Sea ice thermodynamics; ice-sheet flow; firn densification; glacial flow; permafrost thaw; snow-cover feedback; isostatic adjustment; ice-shelf buttressing; cryo radar; sea-level budget; ice-core paleoclimate; Thwaites collapse risk.
Cryospheric Physics
Sea-ice thermodynamics
Maykut-Untersteiner 1971 1D thermodynamic model of sea ice; brine-pocket dynamics; surface-energy balance with shortwave (with albedo…
Ice-sheet flow (Stokes / SIA)
Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets flow via internal viscous deformation (Glen flow law n=3) and basal sliding; SIA shallow-ice…
Firn densification (Herron-Langway)
Snow at surface (rho ~300 kg/m^3) compacts to firn (close-off ~830 kg/m^3) over decades to centuries; Herron-Langway 1980 two-stage…
Glacial flow dynamics
Surface flow speed depends on ice geometry, basal conditions, and bed-temperature; surge-type glaciers exhibit decadal cycles between fast…
Permafrost thaw
Northern-hemisphere permafrost holds ~1700 Gt carbon (twice atmospheric); active-layer deepening releases CO2 and CH4; Stefan equation…
Snow-cover albedo feedback
Cess 1996: snow-albedo feedback amplifies high-latitude warming via positive feedback; observed Arctic amplification factor 2-4; deep-snow…
Glacial isostatic adjustment
Mantle viscoelastic response to ice-loading and unloading; Fennoscandia and Hudson-Bay rebound 10 mm/yr; ICE-6G_C model (Peltier 2015)…
Ice-shelf buttressing
Floating ice-shelves resist upstream ice flow via lateral drag against fjord walls and pinning points; loss of buttressing (Larsen B 2002)…
Ice radar (BedMachine)
Ice-penetrating radar maps bedrock topography under ice sheets; BedMachine v3 (Morlighem 2020) integrates radar with mass-conservation;…
Sea-level budget
Total SLR (~3.7 mm/yr 2006-2018) decomposed into thermal-expansion (~1.4), Greenland (~0.7), Antarctica (~0.4), other glaciers (~0.7),…
Ice-core paleoclimate (Vostok / EPICA)
Vostok 420 ka (Petit 1999), EPICA Dome-C 800 ka (EPICA 2004) cores reveal d18O, dD, CO2, CH4 over glacial cycles; Milankovitch pacing; CO2…
Antarctic Thwaites collapse risk
Thwaites Glacier (Florida-sized) holds ~65 cm of sea-level equivalent; marine-ice-sheet instability hypothesis; ITGC NSF-NERC 2018-2024;…
Ice-sheet mass balance (IMBIE)
IMBIE 2018-2020 Antarctica + Greenland satellite-altimetry + GRACE: combined mass-loss 6.4 +/- 0.4 trillion tonnes 1992-2017; 14 mm…
Sea-ice thermodynamics (Semtner 1976)
Semtner 1976 + Bitz-Lipscomb 1999 multi-layer thermodynamic ice model: dh/dt = (Q_atm - Q_ocean)/(rho_i L_f); ice-albedo feedback alpha_ice…
Permafrost active layer (Stefan problem)
Stefan 1891 moving-boundary heat conduction; active-layer thickness Z = sqrt(2 k Delta T / (rho L)) * sqrt(t); 24% NH land underlain by…
Glacier flow (Glen flow law 1955)
Glen 1955 power-law rheology: epsilon-dot = A tau^n with n~3, A(T) Arrhenius; basis of ice-sheet models (PISM, Elmer/Ice); shear-thinning…
Snowpack energy balance
Q_net = Q_sw + Q_lw + Q_h + Q_e + Q_g + Q_p; degree-day melt rate M = a (T - T_0); Anderson 1976 SNOW17 + Marks 1992 SNOBAL physics-based;…
Ice-core paleoclimate (Vostok / EPICA)
Petit 1999 Vostok 420 ka + EPICA 2004 Dome C 800 ka: delta-18O + delta-D + CO2/CH4 from trapped air; 8 glacial cycles; Milankovitch orbital…