Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Cryospheric science is the interdisciplinary study of permafrost, snow and ice, primarily on the surface of the Earth, but also on other planets and moons. The cryosphere is an integral part of the climate system, and is investigated with techniques from geophysics, meteorology and hydrology.
Glaciers are retreating under climate change and generating excessive meltwater. A modelling study shows that regrowing glaciers may lead to water scarcity in the centuries after overshooting the +1.5 °C temperature target.
The landfast ice over in the Kara Sea plays a crucial role in influencing the halocline stability and Atlantification of the Eurasian Basin, which could impact the timing of a seasonally ice-free Arctic, according to simulations using a coupled ice-ocean model.
Weathering of fresh comminuted sediment during glacial to interglacial transitions can result in net carbon dioxide sinks, whereas enhanced methanogenesis in deglaciated soils acts as a source of greenhouses gases, according to a water sampling and isotope analysis in southwest Greenland.
The Antarctic Ice Sheet exhibits hysteresis and irreversible ice loss, with West Antarctic collapse contributing over 4 m of sea-level rise even under minimal additional warming, according to 800,000-year transient and equilibrium simulations using the Parallel Ice Sheet Model.
Effects of snow cover dynamics, land use or land cover conversions and non-conversion regions on albedo variations during 2001–2020 are quantified and their induced radiative forcing estimated, highlighting the role of land surface dynamics in modulating global warming.
Glaciers are retreating under climate change and generating excessive meltwater. A modelling study shows that regrowing glaciers may lead to water scarcity in the centuries after overshooting the +1.5 °C temperature target.
Sea ice extent remained anomalously low in 2024. Annual mean Antarctic and Arctic sea ice extent was 10.38 million km2 and 10.42 million km2, respectively, the 2nd and 7th lowest of the satellite record.
