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A Tour of the Cryosphere

Entry ID: SVS_CRYOSPHERE

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Summary

Abstract: The cryosphere consists of those parts of the Earth's surface where water is found in solid form, including areas of snow, sea ice, glaciers, permafrost, ice sheets, and icebergs. In these regions, surface temperatures remain below freezing for a portion of each year. Since ice and snow exist relatively close to their melting point, they frequently change from solid to liquid and back again due to ... fluctuations in surface temperature. Although direct measurements of the cryosphere can be difficult to obtain due to the remote locations of many of these areas, using satellite observations scientists monitor changes in the global and regional climate by observing how regions of the Earth's cryosphere shrink and expand.

This animation portrays fluctuations in the cryosphere through observations collected from a variety of satellite-based sensors. The animation begins in Antarctica, showing some unique features of the Antarctic landscape found nowhere else on earth. Ice shelves, ice streams, glaciers, and the formation of massive icebergs can be seen clearly in the flyover of the Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica. A time series shows the movement of iceberg B15A, an iceberg 295 kilometers in length which broke off of the Ross Ice Shelf in 2000. Moving farther along the coastline, a time series of the Larsen ice shelf shows the collapse of over 3,200 square kilometers ice since January 2002. As we depart from the Antarctic, we see the seasonal change of sea ice and how it nearly doubles the apparent area of the continent during the winter.

From Antarctica, the animation travels over South America showing glacier locations on this mostly tropical continent. We then move further north to observe daily changes in snow cover over the North American continent. The clouds show winter storms moving across the United States and Canada, leaving trails of snow cover behind. In a close-up view of the western US, we compare the difference in land cover between two years: 2003 when the region received a normal amount of snow and 2002 when little snow was accumulated. The difference in the surrounding vegetation due to the lack of spring melt water from the mountain snow pack is evident.

As the animation moves from the western US to the Arctic region, the areas effected by permafrost are visible. As time marches forward from March to September, the daily snow and sea ice recede and reveal the vast areas of permafrost surrounding the Arctic Ocean.

The animation shows a one-year cycle of Arctic sea ice followed by the mean September minimum sea ice for each year from 1979 through 2008. The superimposed graph of the area of Arctic sea ice at this minimum clearly shows the dramatic decrease in Arctic sea ice over the last few years.

While moving from the Arctic to Greenland, the animation shows the constant motion of the Arctic polar ice using daily measures of sea ice activity. Sea ice flows from the Arctic into Baffin Bay as the seasonal ice expands southward. As we draw close to the Greenland coast, the animation shows the recent changes in the Jakobshavn glacier. Although Jakobshavn receded only slightly from 1964 to 2001, the animation shows significant recession from 2001 through 2009. As the animation pulls out from Jakobshavn, the effect of the increased flow rate of Greenland costal glaciers is shown by the thinning ice shelf regions near the Greenland coast.

This animation shows a wealth of data collected from satellite observations of the cryosphere and the impact that recent cryospheric changes are making on our planet.

[Summary provided by the NASA Scientific Visualization Studio.]

Related URL

Link: VIEW PROJECT HOME PAGE

Description: The EOSDIS outreach project.

Data Set Citation

Dataset Originator/Creator: Prof. Magda Vincx

Dataset Title: Meiobenthic biodiversity and fluxes within the
Antarctic biogeochemical environment

Online Resource: http://www.marinebiology.ugent.be/

Temporal Coverage

Start Date: 1992-01-01

Stop Date: 2005-12-31

Location Keywords

CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA

GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR

Science Keywords

OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES

SOLID EARTH > GEOCHEMISTRY > BIOGEOCHEMICAL PROCESSES

ISO Topic Category

GEOSCIENTIFIC INFORMATION

Project

ESIP > Earth Science Information Partners Program

MTPE > Museums Teaching Planet Earth

Use Constraints Macintosh users:

We do all our primary programming on Macs, and we strongly recommend using Macs
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The software runs much faster and allows one-click updating of today's latest
...

Ancillary Keywords

Earth Science Information Partnership

ESIP Federation

Service Provider

RICE/RIS > Rice Space Institute, Rice University

Service Organization URL: http://rsi.rice.edu/

Service Provider Personnel
Name: PATRICIA REIFF Phone: (713)348-4634 Fax: (713)348-5143 Email: reiff at rice.edu Email: connect at space.rice.edu Contact Address: Rice Space Institute 6100 Main Street MS - 108 City: Houston Province or State: Texas Postal Code: 77005-1892 Country: USA