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Cryospheric science is the interdisciplinary study of permafrost, snow and ice, primarily on the surface of the Earth, but also on other planets and moons. The cryosphere is an integral part of the climate system, and is investigated with techniques from geophysics, meteorology and hydrology.
Atmospheric rivers provide the majority of water vapour transport to the high latitudes. This Review summarizes Antarctic atmospheric river dynamics and climatology and discusses their impacts on the mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet.
The à sgardfonna ice cap in Svalbard did not melt entirely during the Holocene Thermal Maximum and possibly advanced despite the warmer-than-today climate, due to seasonal sea-ice loss enhanced snowfall, according to lake sediments records from glacial lakes fed by this ice cap.
Since the late 1990s, summer surface melt in coastal West Antarctica has significantly increased due to intensified anticyclonic blocking and enhanced warm air advection, driven by Rossby wave teleconnection from the South Pacific Convergence Zone, according to satellite measurements and interdecadal Pacific Oscillationâs negative phase analysis.
The recent acceleration of Arctic sea ice decline is linked to the emergence of a dipole-like Arctic atmospheric circulation, which amplifies temperature rise and increases European heat waves, according to idealized model experiments.
Vegetation greening in the western Tibetan Plateau and its surroundings began in the early 20th century and became significant after the 1970s, according to an ice-core record of pollen accumulation rates with a 3-year resolution.
Greenland-wide observations of crevasse volume and distribution suggest substantial increases in crevassing between 2016 and 2021 at marine-terminating sectors with accelerating ice flow.
Elizaveta Sharaborova discusses how a laboratory-scale controlled cooling experiment can be used to test how a protective frozen layer can prevent the destabilization of permafrost.
As Arctic sea ice thinned, it was thought that a weaker, more dynamic ice cover might become more heavily deformed and ridged. Now, analysis of three decades of airborne observations shows instead that the Arctic ice cover has smoothed.
The loss of the CongerâGlenzer ice shelf in 2022 was the culmination of a multidecadal process of disintegration, signalling East Antarctica may not be as stable as we once thought.
