The cryosphere, consisting of snow cover, sea-, lake- and river-ice, glaciers, ice caps and ice sheets, and frozen ground including permafrost, is a fundamentally important part of the global climate system. Many components of the cryosphere respond sensitively and very visibly to climate changes. Cryospheric changes provide important information about past climatic conditions in regions where other climate observations are sparse, and they have significant implications for global sea level, regional water resources and both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
This symposium will promote discussion of the evidence for changes in all components of the global cryosphere, their interdependence and causes, our current ability to model these changes, and what they tell us about changing global climate.