Components of the Cryosphere

This high resolution image, designed for the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, shows the extent of the regions affected by components of the cryosphere around the world. Over land, continuous permafrost is shown in a dark pink while discontinuous permafrost is shown in a lighter shade of pink. Over much of the northern hemisphere's land area, a semi-transparent white veil depicts the regions that are affected by snowfall at least one day during the perion 2000-2012. The bright green line along the southern border of this region shows the maximum snow extent while a black line across the North America, Europe and Asia shows the 50% snow extent line. Glaciers are shown as small golden dots in mountainous areas and in the far northern and southern latitudes. Over the water, ice shelves are shown around Antarctica along with sea ice surrounding the ice shelves. Sea ice is also shown at the North Pole, where the 30 year average sea ice extent is shown by a yellow outline. In addition, the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are clearly visible.