1. snow on Earth:
The Global Cryosphere

2. what are we learning? What and where the cryosphere is.
How glaciers and ice sheets form and move.
Feedbacks between the cryosphere, atmosphere, and oceans.
Relevance for people.
Essential background for climate science!

3. what’s the cryosphere?
Water in the earth system that is at or below its freezing point temperature: 32 F or 0 C in many cases. This includes:
-snow, sleet, and hail
-glaciers, ice sheets, ice shelves, and sea ice
-ice on lakes and rivers
-permafrost and seasonally frozen ground

4. the geography of cold
Current Surface
Air Temperatures

5. the seasonality of cold

6. the geography of the cryosphere
How do these different components form?
Pass out cut-out version(s).

7. making a snowflake Dr. Adrian Bejan explains snowflakes
Making snow requires: cold, supply of water/humidity, particles to form around.

8. from snow to ice
Process for strengthening quinzee (sp?), as well as obtaining samples of prehistoric atmosphere.

9. making a glacier

10. making an ice sheet

11. movement of glaciers Underneath a Glacier Basal Sliding
Internal Deformation
Underneath a Glacier
Mont Blanc glacier, from NOVA on PBS.

12. remnant glacial ice
“Gates of Kiev”
Brooks Range, AK

13. maintaining glaciers: temperature and precipitation
Example of a glacier that is growing, rather than shrinking. Why? Because accumulation > ablation.
Hubbard Glacier, Southeast Alaska
Images from NASA Earth Observatory

14. ice caps and ocean circulation

15. the albedo effect

16. feedback loops of ice and snow

17. monitoring the cryosphere from space
NASA Tour of the Cryosphere

18. the uses of snow: transportation
Dalton Highway Closure, summer tell story from perspective of Toolikers.

19. the uses of snow: water supply
⅙ of the world’s population depends on glaciers and seasonal snowpack for their water needs. Barnett et al., Nature 2005

20. the uses of snow: hydropower

21. the uses of snow: streamflows
Godsey et al, 2014, HP

22. groundtruthing: NRCS snow telemetry network
730+ sites
11 states

23. a snotel site

24. accessing snotel data
Bear Basin Site