.L. Armstrong. On the afternoon of Dec. 15th, seven oral presentations were given by notable scientists. Subjects included: Central Asian cryosphere dynamics, recent variations in ELA of Tibetan Glaciers, Ice core records over the Third Pole, Tibetan water cycle and ice cap, Indian-Himalayan Glaciers, Bacterial Diversity in snow and ice in the Third Pole, and results from dust records in Tibet.

Dec. 16th was a full day of poster presentations in the morning followed by two oral sessions in the afternoon. The oral presentations saw a wide-range of topics that were directly related to the Third Pole; atmosphere, climatology, observations and modeling, land surface processes, lake system and hydrological dynamics, glaciers in Nepal, precipitation variability and isotopes. In addition, a brief introduction to the TPE program, its background, structure, and people involved, was delivered to attendees at the start of the afternoon sessions.

The sessions were convened by the three TPE co-chairs Tandong Yao, Lonnie Thompson, and Volker Mosbrugger, together with Yongwei Sheng. It was sponsored by the Global Environmental Change focus group of AGU, and co-sponsored by the Atmospheric Sciences, Biogeosciences, Cryosphere and Hydrology focus groups of AGU, and by the TPE program.