Definition
Cryosphere. It collectively describes elements of the Earth system containing water in its frozen state and includes sea ice, lake and river ice, snow cover, solid precipitation, glaciers, ice caps, ice sheets, permafrost, and seasonally frozen ground. Although a significant portion of the world’s snow and ice is found in the polar regions, cryosphere exists at all latitudes and in about 100 countries.
Polar regions. Earth’s polar regions are the areas of the globe surrounding the north and south poles typically encompassed by a line of latitude corresponding to 66° 34′ north or south (i.e., between each pole and its corresponding polar circle), which is the approximate limit of the midnight sun and the polar night. Alternatively, it can be defined as the region where the average temperature for the warmest month (July) is below 10 °C (50 °F).
Introduction
Knowledge of the state of the cryosphere is important for weather and climate prediction, assessment and prediction of se...
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Drinkwater, M. (2014). Cryosphere and Polar Region Observing System. In: Njoku, E.G. (eds) Encyclopedia of Remote Sensing. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-36699-9_25
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-36699-9_25
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