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Cryosphere Models

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Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science

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Definition of the Subject and Its Importance

The cryosphere comprises all terrestrial forms of snow and ice – snow cover, floating ice, glaciers, ice sheets, frozen ground, and permafrost. It is a critical element of the climate system because of its high reflectivity, its insulating effects on the land and ocean, and its storage of water on short and long time scales (Barry 2002). Numerical models of components of the cryosphere have been developed over the last 30 years or so, and some elements of these are now incorporated in coupled climate models and earth system models.

Introduction

Currently there are no comprehensive models of the entire cryosphere. Rather there is a wide range of models of components of the cryosphere – snow cover, floating ice, glaciers, ice sheets, frozen ground, and permafrost – and various components are treated with varying degrees of detail in coupled atmosphere–ocean–land models. Cryospheric processes are generally parameterized in such earth system...

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Abbreviations

Cryosphere:

All forms of terrestrial snow and ice

Newtonian viscous body:

A body whose stress at each point is linearly proportional to its strain rate at that point

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Snow and Ice Data Center, NSIDC, CIRES, University of Colorado, 80309-0449, Boulder, CO, USA

    Roger G. Barry

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  1. Roger G. Barry
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  1. Ramtech Ltd., Larkspur, California, USA

    Robert A. Meyers

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Barry, R.G. (2014). Cryosphere Models. In: Meyers, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27737-5_110-2

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