![]() Physical properties such as crystal structure, density, length, and liquid water content are important factors affecting the transfers of heat and water and the scattering of microwave energy. For example, surface roughness is often the dominant factor determining the strength of radar backscatter. These physical properties, together with surface roughness, emissivity, and dielectric characteristics, have important implications for observing snow and ice from space. The most important properties are the surface reflectance ( albedo), the ability to transfer heat (thermal diffusivity), and the ability to change state ( latent heat). There are several fundamental physical properties of snow and ice that modulate energy exchanges between the surface and the atmosphere. The large areal extent and the important climatic roles of snow and ice, related to their unique physical properties, indicate that the ability to observe and model snow and ice-cover extent, thickness, and physical properties (radiative and thermal properties) is of particular significance for climate research. In terms of areal extent, however, Northern Hemisphere winter snow and ice extent comprise the largest area, amounting to an average 23% of hemispheric surface area in January. Most of the world's ice volume is in Antarctica, principally in the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. A given water particle in glaciers, ice sheets, or ground ice, however, may remain frozen for 10–100,000 years or longer, and deep ice in parts of East Antarctica may have an age approaching 1 million years. Snow cover and freshwater ice are essentially seasonal, and most sea ice, except for ice in the central Arctic, lasts only a few years if it is not seasonal. ![]() The residence time of water in each of these cryospheric sub-systems varies widely. įrozen water is found on the Earth’s surface primarily as snow cover, freshwater ice in lakes and rivers, sea ice, glaciers, ice sheets, and frozen ground and permafrost (permanently frozen ground). The rate of ice loss has risen by 57% since the 1990s−from 0.8 to 1.2 trillion tonnes per year. Cryology is the study of cryospheres.įrom The Cryosphere (2021 survey): Earth lost 28 trillion tonnes of ice between 19, with melting grounded ice (ice sheets and glaciers) raising the global sea level by 34.6 ☓.1 mm. The term deglaciation describes the retreat of cryospheric features. Approximately 10% of the Earth's surface is covered by ice, but this is rapidly decreasing. Through these feedback processes, the cryosphere plays a significant role in the global climate and in climate model response to global changes. The cryosphere is an integral part of the global climate system with important linkages and feedbacks generated through its influence on surface energy and moisture fluxes, clouds, precipitation, hydrology, atmospheric and oceanic circulation. Thus, there is a wide overlap with the hydrosphere. The cryosphere (from the Greek κρύος kryos, "cold", "frost" or "ice" and σφαῖρα sphaira, "globe, ball" ) is an all-encompassing term for those portions of Earth's surface where water is in solid form, including sea ice, lake ice, river ice, snow cover, glaciers, ice caps, ice sheets, and frozen ground (which includes permafrost). Overview of the cryosphere and its larger components, from the UN Environment Programme Global Outlook for Ice and Snow
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