Climate change impacts on the cryosphere

Climate change has had a significant impact on the cryosphere with significant losses of ice over the past several decades.

The cryosphere includes portions of the Earth where water is in solid form (ice/snow/permafrost).

Ice sheets

The combined rate of loss between the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets has risen by a factor of six over the past three decades, according to the Copernicus Program. During the 1990s, the average rate of loss was 81 Gt per year. By the 2010s, that figure had increased to 475Gt per year.

Global glaciers

Land-based glaciers across the world have seen an average of 30 meters of ice thickness loss since 1957.

There was a period of decreased loss during the 1970s and 1980s, but since the 1990s that rate of loss has increased once again.

Sea ice

There has been a major decline in Arctic sea ice since 1979, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). The greatest decline has been observed during the end of the melt season, which normally occurs during the month of September. During this month, Arctic Sea ice has declined at a rate of 12.2 percent per decade.

The latest image from the NSIDC below shows that the current Arctic Sea ice extent is running well below the 1981-2010 average and below the 2012 curve, which was the year with the lowest annual minimum on record.

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