Welcome!!

Snow and Ice

ENSC 454/654

Contact Info

• Instructor: Stephen Déry

• Office: 8-414

• Office hours: MW 1-2 p.m.

• Phone: 960-5193

• Email: sdery@unbc.ca

• Course website:

http://cirrus.unbc.ca/454/

Definition

• The cryosphere is the portion of the

earth where natural materials (water,

soil, etc.) occur in frozen form.

• The cryosphere is one of the 5 major

components of the climate system

(along with the atmosphere,

lithosphere, hydrosphere, and

biosphere).

The Climate System

The hydrological cycle

Location Area

(×106 km2)

Volume

(×106 km3)

Sea Level

Equivalent

(m)

Greenland Ice

Sheet

1.7 2.9 7.1

Antarctic Ice

Sheet

13.3 25.4 56.2

Mountain

Glaciers

1.1 0.22-0.38 0.56-0.97

Permafrost/

Frozen Ground

22.8 0.01-0.04 0.03-0.10

Area and Volume of the Cryosphere

Perennial Ice

Source: Marshall (2012)

Location Min. Extent

(×106 km2)

Max. Extent

(×106 km2)

Mean Extent

(×106 km2)

Arctic Sea Ice 6.6 15.5 11.8

Antarctic Sea Ice 3.0 18.8 12.0

Northern Hemi-

sphere Snow

3.1 46.7 24.9

Southern Hemi-

sphere Snow

13.9 15.1 14.3

Area and Volume of the Cryosphere

Snow and Sea Ice

Source: Marshall (2012)

Global Distribution of the Cryosphere

Source: Marshall (2012) and Wikipedia

Sun. Mon. Tue. Wed. Thu. Fri. Sat.

1 Holiday 2 All –

UNBC

closed

3 4 Introduction

5

6 7

8 9 Snowfall

formation

10 11 Snowfall

formation

12 13 14

15 16 Snowcover

distribution

17 18 Snowcover

distribution

19 20 21

22 23 Snowpack

ablation

24 25

Snowpack

ablation

26 27 28

29 30 Remote

sensing of

snow (guest)

31

January 2017

Sun. Mon. Tue. Wed. Thu. Fri. Sat.

1 Snow

survey

description

2 3 4

5 6 Mid-

term exam

7 8 9 10 11

12 13 Break/no

classes

14 15 Break/no

classes

16 17 18

19 20 Glaciers

(guest)

21 22 Glaciers

(guest)

23 24 25

26 27 Ice

sheets

28

February 2017

Sun. Mon. Tue. Wed. Thu. Fri. Sat.

1 Ice

sheets

2 3 4

5 6 Sea ice 7 8 Sea ice 9 10 11

12 13 Lake/river

ice

14 15 Lake/river

ice

16 17 18

19 20 Permafrost

21 22 Permafrost

23 24 25

26 27 Snow

survey talks

28 29 Climate

change

30 31

March 2017

Sun. Mon. Tue. Wed. Thu. Fri. Sat.

1

2 3 Climate

change

4

5 Review

6 7 8

9 10 11

12

13 14 Good

Friday

15

16 17 Easter

Monday

18 19 20 21 22

23 24 25 26 27 28 29

April 2017