What Does cryosphere Mean
The notion of cryosphere is not part of the dictionary produced by the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ). The concept, however, is often used in reference to the surface water of our planet that is in a solid state due to low temperatures.
The cryosphere, in this framework, is made up of the great masses of ice and snow on Earth . Therefore we can find the cryosphere in Antarctica and at the North Pole , among many other regions, such as Greenland, Northern Siberia, the Arctic Ocean and Northern Canada and most of the peaks of the highest mountain ranges. of the world.
When the cryosphere originates from the freezing of the oceans , it does not affect the sea level, since solid water is formed from it. On the other hand, if glaciers melt, they do cause a rise in sea level. Global warming that affects the cryosphere and causes glaciers to melt, therefore, is causing the sea level to rise, a situation that could cause various territories to be under water in the future.
Most of the cryosphere corresponds to icebergs . The glaciers , the sea ice and permafrost provide the rest of the solid water surface. It is estimated that about three-quarters of the planet's freshwater reserves are in the cryosphere.
The effects of climate change on the cryosphere are multiple, affecting life in general. The cryosphere itself, when melting, contributes to global warming since solid water (ice and snow) reflects solar energy, which returns to space. Instead, as ice and snow melt, the ground is exposed and the earth's surface absorbs a greater amount of solar energy, which is then radiated into the atmosphere, warming it.
We must highlight the importance of the role that the cryosphere plays in regulating the climate of the entire planet. The reason that certain parts of Antarctica can reflect about 90% of the incident radiation from the sun is that ice and snow have a high albedo .
Albedo is called the percentage of radiation that reflects a surface compared to that incident on it. By definition, light-colored surfaces have higher albedo values than dark ones, just as glossy surfaces outperform matte ones. The average albedo of our planet is around 38%.
Albedo is dimensionless, that is, it is a magnitude that does not have a physical dimension associated with it. Its measurement is carried out taking as a reference a scale that begins at zero and reaches one as the maximum value. At the first extreme are the bodies that absorb all the incident radiation , a theoretical object known as the black body ; the value "one" corresponds to a white body capable of reflecting all the radiation that falls on it.
Precisely, recent snow has an albedo of 86%, the highest value on our planet. If the cryosphere did not exist, therefore, the albedo of the Earth would be much lower, its surface would absorb a greater amount of energy and, consequently, the temperature of the atmosphere would also be higher.
Another role of the cryosphere is the disconnection of the oceans and the atmosphere, which reduces the transfer of moisture and momentum (the mass of a body multiplied by its speed at a given point in time); This helps stabilize energy transfers at the atmospheric level.