GLOBAL OUTLOOK FOR
ICE&SNOW
6 Foreword
7 1 Highlights
19 2 Why are Ice and Snow Important to Us?
29 3 Why are Ice and Snow Changing?
39 4 Snow
63 5 Ice in the Sea
97 6 Ice on the Land
99 6A Ice Sheets
115 6B Glaciers and Ice Caps
153 6C Ice and Sea-level Change
181 7 Frozen Ground
201 8 River and Lake Ice
215 9 Policy and Perspectives
230 Production and Editorial Team and Authors
234 Steering Committee and Reviewers
235 Acknowledgements
Area Covered Ice Volume Potential Sea Level
Components of the Cryosphere (million square km) (million cubic km) Rise (cm) 6C
Snow on land (Northern Hemisphere) (annual minimum ~ maximum) 4 1.9 ~ 45.2 0.0005 ~ 0.005 0.1 ~ 1
Sea ice, Arctic and Antarctic (annual minimum ~ maximum) 5 19 ~ 27 0.019 ~ 0.025 0
Ice shelves 6A 1.5 0.7 0
Ice sheets (total) 6A 14.0 27.6 6390
Greenland 1.7 2.9 730
Antarctica 12.3 24.7 5660
Glaciers and ice caps (lowest and [highest] estimates) 6B 0.51 [0.54] 0.05 [0.13] 15 [37]
Permafrost (Northern Hemisphere) 7 22.8 4.5 ~7
River and lake ice 8 (n/a) (n/a) (n/a)
Source: IPCC (2007). Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group 1 to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovern-
mental Panel on Climate Change (eds. S. Solomon, D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M.C. Marquis, K. Averyt, M. Tignor and H.L. Miller). Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge and New York