What Is the Cryosphere?

[Judi Lynn]

By Mark Serreze - National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado Boulder 7 hours ago Planet Earth

And why you should be worried about it.



The Greenland Ice Sheet is melting at an astonishing rate, scientists have found.
(Image: © Robert Szymanski/Shutterstock)


More than 100 scientists from 30 countries released a special report examining climate change impacts on the oceans and a less familiar but critically important part of the Earth: the cryosphere.

Ice sheets, ice caps and glaciers, the floating sea ice of the polar regions, lake ice, snow on the ground, and permafrost, permanently frozen ground in northern latitudes, all make up the cryosphere.

While snow and ice in our daily lives can, at times, be difficult to navigate and sometimes dangerous, people benefit greatly from the cryosphere. It helps cool our planet and controls global sea level. It affects ocean currents and storm patterns around the world. The fresh water stored in snow and ice provides drinking water and irrigates crops. I am a researcher who studies snow and ice, and the fact that the Earth is beginning to lose its cryosphere as a result of global warming climate should concern all of us.

Fresh water locked in massive ice sheets
The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets contain 99% of the freshwater ice on the planet. These ice sheets, glaciers and ice caps around the world are losing mass and are contributing to sea level rise, putting coastal regions and low-lying islands around the world at risk.

The Tibetan Plateau is known as the "water tower" of Asia. The Mekong River, Yellow River, the Yangthze, Indus River and the Karnali all originate on the Tibetan plateau and are fed by snow and glacier melt and the water from these rivers supports hundreds of millions of people.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/what-is-the-cryosphere.html