Lec 1 Cryosphere Introduction

Remote Sensing and GIS
Applications to Cryosphere
GNR618
GNR618 – RS & GIS Ap Cryosphere
• Introduction to cryosphere
• Snow, ice and glaciers, snow cover mapping
• Estimation of snow pack characteristics
• Snow melt runoff modeling,
• Polar cryosphere,
• Ice sheet topography,
• Iceberg detection, monitoring iceberg drift, measurement of
iceberg thickness
• Ice sheet surface temperature
• Glacier geomorphology, glacier facies mapping, glacier inventory,
mass balance studies, glacier retreat and glacier movement
• Avalanche forecasting, mapping potential avalanche prone zones,
warning and mitigation
• Case studies .
Text / References
• Ferguson , S. A. and Lachapelle, E.R., ABCs of avalanche
safety, 3rd revised edition, The Mountaineers, Seattle, 2003
• Henderson, F.M. and Lewis, A.J. (ed.), Principles and
Applications of Imaging Radar - Manual of Remote Sensing,
3rd edition, vol. 2, John Wiley & Sons, 1998
• Masson, R. and Lubin, D., Polar Remote Sensing, Volume II,
Ice Sheets, Springer Praxis Publishing Ltd., 2006
• McClung, D. and Schaerer, P., The Avalanche handbook,The
Mountaineers, Seattle, 1993
• Paterson, W.S.B., Physics of glaciers, Third Edition,
Butterworth-Heinemann Publishing, 1998
• Rees, W.G., Remote Sensing of Snow and Ice, Taylor &
Francis,2006 .
Components of Cryosphere
• Sea Ice
• Ice Sheet
• Ice shelf
• Ice berg
• Glacier
• Permafrost
• Lake Ice/River Ice
• Snow
Introduction
• What is Cryosphere?
Cryosphere, derived from the Greek word
cryo (cold or too cold) - portions of the Earth’s
surface where water is in solid form - sea ice,
lake ice, river ice, snow cover, glaciers, ice caps
and ice sheets, and frozen ground (which
includes permafrost).
Major Cryosphere regions
• Three major cryosphere regions -
o Antarctica,
o Arctic ocean and
o Extra polar snow and mountain environments.
Global Cryosphere by Type
Glacier Ice Sheets Ice Shelves
Sea Ice Permafrost Snow Cover

• Foster D.J. and Davy R.D., 1988: Global snow depth climatology, USAF Environmental Technical Applications
Center, Note TN-88/006, 49 pp.
• Cogley, J.G., 2003: GGHYDRO – Global Hydrographic Data, Release 2.3, Trend Technical Note 2003-1, 11 pp.
Antarctic Cryosphere region
• Antarctic continent - surrounded by ocean
•Antarctica contains 87 % of the earth’s ice by

volume.
• Ice shelves contain 2.5 % of ice by volume.

Arctic Cryosphere region
• Arctic is an ocean surrounded by land.
• Most of the surface consists of sea ice or pack ice.
• Most of the ice in Arctic is contained in Greenland ice

sheet (10% of Earth’s ice by volume).
• Much of the ice free terrain (Canada, Siberia and

Northern Alaska ) is underlain by permafrost.
Extra polar cryosphere region
• Extra polar regions contain only 0.5 % of the earth’s
ice and snow by volume.
• These small ice caps, mountain glaciers, snow and

alpine permafrost are extremely important because
their interaction with people is more intense than
that in the circum polar regions.
• About 5.2 x 107 sq.km of the extra polar region -
affected by seasonal frozen ground from time to
time.
• This is a better index of the importance of the
cryosphere in this region than the volumetric
data.
• It is important to monitor the changes of the
cryosphere in the extra polar regions for two
reasons.
1. The cryosphere is closest to its threshold value.
2. Anthropogenic impact is most pronounced.
Sea Ice
• Sea ice - frozen ocean water – Arctic and Antarctica -
7% of world's oceans.
• Varies in thickness - 3 inches to 9 feet.
• Covers much of the polar oceans - forms by freezing

of sea water.
• Most of the Arctic sea ice 6-9 feet thick.
• Sea Ice Extent:

– NH Max. in march & Min. in September
– SH  Min. in Feb. & Max. in September
Sea ice in the Arctic region
Ice sheets
• An ice sheet is a mass of glacier ice - covers surrounding
terrain - greater than 50,000 km² (20,000 mile).
• Current ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland.
• During the last glacial Maximum (LGM) period - the

Laurentide ice sheet covered much of Canada and North
America.
• Weichselian ice sheet covered northern Europe and the

Patagonian Ice Sheet covered southern South America.
• Ice sheets bigger than ice shelves or glaciers.
• Masses of ice covering less than 50,000 km2

are termed an ice cap.
• An ice cap will typically feed a series of

glaciers around its periphery.
A
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A
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E
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Glaciers
• A glacier is a perennial mass of ice which moves over
land.
• A glacier forms in locations where the mass

accumulation of snow and ice exceeds ablation over
many years.
• The word glacier comes from French via the Vulgar

Latin glacia, and ultimately from Latin glacies meaning
ice
• Glacier ice is the largest reservoir of fresh
water on Earth, and is second only to oceans
as the largest reservoir of total water.
• Glaciers cover vast areas of the polar regions

and are found in mountain ranges of every
continent except Australia
Frozen ground and permafrost
• Frozen ground (permafrost and seasonally frozen
ground) occupies approximately 54 million km² of
the exposed land areas of the Northern Hemisphere
(Zhang et al., 2003) and therefore has the largest
areal extent of any component of the cryosphere.
• Permafrost (perennially frozen ground) may occur

where mean annual air temperatures (MAAT) are less
than -1 or -2°C and is generally continuous where
MAAT are less than -7°C
Permafrost
• Permafrost, which is moisture-laden ground that
is frozen for two years or longer.
• Permafrost covers about 20 percent of Earth’s
surface.
• It exists in climates where the average annual air
temperature is 32° F (0°C) or colder.
• For permafrost to form, consistently low air

temperatures draw the thermal energy from
deep inside the earth, freezing water within the
soil.
The thawing of permafrost soil and rock is likely to have serious consequences
for people in Central Asia, Tibet, the Himalayas and Karakorum. The new
permafrost map clearly shows the large permafrost regions in these often
densely populated mountain ranges.
Lake ice and river ice
• Ice forms on rivers and lakes in response to seasonal
cooling.
• Sizes of the ice bodies involved are too small to exert

other than localized climatic effects.
• However, the freeze-up/break-up processes respond

to large-scale and local weather factors, such that
considerable inter-annual variability exists in the
dates of appearance and disappearance of the ice.
• Long series of lake-ice observations - serve as a proxy

climate record.
• Monitoring of freeze-up and break-up trends
provide a convenient integrated and seasonally
specific index of climatic perturbations.
• Information on river-ice conditions is less useful

as a climatic proxy because ice formation is
strongly dependent on river-flow regime -
affected by precipitation, snow melt, and
watershed runoff as well as being subject to
human interference that directly modifies
channel flow, or that indirectly affects the runoff
via land-use practices.
Lake Ice
Mansrovar lake area, 6. Freeze/Thaw Monitoring
Himalaya
30.885N
81.166E
Google Earth Optical Image

N
2009/05/12 Scattering Power Decomposition G4U: Thawing condition
Scattering power
decomposition
2010/11/15
Scattering Power Decomposition G4U : Refreezing condition
Ps Pd Pv Pc
Lake in 6. Freeze/Thaw Monitoring
Himalaya
30.843N
81.482E
Google Earth Optical Image N
2007/12/06
Polarimetric scattering
power decomposition Scattering Power Decomposition G4U : Freezing state
2009/04/25
Ps Pd Pv Pc
Scattering Power Decomposition G4U : Lake ice in melting state
River Ice
Snow
• Snow cover has the second-largest areal extent of
any component of the cryosphere - mean maximum
areal extent of approximately 47 million km².
• Most of the Earth’s snow-covered area (SCA) is
located in the Northern Hemisphere
• Temporal variability dominated by the seasonal cycle
• Northern Hemisphere snow-cover extent ranges
from 46.5 million km² in January to 3.8 million km² in
August
SASE Observatory at Solang
31-Jan-2006
25-Dec-2007
Dhundi
Dhundi 25-Dec-2007
Range
Full-POLSAR images
over snow : G4U RGB
Mt. Iwate
March 28, 2007
After 46 days
May 13, 2007

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Remote Sensing and GIS

Glacier Ice Sheets Ice Shelves

Sea Ice Permafrost Snow Cover

•Antarctica contains 87 % of the earth’s ice by

• Ice shelves contain 2.5 % of ice by volume.

• Most of the surface consists of sea ice or pack ice.

• Most of the ice in Arctic is contained in Greenland ice

• Much of the ice free terrain (Canada, Siberia and

• These small ice caps, mountain glaciers, snow and

• Varies in thickness - 3 inches to 9 feet.

• Covers much of the polar oceans - forms by freezing

• Most of the Arctic sea ice 6-9 feet thick.

• Sea Ice Extent:

• Current ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland.

• During the last glacial Maximum (LGM) period - the

• Weichselian ice sheet covered northern Europe and the

• Masses of ice covering less than 50,000 km2

• An ice cap will typically feed a series of

• A glacier forms in locations where the mass

• The word glacier comes from French via the Vulgar

• Glaciers cover vast areas of the polar regions

• Permafrost (perennially frozen ground) may occur

• For permafrost to form, consistently low air

• Sizes of the ice bodies involved are too small to exert

• However, the freeze-up/break-up processes respond

• Long series of lake-ice observations - serve as a proxy

• Information on river-ice conditions is less useful

Google Earth Optical Image

2009/05/12 Scattering Power Decomposition G4U: Thawing condition

Google Earth Optical Image N

March 28, 2007

May 13, 2007

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