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Global Climate Change - Ice and snow

Global Climate Change
<<Precipitation

Ice and snow

Mean sea level>>

Ice sheets

The Greenland Ice Sheet and the Antarctic Ice Sheet have lost 4,890 Gt (billion tonnes) and 2,670 Gt of mass respectively over the period 1992–2020. The rate of ice sheet loss increased by a factor of four between 1992-1999 and 2010-2019.

Cumulative Antarctic Ice Sheet and Greenland Ice Sheet mass changes


Cumulative Antarctic Ice Sheet and Greenland Ice Sheet mass changes. The very likely ranges of the cumulative mass changes are shown by coloured shading. (Image credit: IPCC AR6)

 

Glaciers

Glaciers lost 6,200 Gt of mass over the period 1993-2019. Global glacier retreat since the 1950s is unprecedented in at least the last 2,000 years.

Annual and decadal global glacier mass change (Gt yr<sup>-1</sup>) from 1961 to 2018


Annual and decadal global glacier mass change (Gt yr-1) from 1961 to 2018 from various datasets (Image credit: IPCC AR6)

 

Arctic sea ice

In 2011-2020, annual average Arctic sea ice area reached its lowest level since at least 1850. Late summer Arctic sea ice area was smaller than at any time in at least the past 1,000 years.

Arctic sea ice area (SIA) for March and September from various datasets.


Arctic sea ice area (SIA) for March and September from various datasets. The range of SIA during 1850-1978 is indicated by vertical bar to the left. Decadal means for 1979-1988 and 2010-2019 are shown by horizontal lines in grey and black respectively. (Image credit: IPCC AR6)

 

Snow cover

Northern Hemisphere spring snow cover extent has been decreasing since 1978, and there is high confidence that this trend extends back to 1950.

April snow cover extent for the Northern Hemisphere (1922-2018) from various datasets


April snow cover extent for the Northern Hemisphere (1922-2018) from various datasets (Image credit: IPCC AR6)

 

Image credit:

Figure 2.24, Figure 2.23 (b), Figure 2.20 (a) and Figure 2.22 from Gulev, S. K., P. W. Thorne, J. Ahn, F. J. Dentener, C. M. Domingues, S. Gerland, D. Gong, D. S. Kaufman, H. C. Nnamchi, J. Quaas, J. A. Rivera, S. Sathyendranath, S. L. Smith, B. Trewin, K. von Shuckmann, R. S. Vose, 2021, Changing State of the Climate System. In: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Masson- Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, A. Pirani, S. L. Connors, C. Péan, S. Berger, N. Caud, Y. Chen, L. Goldfarb, M. I. Gomis, M. Huang, K. Leitzell, E. Lonnoy, J. B. R. Matthews, T. K. Maycock, T. Waterfield, O. Yelekçi, R. Yu and B. Zhou (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press. In Press.